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

Looks like the main difference between 56029 and 56030 was the removal of the Cricket CDMA/EV-DO. There were only removals in this change, no additions and no changes from roaming to not roaming or vice versa. I haven't gone line-by-line, but that seems to be the big difference. The comparison with 55050 will be more challenging since, of course, it's a different series. I'll do that later. - Trip

Oh, and I checked this morning. In the day and a half or so that I've been using it, I've apparently only used 8 cents worth of data, according to H2O's web interface. At 10 cents per day for 30 days is $3, so that $10 for 90 days seems to be about right. - Trip

Just to follow up... https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4qtSrW2KKDCQWFpMkEzNFc5NGs/view?usp=sharing I got my Nexus 5 yesterday. My wife brought home an AT&T SIM from work which didn't do much of anything for me. I had also already ordered an H2O Wireless SIM because I saw their pay as you go plan. Sure enough, that plan supports LTE. So I'm keeping all background data shut off and as long as everything is good on that front, I should be good for $10 every three months. Not bad for what I'm trying to do. Already managed to log a bunch of AT&T sites immediately around me, so it works well. I also ordered a new US Cellular SIM which has arrived. I've decided to wait on trying to factory reset/change SIM on it until I visit my parents again and am in the US Cellular coverage area to try to minimize the number of things that could go wrong. I'm hoping it lets me on the LTE without activation like T-Mobile does, but not holding out much hope. There may not be much I can do with US Cellular, unfortunately. And I'm talking to a member here about getting a phone for Verizon which has been tested to work with the unactivated SIM. So here's hoping I'll soon be done getting everything together! Thanks to everyone for all your help and advice. I'll update this again once I have Verizon and US Cellular going or worked on. - Trip

And Sprint doesn't roam on T-Mobile, so if a T-Mobile MCCMNC came through, that would obviously not be a real Sprint phone. - Trip

How? Wouldn't Sprint just disallow reports from users without a Sprint/Clear MCCMNC? - Trip