Comments on: How to Measure & Improve Mobile Broadband Reception

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:57:00 +0000

good advice; I have tried (and wasted money on) a 5db gain antenna, a 3g signal booster and linking a high gain antenna to a wireless router. However nothing beat sticking the dongle on the end of a 5m USB cable and putting it outside protected by an old plastic bottle!

By: Ben

Ben — Sat, 22 May 2010 10:31:53 +0000

Thanks for this guide. It was invaluable for getting me started with AT commands to check reception.

I did need a bit more help to setup hyperterminal though. For anyone in the same boat an idiot proof tutorial can be found here

http://www.developershome.com/sms/howToUseHyperTerminal.asp

Once it was working it showed how useless the signal meter on my ’3′ dongle software was. Minus 98 dB should NOT be showing as 4 out of 5 bars. That’ll be why it won’t work most of the time then…

By: Mobile Broadband: Finding your nearest transmitter | Mobile Fun Blog

Mobile Broadband: Finding your nearest transmitter | Mobile Fun Blog — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:07:15 +0000

[...] How to measure and improve your mobile broadband reception [...]

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:02:46 +0000

Is there anyway to get a signal measurement from an Axesstel MV430i 3G Gateway connected to my computer with an ethernet cable? AxessManager software would work but I don’t have it. Reading the above article made me wonder if there was another way. Thanks

By: Anthony

Anthony — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:53:46 +0000

@tim – Great news. If you have strong reception then using an antenna could be slightly detrimental as there may be a slight deterioration in signal over the length of the cable. However with the standard cables supplied with the antennas, this should not really be a noticeable effect. I should also say that taking accurate measurements can be difficult due to the “cell breathing” effect as discussed above. But anyway, thanks for telling us how you got on!

By: Tim Lovegrove

Tim Lovegrove — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:57:56 +0000

Success at last! I bought and tested your mobile antenna and can confirm that it provides me with ~8db improvement in reception in medium to weak reception areas. However in a strong reception area it actually reduces the reception from -63db to -79db. This is very strange and if anybody knows why this is the case I would appreciate it if they would share this information.

By: poor signal - Mobile Fun Forums

poor signal - Mobile Fun Forums — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:02:16 +0000

[...] running windows, one of our IT guys wrote a post on the blog on how you can measure reception.. How to Measure & Improve Mobile Broadband Reception | Mobile Fun Blog Andy [...]

By: Tim Lovegrove

Tim Lovegrove — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:54:36 +0000

In actual fact I need it for a car, so ideally I need something like your ‘Mobile Broadband Vehicle Antenna’. However before I spend yet another £40 to get this working, I need to know that if it does not improve the reception that I can return it without any hassle and that I will be refunded all costs including the original shipping cost plus the cost of returning it to you.

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:59:48 +0000

If you’re looking for the most amount of gain, then either the High Gain antenna or Outdoor Panel antenna would be the one’s to go for:

http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/3g-high-gain-directional-antenna-crc9-connection-p18962.htm – 9dBi
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/mobile-broadband-panel-antenna-crc9-connection-p21417.htm – 11dBi

They are both directional though, so you’ll need to consult the Ofcom Sitefinder website to work out where your closest transmitter is and then tweak the position of the aerial to make sure it’s pointing in the right direction.

If you’re not happy, we offer a 30 day no quibble guarantee and will happily exchange/refund.

By: Tim Lovegrove

Tim Lovegrove — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 22:08:16 +0000

Hi, I am using both a E160 and a E169 on the three network. I have purchased two separate antennae, one was a relatively expensive aerial sourced from the UK that was supposed to provide me with 11db gain, in actual fact this actually reduced the signal by roughly 20%. The second was a 10db aerial which I purchased from Hong Kong, which has absolutely no effect on the signal. Is it worth trying a third aerial? Does anybody have any suggestions where to get one that actually provides a genuine gain?