Using LTE as home internet access, need help with towers.

Liver

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My internet access is *quite* lacking deep in the country in East Texas.

I have made other posts about it, but in a nutshell. I have 2 DSL lines, individually about 4-5 down and 1 up (max). I have a PepLink router that I have both modems connected to, and that router load balances the lines.

I have added an LTE modem to mix, a Netgear MR1100, but the signal is abysmal. I have used it in the past with pretty good success, but we had a massive add on and I need to remount the antenna (s). I have a total of 3 antennas. One MIMO antenna and two single non-MIMO ones.

Mounted at the top of my chimney, which is the highest point in my area, but i still do NOT have line of sight to any cell tower.

First tried both non-MIMO antennas pointing at different cell towers (basically one is facing east and the other is facing south). According to cellmapper.net, that is where my cell towers are (generally). Failed. I do get some signal, but it’s like 3-4 down.

I’m going to mount the MIMO antenna whenever we have a sunny day, and the roof isn’t slick.

The question

How do I correctly point the MIMO antenna? On cellmapper I should point the antenna north-east (I can give you exact degrees if it matters), I did this by calculating the angle between me and the tower.

On opensignal (an app), it sees the best signal south-east. However there is not a cell tower in that direction.


What direction do you think I should mount the antenna.

1. I do NOT have any cell signal test equipment. Only way for me to test is using my download speed on the modem.
2. I have to use a ladder to climb up to the roof.
3. I have to use a leveling platform I built to keep me flat (its a platform I built to take the roof pitch to flat).
4. Then I have to put a step stool on that platform to get to the correct height to mount the antennas.
5. I am almost 50.

I would rather not have to go up and down to test. Would like to get close to good-enough on the first time. Did I mention there is a lot of climbing? Did I mention that I’m almost 50?
 
Thanks. I already have the cables and the Netgear MR1100 modem. The cable were not cheap, high quality cables. The cable are in the wall already, so I opted for the higher end ones. Its a very clean set up, with minimal visible wiring. I knew that I would need this, so it was part of the design of the house.

When I am inside my house, I barely have 1 bar and that is about 75% of the time. The other time, no signal at all. So an outdoor antenna is a must. I am using omni antennas, because that was the recommendation by the antenna company (Proxicast, off Amazon). Basically they told me if I do not have a line of sight, meaning if I can not visibly see the antenna from the mounting point, its better to go with an omni directional antenna. So that I what I did.

If the tower ‘ ATT de-prioritizes me, well, crap. I will be SOL. I didn’t even think about that possibility. Maybe that is what is what is happening.

I’ll look into the app you recommended. Just running speed test this morning, I am getting 25 down. That is at 0515, so maybe the towers are throttling my speed during the day.

I appreciate the help.

Edit. We use our WiFi for all communication. Even if we had to dial 911, we would need it, or I’d have to run outside to make the call.
 
Yeah, I can have 4 bars 5G one day and terrible latency/throughput, and 1 bar 4G the next day downloading +700KB/s. Signal strength is probably less than half as important as how prioritization is handled and the number of users (n the cell.
 
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The tricky thing is that radio conditions change throughout the day, but also as towers get full, they reduce their coverage area, and when they get less full, they increase. This can be by decreasing send power or tweaking antenna angle (physically, or more likely beam stearing). It's remarkably complex.

I'd see if you can get signal strength and tower identification from the modem itself. If you can grab a number every minute or so, you can see what you're working with. If you're getting good speeds in the morning, but not otherwise, it may be that you can only see the tower well in the morning, or that the tower only has capacity in the morning. Logs/graphs would help.

Omnidirectional antennas usually don't have a lot of potential for aiming, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. More height can often help, and physical distance between the multiple antennas would probably be nice, if that's feasible.
 
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Broad question. If signal strength is not important, then do I really need to optimize that?

I figured that if I can get a half way decent signal, then I work on optimizing.

I get it, if I get de-prioritized then it’ll suck. I can get de-prioritized with a great signal OR a crap signal right? Would it be better to start out with a good signal?

So far I have two antennas facing at two different towers.
 
Broad question. If signal strength is not important, then do I really need to optimize that?

I figured that if I can get a half way decent signal, then I work on optimizing.

I get it, if I get de-prioritized then it’ll suck. I can get de-prioritized with a great signal OR a crap signal right? Would it be better to start out with a good signal?

So far I have two antennas facing at two different towers.
It's important insofar as it plays a role in which tower your modem picks. But as far as reliability and throughput, it's not so important. With an omni directional antenna, you get whatever your modem decides is the "best" cell, but that one may be overloaded compared to a "worse" cell, so optimizing signal directionality may be useful, even if the signal doesn't improve or even if it's worse in some cases.
 
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I’m thinking I should keep my current set up of the two antennas.
 
Yes. That’s all I did.

We take the MR1100 on long trips. We can tether via phones, but the MR1100 speeds are usually more with an antenna.
 
According to the starlink map it covers Texas now, what's the hold up?
 
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According to the starlink map it covers Texas now, what's the hold up?
starlink, I'd guess. They probably haven't ramped up production yet, and who knows how the chip/supply shortage is effecting them
 
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I do not know the details at all (how would I). I am waiting for the Starlink and the Tesla pick up truck.

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Used to live in East Texas for a bit in mid 2000s. I know the ISP struggle is real out there.
 
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