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MrZorbatron

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Everything posted by MrZorbatron

  1. Yaesu Fusion, D-Star, and DMR are just different systems for digital communication. I would personally suggest D-Star, but DMR is an open standard and will cost less to get into, if you are willing to deal with the additional difficulty. Edit: More info: http://www.mikemyers.me/blog/2016/2/19/d-star-dmr-fusion-which-is-right-for-you
  2. What a waste of material. A low end processor, ugly design, and a notched display. Next! I'll stick with my Z3, thank you.
  3. THIS! I was just going to reply with exactly this sentiment! AC8YZ here. Who cares about addresses? You want to get eaten by my (or someone else's) dog, have at it. All someone needs to do is listen to a cheap SSB shortwave radio for a few minutes and they can write down dozens of callsigns and get addresses from the FCC from there. Plus, I would be willing to bet at least a few here (myself included) own businesses, which makes it REALLY easy to get addresses in most states.
  4. My dad's GS5 won't see B41 lots of places. My mom's GS7 acts like my Nexus 6 and 6P, and so does my brother's Motorola X4. The Nexus 6 and X4 seem more apt to drop B41 if not getting any data through it. Maybe the RIL is smarter. Even when I do have unusable B41, SMS and MMS do work over it. Incidentally, I propped my phone up on my car dashboard (recording) for a minute on my drive home home earlier today in order to show somebody how bad the rain was. The resulting video (68 MB) took over 20 minutes to upload 23 MB of over B41in Waterford, only to fly through the rest in less than a minute as soon as it jumped to B25.
  5. It's getting worse than ever. I don't see so much lack of B41 as I see unusable B41. -85 B41 signal that's as usable as communicating with Antarctica from Oxford using smoke signals (have to manually defeat B41), dropping calls on handoffs with good CDMA signal, transitions between LTE bands are accompanied by up to 10 seconds of "No Service", similar periods of "No Service" during handoffs between LTE sites even with good signal. I can reproduce that behavior on the devices, and the dropped calls on four. Still, the only responses I get from Sprint are basically "Get lost" answers. Reference also:
  6. In Oakland, Genessee, Livingston, Wayne, Washtenaw counties, reliability has totally gone to hell. Like I said, I am talking about call performance. The Sprint rep I talked to on the phone have even indicated an unusually high number of calls from MI with these issues, and I have people on Reddit corroborating my headaches. Yes, some of my data speeds have gone up, but it doesn't really mean much to me if speeds are over 10 Mbps already. Network reliability is essential to me. Frequent dropped voice calls are a huge problem and hurt my business. When one of my customers asks even in jest, if I just traded in my "cool Android phone for one of those Wal-Mart drug dealer minute phones" (exact words), there's a problem.
  7. Anyone notice how horrifically bad service in this part of the state has become? I mean to say it's gone to shit would be an understatement. I'm dropping 8 or 9 calls a day on average now. Speeds have gone into the toilet, band transitions break downloads and streamed, often even include several seconds of "no service", data services sometimes don't reestablish after a call (LTE mark returns but with x on signal bars). CDMA is dropping on hand off all over the place. It's making me absolutely crazy. I have two calls in at Sprint and they can't even tell me if they are working in something around here. My brother just got a new Motorola X 4 two months ago and he was talking to me a out sending it in under warranty because the service took a crap after 6 weeks. This still happens if I use my old Nexus 6, my 6P, a Galaxy S7, or Galaxy S5. I have a post with a fair bit of support on Reddit about this, as well as some minor hijacking of a post suggesting nominating John Saw for some award.
  8. I do not welcome any part of this. I don't think T-Mobile really cares about doing anything they say they care about. I have seen how truly bad their network is in the ways that matter for essential communication, and I want nothing to do with it. Say what you want about Verizon, but the one thing they have in common with Sprint is that they have historically built out a solid network before trying to make it extremely fast. I don't care about 50 Mbps to my phone. I care about calls that don't get disconnected constantly. I care about that stock trade getting through when I send it, even if carried by EVDO, because EVDO still gets it through. Sprint's "Outdoor coverage" maps might seem exaggerated to some, but T-Mobile's maps are a complete joke. Maybe Michigan is a bubble, the only state where this is true, but it really is very true here. T-Mobile is the network of dropped and undelivered calls, mysterious disconnection, and "call failed" error messages. If this goes through, look for me at the nearest Verizon store because price to me is absolutely irrelevant. I see two things happening if this merger goes through: 1: Sprint spectrum is used to bolster capacity at T-Mobile sites, and 2: As much of the current Sprint network as possible goes away, even if it means losing sites that would provide valuable fill-in density. I saw the latter happen with Sprint and Nextel, after they insisted that all Nextel sites that could serve to increase Sprint coverage would be used. Similarly, there were locations T-Mobile could have used MetroPCS locations to improve their own coverage but didn't, even where it left holes in their network.
  9. I'm watching Verizon promotions now. I will have nothing to do with any company under the management of those who currently operate the present-day T-Mobile. I think the company is shady, dishonest, and worse. As a Sprint user since 2003, I hope this merger sinks.
  10. There are sites around me that look like they should have 6 carriers on them. I don't get it either. What's the best way (other than physically approaching it) to determine what carriers are on what structures?
  11. If it happens, I am going to Verizon. T-Mobile has always been very shady in my eyes. I have yet to see a case where their coverage matches Sprint's in a major area, regardless of maps and fanboys. Data speeds are all fine and good, but you don't really need insane speeds to a mobile device most of the time. 10 Mbps is more than adequate, and I get much more than that on Sprint as it is.
  12. Airave 3 isn't a magic box, though. It requires an internet connection. I don't even know if the ethernet ports work on the version of the magic box that had them.
  13. Voice over data is still data. There are still devices that don't support it, so the magic box should support voice. I'm really annoyed that all of the fill-in coverage around me is just LTE, leaving plenty of small spots where CDMA is weak. Like it or not, LTE is not going to match CDMA anytime soon for voice performance. It still doesn't on Verizon, it won't on Sprint. Maybe in a few years with a lot of density improvement, yes, but right now, no.
  14. I would just be happy with one that did voice.
  15. Nexus 6P just got this update too.
  16. Call the normal 888-211-4727. If you don't get anywhere, email booster@sprint.com.
  17. Hey I am writing this from my replacement 6P, which I think is a different hardware version than my original. Anyone want to confirm?
  18. I will generally agree with this, though in my area, T-Mobile has a lot more odd dead zones. I rack up sometimes several thousand minutes on air per month. I talk to someone for about an hour and a half a day on her way to and from work, and it drops on her end at least three times if she goes one way, and at least four another way. This is right through my area, which is a very well-off place where people have nice phones, so phone companies make a lot of money. We can start with a mile long mostly-dead zone in the middle of Oxford, continuing into the Orion Township border. Next are two spots in Bloomfield Hills, and lastly one in Southfield. This is ignoring countless spots with brief fading. I can make that same drive with zero issues. This is obviously not an exhaustive comparison, as not all networks have hardware in the same places, but it's a recurring theme around here when comparing T-Mobile and Sprint. T-Mobile also has a lot more data outages than Sprint does.
  19. They are on par only in their own eyes. AT&T is not nearly on par with Verizon coverage wise, especially geographically, and even further behind in consistency of coverage (swiss cheese). T-Mobile won't be on par with either one in the near future. They both have more than enough money to get ahead without breaking a sweat if T-Mobile starts to get anywhere close.
  20. My 6P took a crap. I literally took it and my Thinkpad into a friend's restaurant's walk-in freezer and sit there for half an hour in a winter jacket in (-10 F temperature) to keep it operating in order to get my data off. No repair or warranty replacement in sight for my $450 paperweight that broke after 7 months, despite it being in perfect exterior condition. Huawei and Google are being sued now over this (common) malfunction.
  21. I am guessing that you're talking about the site I was talking about earlier, the tall guyed tower north of the river, kind of between Second and the river. Sending message with contact details. I have a couple of people at my limited disposal, both Sprint and Ericsson. They don't work for me, but have been happy to help me so far. Call or text next time. Worst case, maybe meet up for a wine or something. Wife, girlfriend, whatever invited. It's interesting to meet people from the internets to work on real world problems sometimes.
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