The_Chemist

I'll PM you this evening. I'm at work now. Thanks for the help. I've taken so much information from this site, this way I can give something back to help others here. This could also be useful for Mike when he adds additional information to SignalCheck.

I can do that! I know the SignalCheck readings from 1 LTE NV complete tower in my area now. Do you think it would be a good idea to post the spreadsheet and let others add as we gather info? I could use some helpful hints as to how to go about this...

How is it going RFwise with your One Max? I'm eager to hear more of your findings when you have the time.

Mike, your idea for the additional features in SignalCheck is awesome! Just imagine what a wealth of information could be gathered if users were able to contribute data from their app! I'm excited about this. If you need donations to help fund your time and cost, I'm in! That's quite the undertaking.

Me Too. I have not used my phone very much in the last few days, but I took it off of the charger Thursday morning at 6:30 am and I just had to charge it this morning! It had 10% left. That includes a few speed tests some Internet browsing and a few 20 min+ phone calls with the screen brightness UP. Totally amazing.

If the towers don't have functioning eCSFB, a Tri Band phone will park on 3G. I'm not sure about the LTE no data connection. I would think you could at least get 3G data unless it is a 4G only tower. One of the experts can answer that for you.

Thanks very much for that info. I figured that the GCI, PCI and TAC showed the tower. I have my home location (GCI, PCI and TAC) written down on a piece of paper. I wanted to see if I was on the same tower at my work location. the GCI at home is 0FECS102 and work is 0FECS103. PCE at home is 355 and at work is 17. I figured the difference in the last digit of the GCI (2 vs 3) was the tower array that I was connected to. I have no idea what the PCE means. The TAC was the same for both. Is there some kind of list somewhere that you can look up tower locations by this provided info? This is interesting stuff!

I really can't reliably answer the question about signal levels as I was in church and was just trying to make sure the phone was on silent before Mass started. I do believe signal check was showing -111 dBm eHRPD on the G2 at the time though, just briefly glancing at the upper left hand corner. I didn't cycle airplane mode. When I went into the parking lot after Mass, the G2 switched back to LTE. The church is an old brick building. I no longer have the GN3, but the few times I had it in the same building it was receiving a few bars of LTE. I didn't have SignalCheck installed on the GN3 at that time. As to what towers I was connected to ...? I do notice however, that when I go into my basement the G2 loves to switch to 3G. Once I saw it happen at -118 dBm and lately around -113 dBm. Now whether or not there was a fleeting moment of even lower signal that didn't get displayed before it switched from LTE to 3G, I don't know. I do know that my GN3 in the basement really had to be pushed to make it switch back to 3G. I literately had to go into a storage room under the front porch to get it to drop back. The G2 doesn't take that much effort to fall back to 3G. There is a high probability in this instance that both the phones were on the same tower. When I had the GN3, I didn't think that it was an exceptional RF performer, but in hindsight it was probably pretty good... I do believe the GN3 was actually better than my G2 just from use. I have no data to back that up though. The possibility also exists that, as you asked, what tower I was on; there may be non NV towers around me that I am connecting to causing me to fall back to 3G. At least the scenario of reception in my basement should be coming from a NV complete tower for both phones. I've been trying to get a short video for AJ, that shows wildly fluctuating LTE signal strength when I am standing still, but today it is only varying by about 10 dBm. I did find that holding the phone in my hand causes the received LTE signal level to drop off by at least a few dBm. I would assume that's normal though since I'm probably shielding the antenna. Sorry for the misquote on the "modem" *.img. I knew it had to come from LG and it was nothing a user could initiate from the menu system. I quoted you rather poorly.

Yeah, that would be really cool. Then all I need is towers in my area that carry the other two bands!

funkychicken, thanks very much for performing these comparison tests. This is very useful information. I'm sure everybody here appreciates it as I do. I'm really starting to question the RF performance capabilities of my G2. I know others here have remarked how well their RF performance is on the G2, but I can't substantiate that with mine. I had my G2 at Mass with me last evening (no, I wasn't praying for it). I took it out of my pocket to make sure it was on silent. When I looked at the screen, I saw it was only on 3G. In this same place, my Samsung GN3 would receive a few bars of 4G LTE. It wasn't until I was out of the building and in the parking lot, that the G2 started to receive 4G LTE again. Is the antenna/radio of the G2 just not very sensitive? Are the modem settings not the best? I know "ericdabbs" said this was tweakable and that an acquaintance of his had done this on a Verizon G2.

I would love to see your comparisons.

Certainly, I could take a video of the Signal Check Pro screen and PM you the link to a YouTube video. That'll be a weekend project for me! Thanks for the help. Just checked it now and it's not as dramatic at the moment. -92 dBm to -105dBm.

Thanks AJ. Any words of wisdom as to why the signal cyclically goes from high to low when I'm standing still? Appears strange to me, but from someone who understands radio wave theory, maybe it's normal. The GN3 didn't exhibit this in the same place (at that point in time), like my G2 does.

I was in the Hershey PA area last evening. There is definitely (Tri Band usable) LTE in that area as well now. Just like in my hone area of Harrisburg PA, the signal hashes from 1 bar to full bars and keeps cycling over and over again like that on my LG G2. I remember when I had the Samsung Galaxy Note 3, in the same area, the signal was pegged at full bars and it just stayed there. Is this a system issue, or is the G2 not receiving correctly? I can get some pretty wild readings: -86 dBm down to -107 dBm and it just keeps cycling. The best I can get at all when near the tower, before I'm too close that I actually get a lower signal is -62 dBm. I would expect much higher than that - maybe down in the 50's? Any thoughts or reasoning why the signal keeps cycling like that? Thanks

This far, I have not had a single dropped call. I'm sure I just jinxed myself on that one!

I don't know if there is a bad batch or not. The one thin the Samsung GN3 and the LG G2 have in common is the Snapdragon 800 processor...

I don't know what to tell you about the exchange? We don't know what is causing the problem yet. Is it our particular towers, our areas? - I'm not sure. That is something that will have to be determined. I know the Samsung GN3 owners were exchanging the phones and having the same issue after the exchange. There is a bunch of people with the Verizon G2 that have the same issue.

OK, let's hope for the best. The fix will have to come from LG, once Sprint gets enough users with this issue. The phone is awesome, other than the crackling. Do you get it on every single call? I don't.

Sorry, m posting in-between analyzing samples... I would suggest going on the Sprint Community forums and add comments to a thread on LG G2 crackling. Unfortunately there are multiple threads, because people didn't search before they started a new thread. When there are enough replies with the same problem, a Sprint Social care worker should pick up on this and get the wheels in motion.

Sprint is an excellent service provider. I'm sure this issue will be fixed with a firmware update. We just need to get enough users to let Sprint know there is a problem. I'm positive they'll take care of us. Now if it were Verizon......

I hope this gets resolved quickly as well. Did you try enabling "voice enhancement" under settings>call? I'd like to know other users results on this. In my case it reduces the crackling. Maybe it's just an anomaly on mine? I'd like to find out...

The crackling sound is an issue that quite a few users are complaining about. I don't encounter the crackling on every single call, only some. I think I hold the phone the same way each time, but who knows? The crackling, sounds more like a speaker that is over-driven. I tested your theory by muting the microphone during a call. With the "voice enhancement" engaged the distortion or crackling through the earpiece is drastically reduced. There must be a bug in the firmware.

WOW, you definitely know your stuff!

For the brief time I had the Samsung GN3, you could have swype enabled at the same time as regular typing. You could use either at will, at any time; no switching between modes necessary. There are some things I miss about that phone!

Thank you for your kindness, generosity and willingness to share information. I may take you up on that offer, once I build up the courage. Can you return to stock, such as in a warranty claim situation?