Xpol2 is the best one, because it's omnidirectional, just fit it or fix it in any direction, and it will do its job, that's why it's costing £120/- where as the other one is doubtful,that's why they made of two different pieces, the biggest headache is to find out and fix at certain specific direction.
Hi. Do you know if it's possible to combine the output from two poynting 2x2 antenna into one? I have an EE home router 3 with two sma connectors at present.
@@mrMilanna well that depends what you're aiming to do. The poynting has 2 cables and the router 2 ports...simple. however, if you are wanting to use 2 antenna with total 4 cables into 2port router, then not so simple. Firstly, yes easy to do with splitter/combiners, but I wouldn't recommend it without more info on your aims
@@mrMilanna guessed so. The way of improving speed is increase SNR (Signal noise ratio) adding another antenna could actually reduce it. Firstly, this antenna is more directional than others. This means better speeds when setup correctly. If you've seen my other vids you see getting the right azimuth (direction) makes a lot of difference. Height makes a big difference as does the cable type. My advice is try and get higher location, and identify best local mast. Check cellmapper and survey with netmonitor lite. Secondly, the reason 2x antenna can make things worse is inclusive and destructive interference. 2 sinusoidal waveforms like radio and audio can add together to make things stronger (nice) or weaker (bad). Which one depends partly on how far the 2 antenna are apart. They need to be a multiple of the wavelength, which depends on the frequency of 4G that serves you best. I think practically your speed will vary a lot more as result. For example in my vid with 2x log periods, the distance is optimised for 1800 Mhz as I get 4G band 1 the most. If on other hand you intend to have antenna same place, then setting 30cm apart should work. Using a splitter/combiner will reduce each input by 3dB which is a lot, but the use of external antenna does help. All that said, I don't know what benefit you'd get. My advice is go higher and play with directions. Maybe stick it on the chimney
Looks like the log periodic are ideal when you don't have obstructions but in theory the panel should handle things like trees, buildings, hills better, right?
Hi thanks for commenting much appreciated! Typical lpda have a 3db beamwidth of around 60deg, and this panel seems to be around the same amount, narrower at lower freq. But yes I know what you mean, if assuming a panel had wider beamwidth then multipath effects would suggest an omni is better when antenna is below local clutter in urban/suburban environment. However, in my case I think I'm getting some channelling effects from my local 20m streetworks pole which means I benefit from the directional antennas. If I could convince poynting to give me one of their omni292 for free I'd test that theory 😀
I just ordered the xpol-6 out of ignorance but then when I compared the price to the cheap lpdas available (not that much different) and the increased installation effort etc. it's a slam-dunk - xpol-6 wins everytime.
Quite the shocking result ! But this is quite a good surprise right ? (well not so much if the more expensive have already been bought). In my opinion, the appearance is kinda a matter of taste. I like better the Log Periodic one, the only thing I don't like much with it is the fact that its installation is a bit less user-friendly. But that's really the only thing I have against it. I'm gonna buy one like this. Also, I wonder how would have performed a Yagi antenna, I've read some very good things about them too.
Have to be careful with yagi. High gain directional sure, but gain is not always the most important consideration. Antenna choice depends on lots of factors. For example in rural hilly terrain I'd say high gain omni. For flatter rural terrain a 2x2 mimo directional antenna with highest gain in 800-2100mhz range is probs better. In suburban areas with 5G I'd suggest a directional 4x4 mimo antenna with high quality short feeder. In- line bandpass filters are a consideration to reduce noise. And in addition, are you after any signal, or just increase in speed? That also impacts choice
@@Phone_Geek Thanks for the answer ! Well in my case, there is quite a good signal, but I would like to maximise the speed and reduce the ping as much as possible. I wanted to buy a lpda antenna first, but were I live (Medellin, Colombia, the city is located in a valley, and the providers' antennas are generally at the bottom, and at the top fiber optic internet isn't available at all) it's very difficult to find it. What nearly everyone use or sell is the Yagi antenna. There are of course some omni available, but they don't give good results most of the time.
Thanks for watching! Nice one - Best place for them both. As for the cable.. have you already removed it? If not, cut all but 1m I'd say then re-terminate
Excellent pragmatic reviews, some of the tech info is educational and the download comparisons very well done and all professional presented. I have subscribed. We seem to get the best connection from a nearby tower, but with it bouncing off a nearby building and into us. We get the same performance with a direct Poynting Xpol to this tower as we do with just a TP MR6400 with its rabbit ears from the bounced signal. Any guidance on getting the best from a bounced signal? I am using just consumer kit to test/explore with a consumer Samsung S9 phone with free apps LTE Discovery and Open Signal - could you do a test of all the free apps and show how to get the best from them? We live on a hill near the South Downs and get a sub 30 ms ping, 25 down and 15 up - so useable but seeking to optimise.
Thanks for your comments much appreciated! Firstly have you got cellmapper installed? If not, get that and let it take readings etc and fine the cell details. Don't know the area, but if you're anywhere near treyford Hill, beacon Hill area.. there are no readings so hard to see which sites serve the general area. Knowing that, rather than the odd spot makes for a better assessment of what sites to direct antennas towards, or stick to omni. Being rural does not necessarily mean having either omni or directional it depends on situation. Also, being rural, bear in mind most operators will use lte band 20 a lot, which is 800mhz. This is a high coverage low bandwidth band, so don't expect high throughout. As a result, it is sometimes better to have a directional antenna pointing towards a site with a lower signal, but one supporting band 1 or band 3 (1800mhz) which has higher throughput. In addition make sure good cable, doing vid on that now as it happens
@@Phone_Geek Thanks for such a swift and fullsome response. Was not aware of cellmapper so thanks and now installed and will have a play with it later. Treyford Hill is about a mile from me! So if 800mhz would 25 down, 15up and under 30 ms ping be close to the max of 800mhz or xx% ??
@@crashburnfly hard to say depends on lots of things. Bandwidth of your operator and link modulation being main factors here. The latter you can get an idea as some apps will tell you if using say 64qam for example, and also the CQI (channel quality indicator) which maps your signal SINR to modulation and data rate. As you say you get 25 down to me seems like you have a poor link quality, that's what we need to improve. Direct an antenna to see your sinr and cqi values increase
@@Phone_Geek This exchange is proving very educational for me qam,CQI, SINR. I have a white cable Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002 Cross Polarised High Gain 4G Panel LTE Directional Outdoor Antenna . I have just ordered a v3 black cable version and can do a side by side test early next week when I have both. I will report back. My test wont be anywhere as professional as yours - just a few speed tests to get an average. Also I should get a Cisco directional aerial from a mate on sunday so will aim to try all three.
Another useful video, cheers. Last comment auto deleted as i put a link to ebay, was just wondering what LPDAs you're using and what cable you would recomend for say a 5 to 10m run. Cheers
Just search ebay for something like "Directional LPDA Outdoor Antenna". They all appeared same so I got anyone from uk. As long as covers 800-2600 MHz with gain around 12dBi. As for cable..I'd suggest watching my video all about them, cost vs benefit. In a rural environment, 5m the middle quality one, but 10m I'd deffo use higher quality. Lmr400 I think it was
Hi Richard, you seem like you have quite a bit of radio knowledge so I was wondering if you could answer a dumb question for me that I can’t seem to get a straight answer about. What would happen if the output side of cellular repeater or “booster” was plugged directly into the antenna input of a 4g router? Would the signal just be too noisy for the modem to make use of? Or do you think it could actually somehow damage the modem? I see that there are “inline cell boosters” sold online that are made to be used with cellular modems, but I can’t find any information about how they are different. Wonder if you can shed any light on the subject for me, thanks.
Hi, thanks for watching! Well firstly I wouldn't bother with boosters tbh. anything which is worth having would cost a lot. Without the spec of one of those repeaters I couldnt say, however I would say: 1) A modem should be capable of dealing with a highish input and should specify it, in addition a decent one should have overload protection. i'd say max input maybe -20dBm. 2) the higher input the more likely you'll drive the modem's RF receiver amp out of its linear range, which will result in poor results anyways, 3) with any tech 3G onwards, a booster will amplify the noise and the signal (because they are part of the same thing) unless you have a highly narrow bandwidth amp or bandpass filter too. So this is actually the reason I doubt they actually help overall. 4) the main way of improving signal is having an external antenna as that reduces the in-building penetration loss. Add to that a good antenna with either a) decent cable or 2) put the modem with antenna (1m cable or less) and the benefit that gives will likely be way more than that alleged by the booster manufacturers
wow, thanks for your testing. Looks like log periodic does has physical advantage, as its design provide high directional focus. Additional question, you used same cable for both antenna for testing right?
Hi there thanks for watching! I thought I used same cable, but actually was rg58 for lpda and poynting has rg174 I think, I.e. slightly better performance. Current vid in editing is about cables btw 😀
Hi Richard, I'm trying to get some speed improvement for my mums "3" sourced mobile broadband. I've made a couple of antenna from Andrews designs, but would like to try buying a couple - do you have a link for any? the log periodic? thanks in anticipation simon
Hi Simon, sorry to answer your question with some questions first.. is the router a 4G one or 3's new 5G one? Is she rural/ hamlet or suburban/urban? Are you looking for major improvement on what is ok now or better on what is rubbish currently? These will make me help you
Richard... Just a note... I think i have the same router as you, but i would not trust that routers onboard speed test at all!!! DONT DO IT.. RE-TEST speeds outside of the router... Something is not right with the built in speed test in the ARCHER MR600 TPLINK.... I get it showing speed test in the range of 25 30 40 50 mpbs and i can assure you the router is not performing anywhere near those speeds with stable consistent readings of - RSRP - 109dbm RSRQ - 16DBM (External Antenna) best max speed this router can ever manage is 10mpbs but the routers onboard built in speed test will consistently report anywhere between 25mps to 60mps speeds which are just not true...Firmware Version:1.5.0 0.9.1 v0001.0 Build 210914 Rel.59719n.. Would be great if you can report similar findings?
Hi, an rsrq of -16 is pretty poor, but its more about the CQI being reported to eNodeB that determines speed. But the better way is to do a ftp file transfer using it, as I did for my 5G vid. I have some colleagues at work who's SME is routers and see if any better way to check. I do of course use speedtest too. Do you think the issue is mobile wireless speeds being wrong, or wireless in general I.e. WiFi too?
Hiya, yeah its really odd Richard been using this router for a while now, and as you say my reception figures are not the best, I am right on the edge (rural area) and 1.8 miles from mast, room for improvement for sure, however despite that, the connection has been pretty stable and works well, mounting options are not the best but I’m fully wired cat5 gigabit Ethernet from the router all working perfectly fine… (Don’t use 2.4ghz wifi for speed testing) The built in speed test just keeps reporting speeds that I never ever see with normal downloading, ftp file transfers tests ect, shortest hops, ect,ect.. no matter what its always 10meg for me and no more.. but as I say the built in speed test like just now, gave me a speed test of 27meg 30meg down and always 2meg up.. In the history of speed tests with this router it has seen as high as 80meg which is just patent rubbish.. I just ignore the built in speed test completely now, but these results are just so far out of kilter that I am convinced that there must be foul play going on within the router firmware or software.. It’s baffled me for months and months so when you speed tested with the internal tp-link speed test, I could not resist posting.. It’s become a bit of a bugbear with me… I would love to see you test the theory, but I’m sure you would of noticed the disparity by now.. but we all hit the speed test button as a rough gage of what the connection is doing at the point in time and rarely check it against what the connection speed is really achieving outside of the router at the same time?
@rfxtuber interesting and rather disturbing/disappointing, since the test says its an Ookla Speedtest one I think? I'll investigate it some more. Thanks
That would be great if you could cast your beady eye on the subject, but as you know due to different masts, setups, equipment, network providers, tariffs there are many many moving parts here as you well know, and I am nowhere near skilled in analysis/data metrics as you, but I have settled on two possibilities that could be going on, I just can’t test or prove it. The TP-link router internal speed test maybe (inadvertently) bypassing any hidden or unknown sim/network throttling at the hardware level or the built in speed test is artificially boosting the speed tests over the real speeds (rounding errors, deliberate?) and then of course there is user error, bad antennae setup and whatnot. Finally I have also noticed the rabbit ears antenna that comes with the TP-link seem to be just as good as any external antenna in my case… yet another oddity?… If you do find any anomalies worth reporting it would be most welcome and interesting….thanks for your replies Richard...
Hi again Richard.. Just a quick note.. I discovered what was causing these speed test issues with the tp-link mr-600.. you will never guess what was causing me so much confusion with speed tests..and this is repeatable with your model i will presume... It was an errant setting in the QoS settings... within the QoS settings panel it was set to 10mbps (Download) and the upload was set to 2mbps with a device in the local network set to 85% priority.. if you set those settings and then do external speedtest at speed test websites you will observe the speed test permanently stuck at 10mbps and the upload permanently stuck at 2mbps but if you do an internal speediest on the MR-600 it will speed test to what ever your connection is actually receiving, not being throttled by the QoS settings... Hence massive confusion and WTF moments for months!!! Try it yourself... and you will see the effect yourself... I hear you ask.. of course you had QoS enabled.. well.. no it was a setting that was enabled during testing months ago and i had forgot to to disable it... it is very much worthy of note.. Try it yourself.. Very much worthy of note!!!! @@Phone_Geek
Richard i'd love your advice on the poynting 4g-xpol-a0001. Would that be a decent aerial to fit outside my static caravan? We have poor phone signal so hoping to boost the 4G connection so we can stream things better. I'm plugging it all into my Huawei 5577 router.
Hi Vinnie thanks for watching! That xpol1 is quite an old antenna now, but that said its a 2x2 mimo omni which is good and is pretty good for wideband omni. That said, depending on where your caravan is, you might be better off with one of their directional antennas. You can check out local masts on cellmapper.com
@@Phone_Geek thanks Richard. I've been given a poynting today by a friend. However when just testing it at home when I plug it into my Huawaei 5577 the signal doesn't even seem to improve which is strange as thought it would. Maybe there's something I need to do with the router to make it work. I'm fairly clueless at these things.
@@TheHappyGeordie does your router show signal stuff shown as Band, RSCP, RSRP? If so, gimme the before and after numbers. The likely reasons are the antenna isnt high enough or the cable loss offset's the antenna gain. the antenna gain is about 3-4dB I think, and its poss the cable loss is 1.5 - 2.5dB, so overall gain is low. result of that is not much of a speed increase.
My stats with my tp link modem without any external antenna: Signal Strength: 100% RSRP: -88dBm RSRQ: -8dB SNR: 18.0dB Can i boost on it with external? Because signal streght already 100% :O
Hi there, those stats are great without external antenna. What sort of speeds are you getting and what LTE band is the router saying? I say this because higher speeds come from higher band like 2100mhz or 2600mhz. It can sometimes be better to have external antenna pointing to a weaker site but supports higher speeds
Hi John, do you mean a 4x4 same housing like the poynting, or 4x lpga? I've not done testing on a 4x4 antenna as there are not many 4x4 routers out there. That said, my other vids showed in my case 2x2 mimo increased speeds by 20%, so in the right environment you may well get a 50% improvement on a single antenna.
@@Phone_Geek Hi Richard !! I did a stack of research before purchase the Xpol2 V3 cable is white !! The V2 is Black according to Poynting this is how you tell the difference !! Went from Xpol1 to Xpol2 V3 and speeds and connection numbers went from 50Mb down to 176Mb down and 46Mb up using EE in Rural Scotland !! I was getting 12Mb down and 0.5 Mb up on a landline which would stop working at least every 6 months and require an Openreach visit Where Id be told there nothing they could do about it :)
Hi there thanks for watching! The point of both is so they act in a MIMO config. Multiple Input Multiple Output. Having 2 antennas like this increases signal and speed as it overcomes the impact of multipath radio wave effects. As in latest video it improves speeds by 20%. That's why you will see routers having 2 antenna ports. But, you can certainly only have 1, it just means you'll get slower Internet speeds. The poynting has the 2 inside same enclosure
@@Phone_Geek sorry for all the questions, but do these aerials have to be aligned one above the other? I'm wondering whether these could be used for a campervan and whether if the angle was kept the same, whether they could be mounted apart from each other or side by side rather than one on top of the other? 🤔
@@chrisb5839 no problem! Well I'll answer in 2 parts. Firstly for best performance and to see that benefit from the mimo I mentioned they should be aligned with each other at 45deg with centre around 30cm apart. Called polarisation. Secondly I would not recommend for a campervan. 3 reasons. 1, an omni would be better, if get decent one.. 2, this mimo improvement will reduce in more rural areas it works best when it's bit more built up area, 3 it would be a real pain in the a**e setting that up each time - to have best option with directional antenna best go for one with everythng in one enclosure like the poynting. Imho.
Hi there thanks for watching. The cheap one I just search ebay originally. The search term "Logarithmic Antenna 698-2700MHz" found them, maybe just 3g4g directional. The poynting one hmm don't think you can get from them direct.. various sites sell them. I could find them if you're US or UK? Solwise was one. The antenna(s) get connected straight to the router. No internal
@@zacckhawkins487 yeah there are some on amazon, just search "Yagi Directional Antenna 3G/4G/LTE/Wi-Fi Wide Band 10dBi 698Mhz to 2700mhz. www.amazon.com/Directional-Universal-Cellphone-Amplifier-Signalbooster/dp/B089VXJV14/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3J9U2SWS7WJHB&keywords=directional+3g+4g+antenna&qid=1661805895&sprefix=directional+3g4g+antenna%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-4
Hello Richard, I'm hoping you could give me some advice. I'm in a rural, valley bottom location with hills on three sides and some trees on the other side down the valley between me and the masts. Was thinking of getting an poynting xpol2 5g v3 directional antenna and pointing it down the valley towards the masts. Currently the signal drops out alot. Download varies from 0.5 to 8mbit, depending on the weather. Currently getting 2.8 down and 0.3 up. Any thoughts? Cheers
Hmm I'm thinking Welsh valleys by any chance? Few things to start, first thing it's poss an omni might be best, but Id need more info on your property and current solution. Main things in your circumstance is a short cable or a low loss cable like lmr400. A long cable run can introduce more loss than the antenna gain. Get antenna high as poss, consider an external weatherproof box close to antenna outside. Also make no assumptions on best mast. Get an app like netmonitor lite and survey your property. Note down the eNodeb I'd, rsrp and rsrq values. The best consistent value of rsrq (radio path quality, -10 good -20 bad)'s eNodeb id is best mast. Then lookup against cellmapper.com to see where mast is. That'll confirm best mast.
@@Phone_Geek Many thanks for the reply. Yes Wales, but not up in 'The Valleys' which are steep sided, more a small valley off a gentle lowland valley! The Poynting xpol 2 antenna I mentioned is an outdoor antenna apparently and has a 5m cable, is that length ok or is a shorter one advisable? I'm using a Smarty SIM in a Huawei mobile router for my data/WiFi solution, but when I used the app you mentioned on my mobile phone I could only get it to analyse my EE SIM in my mobile. So I had to take the Smarty SIM out of my router and put it in my phone to get it to analyse the Smarty signal. I assume that will give me the same data! 😬 Interestingly using cellmaper the signal was bouncing between 3 masts, within a 30 degree field of view from my location, approx 8 miles away. The masts are in the direction that's not blocked by the hills surrounding me, but line of sight to the masts is obscured by a small forested area down the small valley I'm in I did a 5 minute sample on net monitor lite and averaged Rsrq -17dB, Rsrp -109dBm 🙈 Are you thinking directional or omi, or am I doomed to dial up speeds forever? 😂
@bushtuckaman well done for doing that. Ideally you should do for all operators to get best mast best network. Pain to do yes, but worth it. Your situ you have fine margins to improve speed. That rsrq is bad. That value is sent to mast which then decides what bit rate you get. The terrain you describe and speeds is exactly what I expect. The reflections off of the valley are more delayed than say in suburban areas and that causes different fading effects. Another reason for slow speeds is the tech. Are u actually on 4G? If so, likely LTE800 even LTE700. These lower frequencys are used by operators in rural areas as they give more coverage. More cost effective. However lower the freq lower the throughput. So in netmonitor does it show just that?
@bushtuckaman to help more its probs best to email me your village, hamlet name to help more. Check me on LinkedIn if u want. That cable length and type is fine. Ive got a vid on cables and effects. With direct LoS I am surprised dont get better. If masts below you tilt antenna down or v.v. richedwards.phonegeek@gmail.com
I have used the poynting on a piece of land in the middle of the nowhere. It has served me well. No signal to 15 mb down/12 up happy days
Excellent evaluation.....this is exactly what I was looking for my farm
Thanks! Glad it helps!
Thanks for your honest review. 👍🏾
Xpol2 is the best one, because it's omnidirectional, just fit it or fix it in any direction, and it will do its job, that's why it's costing £120/- where as the other one is doubtful,that's why they made of two different pieces, the biggest headache is to find out and fix at certain specific direction.
Hi there, not totally with you.. the xpol2 series are all directional antennas, the xpol1 series are omni.
Brilliant :) Thanks, I'm going to need to do this set up soon. We'll see how we get on. Thanks for the vid!
Cheers, much appreciated!
Hi. Do you know if it's possible to combine the output from two poynting 2x2 antenna into one? I have an EE home router 3 with two sma connectors at present.
@@mrMilanna well that depends what you're aiming to do. The poynting has 2 cables and the router 2 ports...simple. however, if you are wanting to use 2 antenna with total 4 cables into 2port router, then not so simple. Firstly, yes easy to do with splitter/combiners, but I wouldn't recommend it without more info on your aims
Hi. Thanks for the response. I'm looking to boost the signal and wondered if it's possible simply by adding another antenna?
@@mrMilanna guessed so. The way of improving speed is increase SNR (Signal noise ratio) adding another antenna could actually reduce it. Firstly, this antenna is more directional than others. This means better speeds when setup correctly. If you've seen my other vids you see getting the right azimuth (direction) makes a lot of difference. Height makes a big difference as does the cable type. My advice is try and get higher location, and identify best local mast. Check cellmapper and survey with netmonitor lite. Secondly, the reason 2x antenna can make things worse is inclusive and destructive interference. 2 sinusoidal waveforms like radio and audio can add together to make things stronger (nice) or weaker (bad). Which one depends partly on how far the 2 antenna are apart. They need to be a multiple of the wavelength, which depends on the frequency of 4G that serves you best. I think practically your speed will vary a lot more as result. For example in my vid with 2x log periods, the distance is optimised for 1800 Mhz as I get 4G band 1 the most. If on other hand you intend to have antenna same place, then setting 30cm apart should work. Using a splitter/combiner will reduce each input by 3dB which is a lot, but the use of external antenna does help. All that said, I don't know what benefit you'd get. My advice is go higher and play with directions. Maybe stick it on the chimney
Looks like the log periodic are ideal when you don't have obstructions but in theory the panel should handle things like trees, buildings, hills better, right?
Hi thanks for commenting much appreciated! Typical lpda have a 3db beamwidth of around 60deg, and this panel seems to be around the same amount, narrower at lower freq. But yes I know what you mean, if assuming a panel had wider beamwidth then multipath effects would suggest an omni is better when antenna is below local clutter in urban/suburban environment. However, in my case I think I'm getting some channelling effects from my local 20m streetworks pole which means I benefit from the directional antennas. If I could convince poynting to give me one of their omni292 for free I'd test that theory 😀
I just ordered the xpol-6 out of ignorance but then when I compared the price to the cheap lpdas available (not that much different) and the increased installation effort etc. it's a slam-dunk - xpol-6 wins everytime.
Xpol6 is for 1800-2700meg so won't support lte 800 for rural areas and poor coverage areas in general
@@Phone_Geek Yes, there is that - but I'm in a build-up area so the signals are in range.
Hi. Where did you get the log periodic from?
Hi there, I got them off ebay. Search for Log Periodics, high gain, 4G5G that sort of thing. Lots on ebay as long as it covers 800-2700 should be fine
Quite the shocking result !
But this is quite a good surprise right ? (well not so much if the more expensive have already been bought).
In my opinion, the appearance is kinda a matter of taste. I like better the Log Periodic one, the only thing I don't like much with it is the fact that its installation is a bit less user-friendly. But that's really the only thing I have against it. I'm gonna buy one like this. Also, I wonder how would have performed a Yagi antenna, I've read some very good things about them too.
Have to be careful with yagi. High gain directional sure, but gain is not always the most important consideration. Antenna choice depends on lots of factors. For example in rural hilly terrain I'd say high gain omni. For flatter rural terrain a 2x2 mimo directional antenna with highest gain in 800-2100mhz range is probs better. In suburban areas with 5G I'd suggest a directional 4x4 mimo antenna with high quality short feeder. In- line bandpass filters are a consideration to reduce noise. And in addition, are you after any signal, or just increase in speed? That also impacts choice
@@Phone_Geek Thanks for the answer ! Well in my case, there is quite a good signal, but I would like to maximise the speed and reduce the ping as much as possible. I wanted to buy a lpda antenna first, but were I live (Medellin, Colombia, the city is located in a valley, and the providers' antennas are generally at the bottom, and at the top fiber optic internet isn't available at all) it's very difficult to find it. What nearly everyone use or sell is the Yagi antenna. There are of course some omni available, but they don't give good results most of the time.
the lpda looks alright in my opinion
There's no information on the direction you pointed to.
Hi there, you mean in terms of azimuth? Local site is a streetworks at about 210deg. Lots of multipath.
Great Content !
What should i do with the excess antenna cable?
I´ve got the mimo router 4g on the roof in a water proof box next to the antennas .
Thanks for watching! Nice one - Best place for them both. As for the cable.. have you already removed it? If not, cut all but 1m I'd say then re-terminate
@@Phone_Geek i'm not cutting the cable. its part off the antenna calculations
Excellent pragmatic reviews, some of the tech info is educational and the download comparisons very well done and all professional presented. I have subscribed. We seem to get the best connection from a nearby tower, but with it bouncing off a nearby building and into us. We get the same performance with a direct Poynting Xpol to this tower as we do with just a TP MR6400 with its rabbit ears from the bounced signal. Any guidance on getting the best from a bounced signal? I am using just consumer kit to test/explore with a consumer Samsung S9 phone with free apps LTE Discovery and Open Signal - could you do a test of all the free apps and show how to get the best from them? We live on a hill near the South Downs and get a sub 30 ms ping, 25 down and 15 up - so useable but seeking to optimise.
Thanks for your comments much appreciated! Firstly have you got cellmapper installed? If not, get that and let it take readings etc and fine the cell details. Don't know the area, but if you're anywhere near treyford Hill, beacon Hill area.. there are no readings so hard to see which sites serve the general area. Knowing that, rather than the odd spot makes for a better assessment of what sites to direct antennas towards, or stick to omni. Being rural does not necessarily mean having either omni or directional it depends on situation. Also, being rural, bear in mind most operators will use lte band 20 a lot, which is 800mhz. This is a high coverage low bandwidth band, so don't expect high throughout. As a result, it is sometimes better to have a directional antenna pointing towards a site with a lower signal, but one supporting band 1 or band 3 (1800mhz) which has higher throughput. In addition make sure good cable, doing vid on that now as it happens
@@Phone_Geek Thanks for such a swift and fullsome response. Was not aware of cellmapper so thanks and now installed and will have a play with it later. Treyford Hill is about a mile from me! So if 800mhz would 25 down, 15up and under 30 ms ping be close to the max of 800mhz or xx% ??
@@crashburnfly hard to say depends on lots of things. Bandwidth of your operator and link modulation being main factors here. The latter you can get an idea as some apps will tell you if using say 64qam for example, and also the CQI (channel quality indicator) which maps your signal SINR to modulation and data rate. As you say you get 25 down to me seems like you have a poor link quality, that's what we need to improve. Direct an antenna to see your sinr and cqi values increase
@@Phone_Geek This exchange is proving very educational for me qam,CQI, SINR. I have a white cable Poynting 4G-XPOL-A0002 Cross Polarised High Gain 4G Panel LTE Directional Outdoor Antenna . I have just ordered a v3 black cable version and can do a side by side test early next week when I have both. I will report back. My test wont be anywhere as professional as yours - just a few speed tests to get an average. Also I should get a Cisco directional aerial from a mate on sunday so will aim to try all three.
Richard - If you are anywhere near to GU29 - you are very welcome to come and film it for your channel.
Another useful video, cheers. Last comment auto deleted as i put a link to ebay, was just wondering what LPDAs you're using and what cable you would recomend for say a 5 to 10m run. Cheers
Just search ebay for something like "Directional LPDA Outdoor Antenna". They all appeared same so I got anyone from uk. As long as covers 800-2600 MHz with gain around 12dBi. As for cable..I'd suggest watching my video all about them, cost vs benefit. In a rural environment, 5m the middle quality one, but 10m I'd deffo use higher quality. Lmr400 I think it was
@@Phone_Geek cheers Richard, I'm working my way through your videos as you can tell 😂.
@@Phone_Geek would be great to PM you, do you have a social media site, Twitter, FB, website?
Hi Richard, you seem like you have quite a bit of radio knowledge so I was wondering if you could answer a dumb question for me that I can’t seem to get a straight answer about. What would happen if the output side of cellular repeater or “booster” was plugged directly into the antenna input of a 4g router? Would the signal just be too noisy for the modem to make use of? Or do you think it could actually somehow damage the modem? I see that there are “inline cell boosters” sold online that are made to be used with cellular modems, but I can’t find any information about how they are different. Wonder if you can shed any light on the subject for me, thanks.
Hi, thanks for watching! Well firstly I wouldn't bother with boosters tbh. anything which is worth having would cost a lot. Without the spec of one of those repeaters I couldnt say, however I would say: 1) A modem should be capable of dealing with a highish input and should specify it, in addition a decent one should have overload protection. i'd say max input maybe -20dBm. 2) the higher input the more likely you'll drive the modem's RF receiver amp out of its linear range, which will result in poor results anyways, 3) with any tech 3G onwards, a booster will amplify the noise and the signal (because they are part of the same thing) unless you have a highly narrow bandwidth amp or bandpass filter too. So this is actually the reason I doubt they actually help overall. 4) the main way of improving signal is having an external antenna as that reduces the in-building penetration loss. Add to that a good antenna with either a) decent cable or 2) put the modem with antenna (1m cable or less) and the benefit that gives will likely be way more than that alleged by the booster manufacturers
wow, thanks for your testing. Looks like log periodic does has physical advantage, as its design provide high directional focus. Additional question, you used same cable for both antenna for testing right?
Hi there thanks for watching! I thought I used same cable, but actually was rg58 for lpda and poynting has rg174 I think, I.e. slightly better performance. Current vid in editing is about cables btw 😀
Hi Richard, I'm trying to get some speed improvement for my mums "3" sourced mobile broadband. I've made a couple of antenna from Andrews designs, but would like to try buying a couple - do you have a link for any? the log periodic? thanks in anticipation simon
Hi Simon, sorry to answer your question with some questions first.. is the router a 4G one or 3's new 5G one? Is she rural/ hamlet or suburban/urban? Are you looking for major improvement on what is ok now or better on what is rubbish currently? These will make me help you
Richard... Just a note... I think i have the same router as you, but i would not trust that routers onboard speed test at all!!! DONT DO IT.. RE-TEST speeds outside of the router... Something is not right with the built in speed test in the ARCHER MR600 TPLINK.... I get it showing speed test in the range of 25 30 40 50 mpbs and i can assure you the router is not performing anywhere near those speeds with stable consistent readings of - RSRP - 109dbm RSRQ - 16DBM (External Antenna) best max speed this router can ever manage is 10mpbs but the routers onboard built in speed test will consistently report anywhere between 25mps to 60mps speeds which are just not true...Firmware Version:1.5.0 0.9.1 v0001.0 Build 210914 Rel.59719n.. Would be great if you can report similar findings?
Hi, an rsrq of -16 is pretty poor, but its more about the CQI being reported to eNodeB that determines speed. But the better way is to do a ftp file transfer using it, as I did for my 5G vid. I have some colleagues at work who's SME is routers and see if any better way to check. I do of course use speedtest too. Do you think the issue is mobile wireless speeds being wrong, or wireless in general I.e. WiFi too?
Hiya, yeah its really odd Richard been using this router for a while now, and as you say my reception figures are not the best, I am right on the edge (rural area) and 1.8 miles from mast, room for improvement for sure, however despite that, the connection has been pretty stable and works well, mounting options are not the best but I’m fully wired cat5 gigabit Ethernet from the router all working perfectly fine… (Don’t use 2.4ghz wifi for speed testing) The built in speed test just keeps reporting speeds that I never ever see with normal downloading, ftp file transfers tests ect, shortest hops, ect,ect.. no matter what its always 10meg for me and no more.. but as I say the built in speed test like just now, gave me a speed test of 27meg 30meg down and always 2meg up.. In the history of speed tests with this router it has seen as high as 80meg which is just patent rubbish.. I just ignore the built in speed test completely now, but these results are just so far out of kilter that I am convinced that there must be foul play going on within the router firmware or software.. It’s baffled me for months and months so when you speed tested with the internal tp-link speed test, I could not resist posting.. It’s become a bit of a bugbear with me… I would love to see you test the theory, but I’m sure you would of noticed the disparity by now.. but we all hit the speed test button as a rough gage of what the connection is doing at the point in time and rarely check it against what the connection speed is really achieving outside of the router at the same time?
@rfxtuber interesting and rather disturbing/disappointing, since the test says its an Ookla Speedtest one I think? I'll investigate it some more. Thanks
That would be great if you could cast your beady eye on the subject, but as you know due to different masts, setups, equipment, network providers, tariffs there are many many moving parts here as you well know, and I am nowhere near skilled in analysis/data metrics as you, but I have settled on two possibilities that could be going on, I just can’t test or prove it. The TP-link router internal speed test maybe (inadvertently) bypassing any hidden or unknown sim/network throttling at the hardware level or the built in speed test is artificially boosting the speed tests over the real speeds (rounding errors, deliberate?) and then of course there is user error, bad antennae setup and whatnot. Finally I have also noticed the rabbit ears antenna that comes with the TP-link seem to be just as good as any external antenna in my case… yet another oddity?… If you do find any anomalies worth reporting it would be most welcome and interesting….thanks for your replies Richard...
Hi again Richard.. Just a quick note.. I discovered what was causing these speed test issues with the tp-link mr-600.. you will never guess what was causing me so much confusion with speed tests..and this is repeatable with your model i will presume... It was an errant setting in the QoS settings... within the QoS settings panel it was set to 10mbps (Download) and the upload was set to 2mbps with a device in the local network set to 85% priority.. if you set those settings and then do external speedtest at speed test websites you will observe the speed test permanently stuck at 10mbps and the upload permanently stuck at 2mbps but if you do an internal speediest on the MR-600 it will speed test to what ever your connection is actually receiving, not being throttled by the QoS settings... Hence massive confusion and WTF moments for months!!! Try it yourself... and you will see the effect yourself... I hear you ask.. of course you had QoS enabled.. well.. no it was a setting that was enabled during testing months ago and i had forgot to to disable it... it is very much worthy of note.. Try it yourself.. Very much worthy of note!!!! @@Phone_Geek
Richard i'd love your advice on the poynting 4g-xpol-a0001. Would that be a decent aerial to fit outside my static caravan? We have poor phone signal so hoping to boost the 4G connection so we can stream things better.
I'm plugging it all into my Huawei 5577 router.
Hi Vinnie thanks for watching! That xpol1 is quite an old antenna now, but that said its a 2x2 mimo omni which is good and is pretty good for wideband omni. That said, depending on where your caravan is, you might be better off with one of their directional antennas. You can check out local masts on cellmapper.com
@@Phone_Geek thanks Richard. I've been given a poynting today by a friend. However when just testing it at home when I plug it into my Huawaei 5577 the signal doesn't even seem to improve which is strange as thought it would. Maybe there's something I need to do with the router to make it work. I'm fairly clueless at these things.
@@TheHappyGeordie does your router show signal stuff shown as Band, RSCP, RSRP? If so, gimme the before and after numbers. The likely reasons are the antenna isnt high enough or the cable loss offset's the antenna gain. the antenna gain is about 3-4dB I think, and its poss the cable loss is 1.5 - 2.5dB, so overall gain is low. result of that is not much of a speed increase.
can you recommend any type of log periodic antenna?
My stats with my tp link modem without any external antenna:
Signal Strength:
100%
RSRP:
-88dBm
RSRQ:
-8dB
SNR: 18.0dB
Can i boost on it with external? Because signal streght already 100% :O
Hi there, those stats are great without external antenna. What sort of speeds are you getting and what LTE band is the router saying? I say this because higher speeds come from higher band like 2100mhz or 2600mhz. It can sometimes be better to have external antenna pointing to a weaker site but supports higher speeds
Rich would the 4x4 periodic be twice as good ?
Hi John, do you mean a 4x4 same housing like the poynting, or 4x lpga? I've not done testing on a 4x4 antenna as there are not many 4x4 routers out there. That said, my other vids showed in my case 2x2 mimo increased speeds by 20%, so in the right environment you may well get a 50% improvement on a single antenna.
What colour is the cable on your Poynting ?? The fast one has a white Cable !!! I went from 50Mb down to 170Mb after changing to the Xpol2 3rd Gen !!
The cable on the xpol2v2 is a black one. Think it's a RG58 cable. Do you mean your speed went up after going to 3rd gen? Good result if so!
@@Phone_Geek Hi Richard !! I did a stack of research before purchase the Xpol2 V3 cable is white !! The V2 is Black according to Poynting this is how you tell the difference !! Went from Xpol1 to Xpol2 V3 and speeds and connection numbers went from 50Mb down to 176Mb down and 46Mb up using EE in Rural Scotland !! I was getting 12Mb down and 0.5 Mb up on a landline which would stop working at least every 6 months and require an Openreach visit Where Id be told there nothing they could do about it :)
@@intergrale4x4 great result well done - your research paid off.
@@Phone_Geek I also use a TP-Link MR600
RSRP -80dBm
RSRQ -10dB
SNR 20.8dB
QOS enabled on the Router and it still pulls 100+ down :)
tealing.co.uk/ .. These stats where collected using my Xpol1 antenna and the same MR600 router I'm currently using
Do you have to buy the logarithmic aerials shown as a pair? What happens if you only use one? Thanks.
Hi there thanks for watching! The point of both is so they act in a MIMO config. Multiple Input Multiple Output. Having 2 antennas like this increases signal and speed as it overcomes the impact of multipath radio wave effects. As in latest video it improves speeds by 20%. That's why you will see routers having 2 antenna ports. But, you can certainly only have 1, it just means you'll get slower Internet speeds. The poynting has the 2 inside same enclosure
@@Phone_Geek thank you for the explanation. So did you have to order two or were they supplied as a pair?
@@chrisb5839 I just bought 2 from same seller
@@Phone_Geek sorry for all the questions, but do these aerials have to be aligned one above the other? I'm wondering whether these could be used for a campervan and whether if the angle was kept the same, whether they could be mounted apart from each other or side by side rather than one on top of the other? 🤔
@@chrisb5839 no problem! Well I'll answer in 2 parts. Firstly for best performance and to see that benefit from the mimo I mentioned they should be aligned with each other at 45deg with centre around 30cm apart. Called polarisation. Secondly I would not recommend for a campervan. 3 reasons. 1, an omni would be better, if get decent one.. 2, this mimo improvement will reduce in more rural areas it works best when it's bit more built up area, 3 it would be a real pain in the a**e setting that up each time - to have best option with directional antenna best go for one with everythng in one enclosure like the poynting. Imho.
Where do u purchase tha directional antenna from? Also do u have it connecting to a internal antenna inside ur house?
Hi there thanks for watching. The cheap one I just search ebay originally. The search term "Logarithmic Antenna 698-2700MHz" found them, maybe just 3g4g directional. The poynting one hmm don't think you can get from them direct.. various sites sell them. I could find them if you're US or UK? Solwise was one. The antenna(s) get connected straight to the router. No internal
@@Phone_Geek i am in US. And is the 1 you was saying you saw on ebay on Amazon as well?
@@zacckhawkins487 yeah there are some on amazon, just search "Yagi Directional Antenna 3G/4G/LTE/Wi-Fi Wide Band 10dBi 698Mhz to 2700mhz. www.amazon.com/Directional-Universal-Cellphone-Amplifier-Signalbooster/dp/B089VXJV14/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3J9U2SWS7WJHB&keywords=directional+3g+4g+antenna&qid=1661805895&sprefix=directional+3g4g+antenna%2Caps%2C175&sr=8-4
@@Phone_Geek thanks so much. Is there any way i can direct message u incase I have additional questions?
@@zacckhawkins487 depending how many.. I can do a vid on subject, or email me on richardajedwards@gmail.com
👨🏿💻🍿 interesting
Hello Richard, I'm hoping you could give me some advice. I'm in a rural, valley bottom location with hills on three sides and some trees on the other side down the valley between me and the masts. Was thinking of getting an poynting xpol2 5g v3 directional antenna and pointing it down the valley towards the masts.
Currently the signal drops out alot. Download varies from 0.5 to 8mbit, depending on the weather. Currently getting 2.8 down and 0.3 up.
Any thoughts? Cheers
Hmm I'm thinking Welsh valleys by any chance? Few things to start, first thing it's poss an omni might be best, but Id need more info on your property and current solution. Main things in your circumstance is a short cable or a low loss cable like lmr400. A long cable run can introduce more loss than the antenna gain. Get antenna high as poss, consider an external weatherproof box close to antenna outside. Also make no assumptions on best mast. Get an app like netmonitor lite and survey your property. Note down the eNodeb I'd, rsrp and rsrq values. The best consistent value of rsrq (radio path quality, -10 good -20 bad)'s eNodeb id is best mast. Then lookup against cellmapper.com to see where mast is. That'll confirm best mast.
@@Phone_Geek Many thanks for the reply. Yes Wales, but not up in 'The Valleys' which are steep sided, more a small valley off a gentle lowland valley!
The Poynting xpol 2 antenna I mentioned is an outdoor antenna apparently and has a 5m cable, is that length ok or is a shorter one advisable?
I'm using a Smarty SIM in a Huawei mobile router for my data/WiFi solution, but when I used the app you mentioned on my mobile phone I could only get it to analyse my EE SIM in my mobile.
So I had to take the Smarty SIM out of my router and put it in my phone to get it to analyse the Smarty signal. I assume that will give me the same data! 😬
Interestingly using cellmaper the signal was bouncing between 3 masts, within a 30 degree field of view from my location, approx 8 miles away. The masts are in the direction that's not blocked by the hills surrounding me, but line of sight to the masts is obscured by a small forested area down the small valley I'm in
I did a 5 minute sample on net monitor lite and averaged Rsrq -17dB, Rsrp -109dBm 🙈
Are you thinking directional or omi, or am I doomed to dial up speeds forever? 😂
@bushtuckaman well done for doing that. Ideally you should do for all operators to get best mast best network. Pain to do yes, but worth it. Your situ you have fine margins to improve speed. That rsrq is bad. That value is sent to mast which then decides what bit rate you get. The terrain you describe and speeds is exactly what I expect. The reflections off of the valley are more delayed than say in suburban areas and that causes different fading effects. Another reason for slow speeds is the tech. Are u actually on 4G? If so, likely LTE800 even LTE700. These lower frequencys are used by operators in rural areas as they give more coverage. More cost effective. However lower the freq lower the throughput. So in netmonitor does it show just that?
@bushtuckaman to help more its probs best to email me your village, hamlet name to help more. Check me on LinkedIn if u want. That cable length and type is fine. Ive got a vid on cables and effects. With direct LoS I am surprised dont get better. If masts below you tilt antenna down or v.v. richedwards.phonegeek@gmail.com
@@Phone_Geek
Thanks Richard, I'll email you.