EVDO Tips and Tweaks

Gaming the System means, simply, using the rules, policies and procedures of a system against itself for purposes outside what these rules were intended for. (WikiTruth}


With that in mind, this is how I have "unlimited" bandwidth, and many options for net access ...and will show you how to do it as well ... Legally ... by "gaming the system"

However, signal strength alone does not guarantee great performance. There are other factors that can be detrimental and have a major effect on the speed and latency of your mobile broadband connection.

Assuming you have located the tower, purchased and installed the antenna, and are ready to point it, there is data you should be looking at while doing so – the Field Test screen. Ctrl-D password diagvzw for Verizon Access Manager, Ctrl-D password diagsmsi for Alltel Quicklink Mobile, ##debug# for Sprint Connection Manager, ##debug for Franklin Connection Manager … Select Field Test for all of these. Now look at this Verizon example:



I have the modem locked in HDR (EVDO only) mode and have scrolled down to the bottom set of numbers. The top set relates to voice/conversation and is of no use with the data modem. It is a good idea to be running a ping test in the background that won’t time out.
Take a look at what I have circled. These are the parameters you should look at when pointing the antenna. Starting from the top:

Ec/Io is maybe the most important field of all. This is a ratio of good to bad energy, representing the cell towers “cleanness” in its signal to you. Or simply put - signal to noise ratio. A perfect Ec/Io is zero. Once you start getting above –4dB your connection is going to suffer. What causes a high value? Several things such as trees, hills, buildings, walls, poor cabling, shorted connectors, inaccurate pointing, wrong antenna polarization, congested tower, and multipath.
HDR RSSI – the EVDO signal strength. You know what this is, closer to –0 dBm the stronger the signal. There is a point at which trying to obtain more signal delivers diminishing returns.Throwing gobs of money and time trying to get a –75 signal down to –65 will not gain you that much. Especially if your Ec/Io is high. Low RSSI and High Ec/Io = bad, Low RSSI and Low Ec/Io = great.
PER – Packet Error Rate. Data being sent/received from the tower. Perfect, again is 0%. A small increase here (3-5%) will not be a big issue. Get above that and your latency starts suffering and speeds are erratic. This can be caused by the towers connection as well as many of the same factors that cause high Ec/Io. The bottom data in the Field Test relates to cell towers around you and the sector antennas on them, called PN’s or Pilot Numbers. These are numbers that identify the antennas on different towers and is illustrated thusly:


So keep these three parameters in mind when you get up there on the roof and start tweaking. Remember, a low dBm reading does not guarantee great speeds. Ec/Io and PER are important factors as well. Try for a balance between all of them to get the best experience you can with mobile broadband at a fixed location.

Pointing the antenna directly at the tower does not always result in optimum signal. If there is multipath (radio signals arriving at the receiver via different transmission paths), the direct and reflected signals are often opposite in phase, which can result in a significant signal loss due to mutual cancellation. Trees, buildings, mountains, and other terrestrial  phenomenon cause this. Seasonal changes with leaves present or not can often require a re-point if they are in your path.



Keep an eye on the Field Test data and point the antenna accordingly.

yup, you can have a wireless 3G EVDO/HSPA access point to share your mobile broadband connection for 39 bucks.
And a very powerful, long range one at that. It is the Alfa wireless USB 802.11G Highpower Adapter.



The Alfa is a 500mW adapter. One of, if not the most, powerful, long range wireless adapters you can buy. A favorite among hackers and wardrivers worldwide. For good reason – the output is 2-4x that of any other on the market.



Another bonus is the detachable 2dB antenna, allowing you to swap for any other 2.4 GHz antenna on the market – including a parabolic grid if you so desire. It has a industry standard RP-SMA/female interface. The Alfa itself uses a USB port, either version 1.1 or 2.0 - cable is included.



What makes this so unique, along with the exceptional power, is the included software. With it you have the option to configure the Alfa as an access point, infrastructure or ad hoc – with all the security settings of a regular wireless router.



The software is compatible with Windows or Mac, I’m using it on XP and can’t comment on its installation on other operating systems – although supposedly compatible according to documentation. When you have it configured you simply plug it into your laptop or desktop, along with a 3G/EVDO modem (even DSL/Cable/Satellite) and start sharing your connection wirelessly to any other computer or device that has a wireless adapter – simplicity.


With this I was able to pick up an excellent signal anywhere in my house – upstairs, downstairs, corner rooms, and outside 500 ft away … even further if I wanted to, and this was just with the little 2 dB stock antenna. Imagine what you can do if you added a higher gain antenna.

Being curious, as usual, I wanted to hook this up to the same 2.4 GHz grid antenna a lot of us use for a Sprint EVDO connection, since 2.4 is wifi frequency:

...and wow! I picked up wifi signals I've never seen before and have no idea where they are coming from.
With the grid attached I can only imagine most of them are from quite a distance. No, I don't think it is ethical to steal someone's connection because they don't have security on their router. But it does show you the capability and possibilities.If you have a really long link to make at a distant location, this would be the adapter to use. For example the main house to a remote building.

Absolutely amazing performance and such an inexpensive solution to share your connection wirelessly. Alfa even makes a 802.11N adapter that looks and operates the same with the added benefit of N speed and distance, provided your clients have N gear installed.

You just can’t beat the price … $39 !!!

So if you need a simple way to share your 3G connection with multiple computers, why spend $125+ for a router unless you need a hard-wired Ethernet connection?  Don't get me wrong - a Cradlepoint router is still the best way to go for maximum flexibility and extensive configuration options. But for the price, you can't go wrong here either.

I am very impressed by this product and will be interested to hear your feedback if you purchase one.

The cheapest place I found it was on Amazon –  G adapter on left – N adapter on right … link below:

When you are setting up a antenna to get a better signal and improve speeds you need to take into account the cable you are going to use and the signal loss (attenuation) that will occur over various distances. Thankfully there is a handy calculator provided by Times Microwave systems® that will compute that for you:



By entering the cable type from the drop-down box and plugging in length you can instantly see the results. For runs over 20 ft I recommend high quality cable such as LMR-400 for its superior low loss capability.
You will observe that different frequencies have different loss characteristics – with 1900MHz losing more signal over distance than 800 MHz.
Take into consideration the gain of the antenna you are going to use and subtract the signal loss of the cable to get the result, and remember that an amplifier will negate this loss and increase signal strength.
The calculator can be found here.