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Re: [JUL 11] *10 Radios Available* Updated Touch Pro CDMA Radio Archive Thread
a little more radio info:
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Originally Posted by MACE
Here is one pertinent post I found however, which you can probably get by with until I can write a more comprehensive guide.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by snovvman
I don't know how many times this has been discussed, but I guess here it goes again.
The bars are not nearly accurate enough to make conclusions about signal quality.
Here is another twist, on my Diamond, in a relatively weak DO area but connected to an Airave (1x), the bars display the state of DO (therefore, few bars even though I'm connected to Airave with good 1x service. On my Touch Pro, on the other hand, the bars display the state of 1x (again, connected to Airave) even though the indicator shows "EV". That is to say, even though DO is weak and 1x is strong, the TP will show you "EV" while the bars are actually showing 1x signal strength. In simple terms, two phones, side-by-side, same coverage quality, one has many bars, the other nearly none.
In other words, the Diamond and Touch Pro shows you signal quality on the bars differently. Got that? Remember, there are both 1x and DO portions of the radio at play.
You MUST use ##DEBUG# (go to the dialer, enter ##33284#) to accurately determine signal strength. Set your Sample Rate to 1 second. If you want to see DO performance, choose Debug Info, then HDR. The bars do not report accurate information.
Also, the signal strengh can bounce A LOT, unless you have an Airave in the next room. You must take samples over time and average the results.
Next, I had both phones running Telus 1.04, and using the above method, side-by-side, they report very very close Rx Power and Rx Ec/Io figures (again, even though the bars are bouncing and don't agree). They are consistently within 1 to 2 points of each other both in 1x and HDR, dispite what the bars report.
I then flashed 1.11 on the Touch Pro and ran the field test again. Now, side-by-side, the Touch Pro ALWAYS show a 3-7 point weaker signal strengh when compared to 1.04. In HDR (DO), the performance is about the same. Mind you, this is when TP is showing full bars.
Although that 1.11 shows less quality connection compared to 1.04, I have not observed a degredation in battery life nor call quality. They seem very close to me in terms of performance. DO speed seems to slighly improve with 1.11.
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Something very important to understand: the Rx signals are measured in decibel drop where the closer to zero, the better. -100dbm is bad!
Typically, with EVDO, you want to have less than -80dbm for decent throughput, with top end being reached somewhere below -70dbm and anything below that giving lower latency, and higher stability. In real world usage, -50dbm is about good as you are ever going to get, and in most cases, not bloody likely, lol. Although, I have actually been able to achieve -46 to -47 by standing at about a 30° angle from a tower, about 60 yrds away (because of the physical characteristics of typical radio towers, you will actually get *lower* signal strength directly underneath (or above, lol) due to the conical umbrella they broadcast, I got around -65-67 standing at the base of this particular tower, for example)
Also remember, even if you were to get say, -55dbm, which is pretty much incredible signal strength, (might as well plug your phone directly into the tower,  ) your throughput can be limited by many other factors, such as the backhaul of the tower, and network load. So, while your phone might be able to communicate with the *tower* at 3.1mbit your network might not be able to provide that. Of course, if it doesn't, there is nothing really wrong with complaining to your provider about it, to give them a little prod to induce them to improve their infrastructure |
Last edited by strra; 07-14-2009 at 08:54 PM.
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