Trip

You tell me. It's odd though. It was only on the East/West platform and dropped off after I rounded the corner to the North/South platform. It was also very weak, only about -95 when I walked under the antennas. Considering the 3G signal is about -50 dBm, I would expect a proper LTE signal there to be -80 dBm or so. - Trip

Ironic, possibly, that this showed up yesterday. I know that for some time now, in the L'enfant Plaza Metro station, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile have had LTE while Sprint has been on 3G. This morning, I happened to look at my phone as I got on the escalator at the edge of the station and caught a flash of an unfamiliar GCI right before it flipped to the GCI for the Weaver Building. My log shows a GCI which would be one of the highest B25 ones I've ever seen (new sites have high GCI values), 0303D3. I've got my fingers crossed that on the way home, I'll discover Sprint LTE in L'enfant Plaza Metro station. - Trip

I was at the Air and Space Museum's Dulles facility on Saturday and as best I can tell, Sprint was the only carrier with a DAS in that building, and the DAS had B25 and B26. Signal was generally around -80 dBm, while the other carriers were closer to -110 dBm. I knew Sprint had a DAS there, but was surprised to find the others didn't seem to. Here's the link to RootMetrics: http://www.rootmetrics.com/us/rsr/washington-dc/2015/2H And I hope Pentagon City is done soon. Verizon and AT&T have LTE there, T-Mobile appears to have LTE from a nearby building, and Sprint has 3G that often drops to 1X if you're in the wrong part of the mall. - Trip

In the areas where Shentel is the provider now, it's a top tier carrier. Unfortunately, it's going to take time after the sale of nTelos to Shentel closes before they can get the nTelos network close to the quality found in their native area. If you want to jump on the promotion, then by all means do so, but don't be surprised if you find yourself on 3G a lot for a while. Others who live in the area will probably chime in as well. At the moment, it appears that the Sprint LTE rollout in the nTelos region is spotty at best. - Trip

Not that I want to start a debate here, as that's not the purpose of this thread, I can definitely see the value in that placement--when you're making a call and holding the phone up to your head. At any other time (read--99% or more of the time when I'm using my phone), it makes no sense to me, whatsoever. But, to each his own. That's why we have multiple phone manufacturers. - Trip

I'm guessing "Exterior Design" would cover things like LG's boneheaded button placement, right? - Trip

The band is not something that the API presents to SCP, it's guessed based on things like sector ID, PLMN, and the like in a hard-coded fashion. So it doesn't know that 19, 1A, and 1B are B26 in Sprint territory because SCP is being told that by the phone, it's because it's been hard-coded that those sector IDs are B26 when the PLMN is 310120. SCP simply hasn't been updated to show that the 0x2710 offset refers to B41. - Trip

Congratulations on the new house! - Trip

Holy misleading charts, Batman! - Trip

Funny you should say that, because I was thinking something similar and mentioned it internally. My idea, though, was to turn the Cellular band into 5 different 5x5 blocks. Give the A and B block licenses two of the 5x5 blocks by default, and then sell the leftover block at auction, with a portion of the proceeds (or a bidding credit) going to the existing A and B block holders. That would accomplish the same thing without pre-ordaining the result. Not sure anyone liked the idea, but I have mentioned it at work before. - Trip

Interesting. The Nexus 5X does not show LTE roaming still. - Trip

We're all assuming nTelos has used the standard Sprint B41 down/up ratio. Is it possible they're using something different? - Trip

Yes, the LTE Roaming map showed my parents' house as covered by it, and that is a US Cellular-only area. - Trip

That's a bug in Android that impacts SCP. There isn't a way to know it from SCP in that case. - Trip

Thanks. So that makes life easier. - Trip

The included coax doesn't appear to have any labeling besides "RG6". Sounds like 75 ohm to me. - Trip

Well, I opened up the box and the device has an F-connector for the outdoor antenna. (SMA for the indoor.) I've only ever seen F-connectors used for 75 ohms; are they ever used at 50 ohms? - Trip

That's what I can't figure out. When I look at the manual for it, the end of the manual has specs which say "50 ohms/75 ohms". And antenna kits that you can buy for huge amounts of money for either one. I'm going to wait for it to arrive and then figure out what to do from there. I did manage to get the FCC ID for the third manufacturer, and its performance in the FCC tests showed the worst roll-off on 800 MHz of the three. - Trip

I actually bought the weBoost Home 4G yesterday on Amazon while it was on sale for $311 (still is that price as of this post). I likely won't get to try it out until mid-January; I'm waiting to order an antenna until it arrives to be 100% sure I get all the right adapters and everything as well. What I'm reading implies that it has an F-connector on it, which is good because I have a spool of RG-6 and the appropriate ends/tool for making such a cable. All I would need to worry about is the antenna and any adapters it needs. I'll have my fingers crossed about the distance. I really hope that it works. - Trip

It's up. Just added a year to my Amazon Prime. - Trip

So I feel stupid. I work in OET and forgot I should be able to look up the performance in the OET registrations! So that's what I've done. So far, what I see is this: weBoost's Home 3G and Home 4G look to be about the same on 800, flat on the uplink and a slight rolloff at the bottom of the downlink. On PCS G-block, though, the 3G is worthless (fast roll-off) while the 4G appears to have been tweaked to support it, being completely flat on downlink and only a slight rolloff on uplink. zBoost's 3G and 4G/B12 exhibit more severe rolloff on 800. On G-block, the downlink is flat but the uplink has a very sharp roll-off, so neither one will work well for G-block. Can't find the FCC ID number for this company, so I've sent an e-mail asking for it: http://wirelesscoveragesolutions.com/ It looks like if I want to try anything, I should be considering the weBoost Home 4G, so far. - Trip

I took my T-Mobile phone and it saw LTE on PCS from the site in question at -122 dBm. I don't really have an 800 MHz yagi to play with, and that was on the ground. I figure a good yagi with some height should improve that signal by a minimum of 15 dB, and probably much more given the frequency difference between PCS and 800, which would theoretically, from a signal strength point of view, make Band 26 usable. - Trip

Thanks for your detailed response. To your last point first, I am aware the weBoost is not what I need. I've reached out to other vendors, however, who have either not responded or not made available information I need. At this point, I'm not sure what to buy, if anything. I have actually planned to put the antenna on an adjacent building because my father-in-law's roof is a death trap. One of those old metal roofs with a VERY steep pitch. You wouldn't catch me on that thing. I figured the most sensible way to go was to mount it on the shed nearby, then run the cable underground and into the house. I'd hoped that would work. But your comments on the maximum cell size are disconcerting. If what you're saying is correct, then it sounds like there's simply no way to make it work beyond 14.53 km, and he's definitely 10.46 miles away (16.83 km). If that's definitely a hard limit, then I probably shouldn't waste too much more time on that plan, and can definitely go for a cheapie and just do the US Cellular Band 5. - Trip

Great data! I've already gone through it; lots of great stuff in it. - Trip

Changed my mind and tried to do it now. The key difference between 56030 and 55050, assuming all the reductions in EV-DO are due to change from 56xxx to 55xxx, is Cellcom SIDs 362, 5652, and 5274, now have only 1X roaming, except in NID 7 where EV-DO remains. - Trip