[AUG 4] *12 Radios Available* Updated Touch Pro CDMA Radio Archive Thread

**strra** · #1 (**permalink**) 07-11-2009, 07:42 AM

These radios come prepackaged with the RomUpdateUtility and will not hard reset your device!
If a new radio is released, either let me know here or via PM and I will add it as soon as possible!

Current Available Radio Roms:

Alltel
1.03.13F (ported from Diamond)
1.12.20F

Cellular South
1.12.31F (shipped)

Sprint
1.00.00F (ported from Diamond)
1.00.04F R
1.03.15F (shipped)
1.11.00F R (ported from Diamond)
1.12.34F

Telus
1.04.05V

US Cellular
1.07.06F

Verizon
1.03.03V R (shipped)
1.03.09V

Special Thanks:

Juggalo_X (for the original radio thread)
dcd (for hosting many of the radios)
Metalmayhem
Dan-HTC-Touch
conflipper
razorloves
t0mmyr

Radio FAQ:
(thanks in part to r6danl over at xda-developers)

Code:

Q: Does my phone have to be unlocked in order to flash my radio?
A: - Yes. If you do not know how to unlock your phone, use the SEARCH feature.
There are plenty of threads with help on unlocking your phone.

Q: How do I find out what radio I'm currently running?
A: - You can find it under Start>Settings>System>Device Information.
This can also be found using ##786# after "Firmware Version"
  
Q: Can I use any radio for any carrier?
A: - Yes! You can mix and match all of these radios with different CDMA 
carriers. For instance I am currently under contract with Sprint but I'm
using a Verizon radio with absolutely no problems. Get it?

Q: Which radio is best for me?
A: - Too many variables come into play when it comes to your radio on your
phone. The BEST way to find out which radio is best for you is to flash it
and try it! Give it a couple of days and then try another. I know it's a 
P.I.T.A. but it is absolutely the very best way to figure out what is best 
for your phone.

Q: How can I view my signal levels?
A: - ##33284# is the DEBUG menu. If you are prompted for a password, 
enter 183729. Under here you should look at the following 3 sections 
(the closer to 0 you are, the better):
     Rx Power
     Rx Ec/Io
     Rx FER

Q: If I flash my radio, does it hard reset my phone?
A: - Absolutely NOT! It will simply soft reset with no loss of data.

Q: Why should I flash a new radio version on my phone?
A: - Increased reception reliability & increased battery life. It's simple.
The less roaming you do, the better your battery life.

Q: How do I flash my radio?
A: - The flashing process is IDENTICAL to the ROM flashing process.
      1. Download a radio RAR or ZIP file from below
      2. Extract the contents of the RAR or ZIP file
      3. Plug in your phone to your computer via USB and select ActivSync
      4. Execute the "ROMUpdateUtility" and follow the prompts
      5. Wait for reboot
      6. Done

Q: Will flashing another carrier's radio incur roaming (or any other) fees?
A: - No. The vendor that makes the radio actually makes no difference
whatsoever. What you're flashing is software that controls how the radio
acts, not changing the radio itself.  The actual radio is a piece of hardware 
the phone uses to communicate with the cellular towers.

Q: The radio on my phone isn't listed.  Can I extract it and post it here?
A: - There is currently no way to dump a radio from a phone.  The radios posted here 
were extracted from ROMs released by either the different carriers and/or HTC.

**strra** · #2 (**permalink**) 07-11-2009, 10:23 AM

a little more radio info:

Quote:

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:

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.

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

fr0st · #3 (**permalink**) 07-11-2009, 10:49 AM

Thanks. I have to try these out and see if they are better than the telus one I'm using

**Hypnotic2010** · #4 (**permalink**) 07-11-2009, 11:04 AM

Thanks, are these packaged the same as Juggalo's? Standard ruu upgrade and wont hard reset?

I think it would be of great help for everybody to post your results of which radio you test along with your general location.