N4NXS

For the last 2 weeks since they optimized band 26 I have had great band 26 coverage. I now have LTE 800 from the Parkridge tower near my house vs the Sleepy Hollow site. Town Center has great coverage from the tower next to FBI off Gate Parkway. I don't get LTE 2500 (band 41) that much from the Blanding towers. Clear band 41 still seems to work better than the Sprint band 41. I am happy. I stay on LTE for most of my coverage and when on LTE speeds are typically 5mbps to 50mbps. My LTE gateway (Netgear) in my truck with the integrated antenna behind the rear seat next to the metal frame almost is always on LTE. I want to install a window mount antenna for it, but haven't due to the fact it works so well.

I've had LTE connection issues since the B41 started becoming active. Hopefully they are working on optimizing the towers. I seem to be back to 3G more often than not in areas that were strong LTE for the last week or so.

Is that "Num Tx Antennas" a user device number or the number of tx antennas in the sector (which could be up to 8)? If user device, aren't most phones 2x2 MIMO LTE? I wonder if I can get this info on Android.

I went by the Constitution tower on the way into work this morning. I drove into the housing complex to be right in line with the 240 degree sector (sector 3). Location CO3 on this map I made a while back for signal analysis. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/CO%20-%20Location%20Map.PNG I could not get LTE 2500 (B41) from that spot. Turned the radio on and off multiple times. I could have probably forced B41 in the code menu but didn't think about it. While on LTE 800 (B26) I did a speed test from the CO3 spot. A decent 24/4Mbps. Upload peaked over 8 but was solid at 4 for most of the test. Speedtest https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/2014-11-21%2012.17.59.png LTE-2500 (33) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/2014-11-21%2012.19.53.png LTE-2500 (32) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/2014-11-21%2012.20.11.png Edit: Here is a photo of that tower from 8-20-2014 https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/IMG_9414.JPG Additional Edit: I also connected to LTE 2500 on the Morse Rd/295 tower while on 295 this morning. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/2014-11-21%2012.30.43.png

After looking back at the aerial for the area, i was due south of the tower, exactly between the 120 degree and 240 degree sectors. They are using sectors id's of 31, 32, 33 for the B41 sectors on that tower. I would have guessed 31 was north. I never was on the north end but was getting sectors 31 & 33 based on the screen shots. I'm going to check signal and try to do another test this morning.

9475 is a Sprint TAC so not a Clear site (83xx). Looks like the 8T8Rs will all soon be active!!

Here are my screenshots from the tower at Constitution and Blanding using the 8T8R Nokia radios . I had noticed band 41 while driving and pulled into the Academy parking lot. It dropped down to 800 and then back to LTE 2500 quite a few times. I couldn't get a good speed test due to it dropping back to band 26 during the test. It started out around 24mbps and settled around 20mbps before dropping to 9mbps when on band 26. The rest of the way up Blanding to 295 I had band 41 via Kingsley, Wells and Collins Clear towers. The clear towers seem to be providing much better signal at farther distances. I could have just been on the edge of two sectors. I had -71 on the one test, but it didn't stay and I never received any better signal than -106 from that spot.

Looks like I need to check it out tomorrow. I've only tried for the last couple days while driving down blanding on my way to or from places. I just went by on 295 an hour ago, but wasn't checking. Thanks for the update!!

I have yet to see the 88tr on Collins/295 or Blanding operational. I see based on the sceenshot that it was. I only connect to B41 on the clear tower at Wells and at Collins in that area. No B41 on the Sprint towers yet

Awesome. I see the Nexus5 is a dual CDMA/GSM phone. I'm guessing yours is unlocked and has full support for all these bands as indicated in the tech specs? North America: GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz CDMA: Band Class: 0/1/10 WCDMA: Bands: 1/2/4/5/6/8/19 LTE: Bands: 1/2/4/5/17/19/25/26/41 I wish I had the ability to use my Galaxy S5 that way. :/

I would say it has to GMO due to the size of the antenna mounting section. The top is a 36" diameter / 6 silo pole. Sprint would need to lease an additional silo to mount the RRU's in if they would fit. Not sure why it's so close to the other two tower sites, but there is a gap in coverage between there and the Parkridge tower. Knightboxx to Old Jennings is bad, Especially if you go into WinnDixie right there. I wonder if they are only going to install B25/B26 with a single RFS antenna for each sector as there doesn't appear to be room for a B41 antenna in the same space. Unless they are leasing another silo for that antenna as well.

Interesting. This tower isn't on the Jacksonville Sponsor Map. The Site ID is JA75XC004-A. For those interested, you can look at the plans on the Clay Building Permit site. http://www.claycountygov.com/services-we-provide/public-records-search-1/building Type in address of 3364 OLD JENNINGS RD The first set of plans (13 pages - permit 10050571) are the site plans from the original owner Wireless Towers. The second set of plans (12 pages - permit 10100143) are the Sprint/Nextel plans by KCI Technologies. There are structural plans and other items as well. The tower changed ownership to SBA Towers in 2011 just after being built. The tower applied for FCC license, but it was terminated after not being required http://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/AsrSearch/asrRegistration.jsp?regKey=2678197

Based on the frequency scans that I have done in the Orange Park area, AT&T does look to be using 5x5 Band 2 and 10x10 Band 17.

Here are a couple photos from the Wells, Collins and Fouracre sites I stopped at today. Clear tower at Wells https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83281483/IMG_0121.JPG https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83281483/IMG_0123.JPG Sprint tower at Wells https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83281483/IMG_0143.JPG https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83281483/IMG_0151.JPG Clear tower at Collins https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83281483/IMG_0162.JPG https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83281483/IMG_0164.JPG Sprint tower at Fouracre/Normandy https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83281483/IMG_0175.JPG https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/83281483/IMG_0171.JPG

I had 1xRTT/EVDO all the way down I-10 and up I-75. Did not roam any. I hit LTE at Macclenny, Lake City, Live Oak and Valdosta. Up in Atlanta now with tons of B41 action.

That would be the Clear tower at Collins Rd across the street. I stopped by Wells and Collins on my way over to Normandy tonight. Both Collins and Wells Clear towers have B41. The Sprint tower on Wells still only has the B25/B26 antenna array. http://www.clear.com/coverage

frequency scan shows no signal being broadcast. it appears like tybo indicated that they are waiting to fire up the new 8t8r all at once. it's gonna be nice when those turn on. I'm on the road (in Valdosta now) and wasn't sure which clear tower I saw near 295.

Band 41 is not active on the 8T8R radio at this location yet. I did find B41 on a tower near 295 and Normandy but didn't look at the clear tower near that area as I'm typing this from the parking lot across the street.

I'm heading up to Atlanta in a few minutes. I'm going to swing by the Normandy/Fouracre tower and check it out. I'll post my findings/freq scan info tonight. I have yet to see an 8T8R active for the ones installed in Orange Park, so I'm guessing it is not active yet.

I have almost identified the channel usage in the Jacksonville Market. This may be old information to some, but I'm finally figuring this out. Here are some FFT scans of the downlink channels from the Orange Park area. Figured I'd share for those interested. Band 25 - PCS Block A5 & Block D - Sprint CDMA (7 x 1.25MHz channels) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/Band%2025%20-%20PCS%20A5%20%26%20PCS%20D.JPG Band 25 - PCS Block G - Sprint LTE (1 x 5MHz channel) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/Band%2025%20-%20PCS%20G.JPG Band 26 - ESMR - Sprint CDMA (1 x 1.25MHz channel) & LTE (1 x 5MHz channel) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/Band%2026%20-%20800SMR.JPG Band 41 - BRS/EBS (1 x 20 MHz channel) https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106286908/Band%2041%20-%20BRS2500.JPG I have not had my phone connect to all the 1.25MHz CDMA channels on Band 25, so I couldn't figure out which ones are being used for EVDO vs 1xRTT other than the 3 I indicated. Sprint may also change some of these around in the market due to density of the cell site.

You had to show the one blurry image I posted. S4GRU spotting guides for the equipment in our area http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/6180-how-to-spot-sprint-antennas-and-rrus-ericsson/ http://s4gru.com/index.php?/topic/5657-how-to-spot-sprint-8t8r-td-lte-rrhs-nokia-solutions-networks/ Based on the photo above (middle array, antenna on the right), the equipment is 1 x Ericsson RRUS31 for Band 25 PCS1900 and 1 x RRUS11 for Band 26 800SMR connected to an RFS APXVERR18-C antenna. I could never find product data for the specific antenna model but the APXVERR20X-C triple band is probably close. http://www.rfsworld.com/WebSearchECat/datasheets/pdf/?q=APXVERR20X-C The Nokia VBNFZHJ 8T8R for Band 41 2500MHz with the Andrew TTTT65AP-1XR antenna is the equipment to the left. http://www.commscope.com/catalog/andrew/product_details.aspx?id=34916

the orange park area/clay area.

That's what I have noticed in Orange Park area. The only towers I have found band 41 are the Sleepy Hollow Rd and Bowl America tower off Blanding. One is Clearwire only one is a Clear/Sprint colo tower. A bunch of new 8T8R equipment has gone up around town, but nothing has been activated yet. Waiting for the B41 (8T8R) and B26/1x800 to go active on these towers (well most have B26 active that have the new equipment but the one at Parkridge needs to go active ASAP!!)

How do I find out what PCS blocks Sprint is using in Jacksonville for CDMA? It looks like Sprint could be on any of the blocks A thru F for CDMA. They are using block G exclusively for LTE and they own that block nation wide which makes that easy to identify.