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jki
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wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Fri Dec 04, 2020 4:49 pm

Hi,

I have a wAP LTE on my shed outside providing LTE connectivity for my Internet access.
I can get approximately 25Mbps from Vodafone over LTE normally.

My Vodafone contract is due to expire in the new year and I have found that EE have LTE-A locally so I would likely benefit from LTE6 and using CA.

EE and Voda use the same mast (as best I can tell) which is 3.8 miles away.

I have near line of sight from the roof of my house so I plan to put a LTE box up there to improve things but the question I have is how can I tell if I will see any difference between replacing the LTE miniPCI card with an LTE6 one vs replacing the whole unit with a SXT6 or even a LHG6?

Are there any calculations that can be done to determine when each of the 3 choices would be best suited (i.e. fastest given everything else is the same).

Thanks
 
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SiB
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Wed Dec 09, 2020 5:47 pm

in general.
3.8 miles ~ 6.1 km
  • wAP LTE have internal weak antena, it's like move phone to roof. You MUST buy external antenna dedicated to proper frequency. Check viewtopic.php?f=2&t=170009#p832722 .
  • SXTR at this distance... sure, he will connect but not good speed. I not think about it, lhgr cost only little more.
  • LHGR or LDFR - yes. They can be used. Theyr antenna is only good for frequency >1000Mhz and you must have remember that. Details into documentation of product !.
In your place I will think about LHGR (without lte module) and with Quectel EM12-G who is LTE-A Pro.
 
jki
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Thu Dec 10, 2020 11:05 am

Thank you for such a detailed reply.

Vodafone (current carrier) use Band 20 with 10Mhz bandwidth (LTE, no LTE-A).
EE use Band 20 with 5Mhz bandwidth (LTE) and Band 3 (LTE-A) with 20MHz bandwidth.

Does the use of the lower frequency Band 20 mean that the LHGR isn't a good choice?

Thanks again
 
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SiB
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Thu Dec 10, 2020 11:28 am

EE use Band 20 with 5Mhz bandwidth (LTE) and Band 3 (LTE-A) with 20MHz bandwidth.
Does the use of the lower frequency Band 20 mean that the LHGR isn't a good choice?
B3@20 - very good
B20 is 800Mhz - this is only one "half good" band at this SXTR/LHGR/LDFR because
j4r5RF6.png
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jki
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:08 am

Thank you, that makes sense.

In your opinion is there an alternative I should be looking at to provide better 800Mhz coverage or will the LHGR LTE6 be of significant improvement on the wAP LTE anyway at 800Mhz?

Thanks again
 
LSan83
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Fri Dec 11, 2020 11:16 am

Everything is better than WAP LTE internal antennas. LHG is a lot better on B20 too.
Or you can install good external antennas on wap lte.
 
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SiB
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Fri Dec 11, 2020 12:25 pm

Like @LSan83 said,
and additional. Mostly we focus at hi-freq like 1800 B3 or 2100 B1 or 2600 B7 because they can give us big transfers.
I prefer install LDFR to reach one of this hi-freq then use 900 B8 or 800Mhz Band20 because those low-freq have
+ signal range is bigger then hi-freq and Bandwidth is common 10,15 or the best 20Mhz
- count of users are bigger at low-freq -> lower speed and this low-freq additional have bad Bandwidth like 5Mhz :(
 
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Larsa
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Fri Dec 11, 2020 12:38 pm

Everything is better than WAP LTE internal antennas. LHG is a lot better on B20 too. Or you can install good external antennas on wap lte.

I would not recommend B20 (800 MHz) on either LHG or SXT because of the bad antenna gain at that frequency. Use a dedicated antenna for B20 or even better, take SIB's advice using the upper LTE bands which are generally better suited for datacom.
 
jki
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Fri Dec 11, 2020 1:42 pm

Thanks everyone for the advice.

There is only one carrier (EE) that uses higher frequency near me.
I think I'll get a LHG and move to EE when my contract ends with Vodafone in March.
 
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Fri Dec 11, 2020 3:24 pm

With your distance (ie 3.8 miles) to the mast just make sure you have unobstructed line of sight using the higher frequency otherwise it's probably better to stick to B20 with a dedicated external antenna.

I would also call both operators to check available LTE bands and where to find the nearest base station.
 
jki
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Fri Dec 11, 2020 3:26 pm

Thanks, I'll get up on my roof this weekend and confirm LoS.

I've been using mast data from https://www.cellmapper.net/ which has confirmed cell references etc that I see on my wAP and iPhones so I think it's fairly accurate.
 
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SiB
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Sat Dec 12, 2020 2:55 am

 
jki
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Re: wAP LTE vs SXT vs LHG

Sat Dec 12, 2020 1:32 pm

That's a nice tool, I didn't realised Google Earth Pro was still going!
I've used https://link.ui.com/ before, that seems to work well too.

LoS is going to be close, it'll come down to how high the mast is. I'm hoping with a scope or binoculars I might be able to see from my roof.

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