amcferrin90

The one site someone had reported 800 from it last Friday I think. I drove all around the area even next to the site. On the SCP screen all I would see is SID 4418 with the same BSSID as what was reported on 800. Once I used the 800 priority PRL the SID showed as 22450 with the same BSSID. Well the BSSID varied slightly depending on which sector I was in.

In the PRL the 800 and the 1900 are the same priority, so unless the 1900 disappears I believe it's just a matter if signal strength. If you're in range of a 1900 signal at -85 dBm and there's a 800 signal that's -101 dBm and both signals are the same priority your phone will stick with the stronger signal. Now get near an 800 tower, it's also transmitting 1900, your phone will still probably prefer the 1900 over the 800 because the 1900 SIDs are the same, call it lazy. Now if you dip down somewhere where all 1900 disappears but there's some 800 signal, your phone would switch over to that and hold the 800 until the 800 signal goes away prompting a PRL scan which would likely put you back on 1900. Just because a tower is broadcasting 1xA, it is also broadcasting PCS. Let pick on one site in the area here: PCS SID: 4418 NID: 204 BID: 59761 1xA SID: 22450 NID: 214 BID: 59761 Those are both being transmitted from the same tower, one on 1900 and the other on 800. If you are in an 800 dead zone and travel into range of the broadcasting 800 tower, since you are already acquired to SID 4418, your phone will acquire with SID 4418 networks staying on 1900, unless there's no SID 4418 network transmitting where you're at. Then triggers the PRL scan which could land you on a SID 22450 network jumping to 800 (all the same priority). Your phone would then prefer the SID 22450 networks until there is no more SID 22450 transmitting in range, another PRL scan and back to 4418 if you're in range of that or another SID in your PRL list. This is why the partial 800 coverage is frustrating people. Now enter a modified PRL that makes 800 a preferred network over PCS. Your phone will spend a lot of time and battery looking for 800 to connect to even if there's a good PCS signal. What I've run in to is being 10-15 miles from an 800 site and my phone preferring it at -102 dBm for voice and data and ignoring the stronger PCS sites for data. Typical of the settings in Sprint phones, hang on to any little gleaming blip of signal no matter how horrible or unusable it is. I've found that data just doesn't work at anything lower than -96 dBm so while it's neato to be connected to a tower 10-25 miles away, it's totally useless. Once they fire up more 800 towers, it will work better and I have no doubt once they're all up Sprint will have one kickin butt network. Rereading what I wrote now, obviously what I said at the beginning is not completely right but following the thought and example I think I explained it.

For every time someone says they get better coverage by updating their PRLs! I mean I did get better coverage by updating my PRL. I mean I can pull in towers 20+ miles away that I couldn't before. Illegitimately of course. (as I debate putting that on XDA for the kiddies, ROFLMA!) (I won't)

Well yes, that way I'll have time to participate in the Digiblur drinking game!

Oh yes, btw, how about some other folks scoring some points on the discovery side of things? Take some pics, post some pics, get some points! Like that tower on the off-ramp, post some pics of the base cabinets and the antennas.

I was hoping Nextel sites would get converted and upgraded. The "Sprint" sites on 256 are at Livingston then on the water tower in the resi area just north of old picktown southeast of the ball fields. Now according to the sponsor map, there is a site next to Farber Vehicles that has WiMax on it and is supposed to get NV. The site at the 256 off ramp would server that whole area better. Buuuuut, you'll be shocked how far 800 covers that the only need to have all those towers is for capacity sake. Another buuuut, 800 without backhaul just makes better signal penetration but no better speed. Better voice coverage though. I got 0.1 down and 0.0 up on a 800 site earlier today. I picked up plain city 800 in my office in Grandview today. :-)

I know that feeling. I had to use the 34010 PRL and in the ##data# menu for some reason lte/cdma/evdo wasn't selected under HDR selection. Maybe you knew that, maybe that fixes it.

I'm a little stoked. I've picked up 1xA 800 from the two towers near Rickenbacker, the tower on South High @ 317, one of the West Jeff towers, a new tower in the uzi area south east of Children's and the tower from Sparta while I was on the north end, that one being 25 miles away.

Yeah they've been at it a few days. I'm dying for that one to come up since I live close to it. Since you show as living in Carroll, I haven't had the chance to check the Carroll site, the Marcy Rd (close to the covered bridge I think) site and I think there's another one down along 188 somewhere. Any chance you could take a look?

Picked up a new 800 site on the way to work. 1319 South 22nd, at least that's what SCP reported. Also picked up West Jeff site while shooting across 204 between South High and 71.

Easton has a lot more purple, also along Hamilton rd near Morse and then one blob in the middle of a residential areas in gahanna.

Not really trying, I mean when it comes on out west and up north I won't be scoring any of those. I just looked up the distance on Google Earth, about 10 miles. Pretty sweet. Also, I seen some purple in odd places around gahanna. hmm.

Ok on my way to Westerville from Canal Winchester I got 1Xa800 from just north of Diley Road all the way to Broad and 270. Most of the time I was on Rohr Rd site, there was a stretch of 270 between 33 and Eastland Mall that I was on the Vause Rd site and for a few seconds I bounced between Rohr Rd, Vause Rd and Canal Rd sites which that one is near SR317 and US23 south. On the Rohr Rd site I got PN 204, 381 & 384. Those were on ENG screens so I'm trusting that they're accurate. While trying to snap those I began bouncing between the 3 sites. On Canal Rd I got PN 327. The signal quality was no better than -97 dBm, Along US33 the whole stretch was -97 to -99, on 270 between Eastland and 33 the Vause site was -97 while Rohr was -103. Then once north of Eastland all the way to Broad Rohr was -100. Here's what I have of pics. I was driving.

Looking at Sensorly, it looks like that little stretch of highway that goes up over the railroad and then back down. There's a dip in signal in the middle which could be caused by that high rise building to the east. I'm betting it's Morse Road. I was roving around cells yesterday and had a LTE hit on the west side of Rickenbacker near the ANG entrance and got excited until I saw it Grove City.

The site west of Rickenbacker in lockbourne is live too. I couldn't get the SCP app to say I was on 800 but those sites are so close (lockbourne and rohr) and I could see a difference in the network info. The lockbourne site was receivable at SR 674 almost near the cedar hill rd site.

Now I'm jealous! I didn't get any 800 this morning going up 33 from Pickerington Rd into town, were you on the bridge over 33? I was going to go past Rohr and sites to the east of Rickenbacker yesterday towards Lancaster but had to work late and ran out of time. I too have been watching the monkeys on the Diley tower for the past couple days. They pulled the fiber up the pole last night. I thought these guys slammed through sites faster. Also worth noting the Brice Rd tower near the Rickenbacker outer marker is getting work done too. It has one of those concrete enclosures back in the middle of a corn field and I saw a crew backed up to it the other night.

Sweet. I'm curious about the 2 800 sites in west Jeff. I can look at the site at Rickenbacker and south of canal Winchester towards Lancaster.

Is somebody gonna go rack up some points???

I'm putting my guess that there's a major problem in the regional hub (Worthington?) that has to be dealt with, one that was discovered since they've lit up some sites. I'm going to guess it cost Sprint anywhere between $50k-$75k per cell to put the hardware and back-haul up. That's a lot of money to spend and not utilize it for months. I'd bet Columbus is worse than Chicago, they discovered it on accident and are saving a world of headaches by delaying. I have noticed a trend from the maps though, outside of 270 seems to be lighting up, at least everywhere but south and southeast. FWIW, tower monkeys are swinging from the 33/Diley Rd site tonight. It already has fiber and base cabinets.

You could go look.... seriously. I think the only news we get is when a tower's been accepted which causes some frenzy and a strong desire to bath ourselves in LTE waves. The best thing anyone can do right now is report when they see towers being worked on, like new base stations or new antenna's or fiber optic ground work being run to sites. Other than that it's sit back and wait. I don't recall reading much of anything about the west side, Galloway, Hilliard, Urbancrest. I went driving out through Hilltop looking for sites in progress to find there are no Sprint sites in a lot of that area, well two. There's some posts on what to look for.

I was at the IHOP when I posted that. Hmmm. Maybe time for a trip to the MIB for a visit with the flashy thing.

It was pitiful yesterday. I got so ticked I almost threw the phone out the window. 4-5 bars but creepy crawley speeds. Actually this week I've had 6 dropped calls and that hasn't happened in a long time.

The spreadsheet looks awesome. That's all I'm going to say.

Another site beginning work: old Brice @ Winchester Pike. One more sullivant @ green street by 315. When they get some actual milestones I will post pics and to the WIP thread. So, when the discussion about clusters is had, how many sites or square miles makes up a cluster? It seems deployment is filling in some gaps. Nothing turned on yet though.

if you want to see the stuff live and in person, go down to the rohr road site. from the middle of the street which is where I Sat if you look at the Tower you'll see the electric meters in front of you and to the right of the tower is two cabinets look almost identical. Those are the new base station. the antennas look like I don't know dreadlocks hanging off the bottom.