I'm wondering if it is possible to overvolt the radio in hopes of boosting signal on the Dinc. I live in a super-poor signal area and any boost would help enormously.
Can any devs chime in with a yea or nae?
Try getting a network extender from verizon. I pitched a big enough fit I ended up getting mine for 50 bucks. I just kept referring to their coverage map...worth a try. It works great btw, like having my own like cell tower in my house.
The radio is partly if not wholly part of the snapdragon processor and changing the voltage will not effect the signal strength or quality. The cellular signal is most likely received and decoded almost completely digitally unlike the way standard radios work. Even boosting the RF front end performance by changing the gain of an amplifier would probably require some changes to the DSP code which handles the decoding and filtering of the cell signal...this is most definitely not in the kernel. Good thought though.
-M
Related
Since i installed Froyo i only get 0-2 bars in my house. Was usually 5 bars pretty much all the time. I'm with T Mobile and it was fine for the last couple of months. Was with o2 before that and again was always 5 bars.
It could show 3 bars, then i pick it up and it instantly drops to 1.
Anyone else seeing this?
Did u flash also the new radio?
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
What's that? All i did was install 2.2 from HTC.
i think the 2.2 (froyo) update will also automaticly update the Radio...
anyone else with that dropping radiosignal issue?
*i didnt recognize any difference @myhome*
DEATH GRIP!
Are you holding your phone right?
Sent from my HTC Desire
Took a quick video.
the signal bars on any phone are meaningless non standardised crap.
for comparisons always use signal strength in terms of dbm and asu. you can see this on your phone. go to menu > settings > about phone > network. that will show the readings in dbm and asu. for any meaningful comparison you need to use those readings as the bars on most phones are garbage non standardised depictions.
or there could be a network that developed recently in your area. there are various signal measuring and mapping apps available which might interest some people. not mentioning them to avoid confusing as it is not needed at most times but if interested then can name a few apps.
@ drew2d1
try not to hold the phone by covering the right bottom corner like you are holding the phone in the video it attenuates the signal more on the htc desire in my experience. seeing the network bars shown before you handled the phone, it looks like you are in a weak signal area and my guess is that the dbm is more than 100 with low asu of 5 or less and attenuation can differ in amounts based on how you hold the phone. i have written a long story about this elsewhere.
I'm right handed i can't use it any other way. I've had the phone for a couple of months i would of noticed it doing this before.
It's T Mobile and I'm in North London so fine on the coverage issue.
I can't send messages when it's showing 0 or 1 bar. It's not dropped a call yet though.
-105 dbm 4asu
-99 dbm 7asu
Stays around there. No idea what that means.
Edit: It drops which ever way i hold it. Even lying flat it goes from 1,2,3,2,3,2,1.
I had the same issue when updating to 2.2 and installing the latest radio. For a temp fix, change the data to gsm, using manual mode. This boosted my signal from 2 bars to all.bars. Not the best solution I know.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Already tried that. It's on GSM auto (PRL) now.
Recommendation from bubblesmoney on another forum actually
I'm on 3G and the signal has somewhat slightly improved
same here - signal strength has declined massively since my update. now i get 0-1 bars at home and have to switch on wifi for data when the signal was fine before.
in fact it's one of the reasons that i chose my network because the signal strength was good at home. :-(
drew2d1 said:
I'm right handed i can't use it any other way. I've had the phone for a couple of months i would of noticed it doing this before.
It's T Mobile and I'm in North London so fine on the coverage issue.
I can't send messages when it's showing 0 or 1 bar. It's not dropped a call yet though.
-105 dbm 4asu
-99 dbm 7asu
Stays around there. No idea what that means.
Edit: It drops which ever way i hold it. Even lying flat it goes from 1,2,3,2,3,2,1.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
-105dbm is crap and a weak signal. minimum attenuation i have ever found on the desire by holding the phone is 4dbm and max upto 20dbm but after earlier update it has never been more than 10-11dbm attenuation and now on froyo update a max of 14dbm attenuation. my phone does not have any case or cover etc so those readings are for such a phone.
you lose the signal at -113dbm as background radiation is same and not distinguishable from signal. hence if your attenuation is 14dbm then you would need a minimum of 99dbm (without holding phone) to have a signal while holding phone. if your attenuation is lesser then you can get away with weaker signal. attenuation differs in each persons hand as absorption will vary in each persons hand.
the following links with posts by me might interest you as i have explored this topic in detail and will explain dbm and asu and attenuation etc.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2523297
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2581437&highlight=
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=35179785#post35179785
also i have commented on the anandtech article on the iphone getting a signal till 120dbm. i think the anandtech article made a fundamental error and then said iphone4 antenna is very sensitive in sensing signals till 120dbm unlike other phones. i think that is bollocks due to a fundamental error they made. see page 15 of that article comments section for my comment on this link http://www.anandtech.com/show/3821/iphone-4-redux-analyzing-apples-ios-41-signal-fix see extract from my comment there
"On GSM or UMTS frequencies (between 870 MHz to 2170MHz around the world) used the noise signal floor is between -111 to -114dbm. The signal noise floor is that strength at which the signal cannot be distinguished from background radiation.
The signal noise floor depends on the frequency of broadcast and not the device as far as i am aware. So the iphone cannot have a different noise floor compared to other mobile phones, unless Jobs got the governments all over the world to beam a special signal on a different frequency purely for the iphones!!!!
Anandtech has made a basic error in this analysis i think and consequently this whole article is wrong and meant to favour the iphone either inadvertantly or deliberately.
see post number 57 on the thread in this link for my explanation why this anandtech article is wrong http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=35179785#post35179785
please note that -113dbm (some resources say -111 instead of -113) is the noise floor where signal is indistinguishible from background radiation. look it up in science webpages if you doubt what i say. so if the iphone shows signal to be -120dbm then that is an error. just because it shows a number does not mean that the -113 noise floor value does not exist in physics for gsm broadcast frequencies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson–Nyquist_noise
see gsm freq bands for the world here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GSM_frequency_bands the freq bands (GSM AND UMTS) used in uk are between 870 to 2170MHz and for that the noise floor is between -111dbm and -113dbm and for the noise floor to be 120dbm the freq would have to be in 180kilohertz which is !!!! and bull as the freq bands used are in MHz so the anandtech numbers dont add up in the 120dbm small print, as there is no 180kilohtz band for gsm in usa or uk as far as i can tell!!!! and 180khz is the freq used for AM band radio and looks like the iphone4 is getting interference from 180khz AM band radio signals too as far i can tell from what anandtech says about 120dbm etc !!! yikes!
I would be happy to be proved wrong and to learn, but from what i have shown i am right! Noise floor depends on the frequency band of transmission rather than circuitry. In the UK Cellular mobile services operate within the frequency ranges 872-960 MHz, 1710-1875 MHz and 1920 - 2170 MHz so the noise floor would be between -114 to -111dbm.
It would be similar in the USA too.
see the rest of my detailed response elsewhere on other forums (post 57 of the thread on the link) http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=35179785#post35179785
I hope there is a response to this comment of mine, from this articles writers or some other RF engineers, as due to the reasons quoted in my ananlysis i think this article by anandtech is grossly wrong. I would be happy to stand corrected if my analysis is wrong.
yes the signals can be sensed at -120dbm but that wouldnt be signals from commercial GSM or UMTS signals, it would be some other signals sensed by the iphone4 sensors and giving a wrong reading of the signal strength. As i said earlier the signal noise floor depends on the broadcast frequency and not the handset, so this article is wrong and grossly so as it is making assumptions of the iphone4 being able to sense GSM / UMTS signals of the order of 120dbm which isnt possible for the frequencies broadcast as per the physics involved. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson–Nyquist_noise that or Jobs and anandtech found some way to defy physics!"
It was fine before i installed Froyo.
Jobs doesn't need to defy physics, he's ok with his RDF
Tmobile, london here. Also experiencing 3g signal drop after update. At home on 2.1 i would have 3 to 4 bars, now on 3g its either zero or 1.
Have been contacting HTC with this problem and got the answer that it is because of the new setup of the cpu speed. They have lowered the cpu frequency and the radio is searching for a signal with the lower power. They have promissed me to fix it. They said that also for this issue they have stopped the froyo rollout and are now under fixing the issues. So expect the fox soon.
Sent from my ZX Spectrum using Froyo_zx81
Seems to be working fine now. Full bars, no drops, 64dbm 22 asu.
drew2d1 said:
Seems to be working fine now. Full bars, no drops, 64dbm 22 asu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What did you do to fix the issue? I'm on T-Mobile (UK) too and as other have noticed a significant drop in signal after the 2.2 update.
I also would be interested in how you fixed the problem. I dropped an email to HTC today, so I will post the response when I hear back from them.
Dear friends I have a problem, I would like to maximize the received signal in order to make the most of my hsdpa to 14 mb, and that 'the best rom assolut, and which radio should I put? I have another problem, it will succeed in solving the problem of the camera with ICS
14.4 Mbps is just the maximum of the phone's hardware is capable of receiving. The bottleneck is always going to be your carrier (capacity of the infrastructure and network congestion), and the max speed will almost certainly be much less. On AT&T in the US, speeds of 2 to 4 Mbps are pretty typical is some areas, and sometimes much lower. I think the highest AT&T has advertised is "up to 8 Mbps".
Flashing a different radio may help data reception. But you can be getting good reception, and poor data speed due to network congestion. There is no overall "better" or "best" radio for all given situations. Its often geographically dependent. So aside from recommendations from someone in your immediate vicinity, it usually falls back to trial and error. Newest radio is as good start point as any, but don't assume this will get you the best signal.
since there were mods to overclock cpu and even underclock the voltage to the screen of my atrix i was wondering if it would be possible to overclock the voltage of the galaxy nexus radio to give better reception? this would be a great mod for this phone since it does have a pretty weak radio. i've aready tried flashing all the gsm radio but none made any major difference. the reception on this phone is seriously lacking when in a low reception area compared to my atrix, even my LG optimus p500 gets better reception.
The phone does this automatically when you have low signal. And it destroys your battery.
joshnichols189 said:
The phone does this automatically when you have low signal. And it destroys your battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it doesnt do it very well then. i live in a low reception area so i usually look for a phone with a good radio. most phones that i've used didnt have a problem with my area i just didnt get a full signal strength but the galaxy nexus is constantly switching between 2g and 3g. i also see that my time without signal is around 20%. Time without signal on my atrix and P500 is 0 in the exact same area using the same network.
always switching between 2g/3g and dropping and reacquire the network kills the battery too so i would rather destroy my battery and have good reception than destroy my battery with low reception. im sure there are others with my problem and wouldnt mind using a little extra battery juice for this.
Use an app like Tasker or Llama to switch your phone to 2g when at home. Then it won't spend all it's time searching and getting nothing 20% of the time.
You can try the newer bootloader if all else fails.
neotekz said:
it doesnt do it very well then. i live in a low reception area so i usually look for a phone with a good radio. most phones that i've used didnt have a problem with my area i just didnt get a full signal strength but the galaxy nexus is constantly switching between 2g and 3g. i also see that my time without signal is around 20%. Time without signal on my atrix and P500 is 0 in the exact same area using the same network.
always switching between 2g/3g and dropping and reacquire the network kills the battery too so i would rather destroy my battery and have good reception than destroy my battery with low reception. im sure there are others with my problem and wouldnt mind using a little extra battery juice for this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not understanding. When the phone is dropping between 2G and 3G it is only acquiring 3G because it is pushing more power to the radio. You won't get a different result.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
I really feel that a small detail needs to be pointed out:
over/under-clocking - relates to the CLOCK speed - expressed in MHz (megahertz)
over/under-volting - relates to the VOLTAGE used - expressed in mV (millivolts)
The two terms should not be interchanged, as they are quite different. You can't overclock a voltage anymore than you could undervolt a frequency.
neotekz said:
since there were mods to overclock cpu and even underclock the voltage to the screen of my atrix i was wondering if it would be possible to overclock the voltage of the galaxy nexus radio to give better reception? this would be a great mod for this phone since it does have a pretty weak radio. i've aready tried flashing all the gsm radio but none made any major difference. the reception on this phone is seriously lacking when in a low reception area compared to my atrix, even my LG optimus p500 gets better reception.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After flashing a north American radio I can say that I was quite surprised at how much better reception became. Don't forget that the atrix is a branded phone. The reason I mention this is you might be in a congested area. Saturated with iphones. Iphones get preferential treatment on atnt's network and I wouldn't be surprised if "4g" branded phones get priority over unlocked phones. The proof for me was during the holidays last year. Congestion was gone so reception and speeds were phenomenal compared to what I am used to. My expectations are realistic, so I am satisfied with how well nexus does. I am not satisfied with atnt's business practices, policies and customer service though. Atnt could do a lot better.
Sent from my Nexus in Texas.
I have been using the Wilson Electronics DB Pro Adjustable Gain 800/1900Mhz Smart Technology II Signal Booster http://www.wilsonelectronics.com/store/display/40/46/db-pro for the better part of a year now.
The unit comes standard with an indoor antenna and an outdoor omni-directional antenna. A directional antenna can be substituted at a cost for even more remote rural areas. It comes with all mounting hardware and 3 lengths (20’, 30’ and 50’) of coax cable.
I opted for the omni-directional as I have a nearby tower but it seems I am in a black hole for service. I mounted min about 40ft up on a TV Antenna tower after removing the obsolete UHF/VHF Antenna.
Before using the unit I only ever had 0-1 bars of service in my home and very low data speeds.
I first used it on Verizon Wireless and found my signal strength to go from 0-1 bar (-100 to -120dBm) to an average of 4-5 bars (-65dBm to-85dBm). My data speeds more than tripled from an avg of below 56kb/s-100kb/s to around 500kb/s down +/- with an upload at approx 1.2Mbps.
I get similar results on Sprint since switching to them. Both the VZW and Sprint phones are the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.
This particular unit only boosts the 800 and 1900 Mhz bands so the VZW 4G will not be boosted. The Sprint 4G however would be since it is 1900 Mhz band. Call quality is great compared choppy and dropped calls I had prior.
My nearest tower is 5.7 miles away and the other is about 14 miles. Back in July 2012 my nearest tower to me was down for weeks and this little unit reached to the 14 mile away tower without loss of signal or speed.
I recently had an issue with the device where the 1900 Mhz band stopped working at maximum. I contacted Wilson Electronics Technical Support Representative Juan and he set me up with an RMA to send the unit back after a few emails to fully explain the issue (if only our carriers were this pleasant to deal with). I received quick replies to my questions and he was a pleasure to deal with.
The new replacement is already on its way back now. I have no doubts that the unit will be as flawless as the first one.
If you have a low signal issue from your CDMA or GSM cell carrier (they have GSM models as well that service other bands) I would highly suggest this repeater.
Good build quality and excellent customer service are well worth the price tag.
It is relatively easy to set up and once it is set up you should never have to mess with it again.
What carriers don’t tell you is they only guarantee service if your within 5 miles of a tower on avg. If your outside that range you get an “I’m sorry”.
That’s where these folks and these wonderful units come in.
The replacement is working like a dream
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Good to know these are available, I have pretty abysmal service at my house.
speedyink said:
Good to know these are available, I have pretty abysmal service at my house.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll all but guarantee this will fix your issue...its a godsend for me...spend yes but worth it in the long run IMHO
Sent from my Full AOSP on Toroplus using Tapatalk 2
Tmobile and 800/1900MHz antenna booster
I am looking at purchasing this. It gets good reviews on Amazon as well but I am wondering if it will help my data connection on tmobile - I think 4g is on 1700MHz, so I am wondering if this antenna would help at all or just improve call reception.
Any info is appreciated - thanks
Nice, I was thinking of picking up something like this but unsure of the performance. $500 though....ouch!
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If it was easy you'd of hired the guy at Home Depot to to it.
Hi everyone,
My S4 drops a lot of calls and also if i walk in buildings like schools I lose service. It is not a hardware problem with my S4 because I have three S4s in the family and they all do this. It is not a problem with the place I live because I live in Chicago and almost anywhere I go I have these problems. Is there a kernel or something that I can do to fix or improve these problems?
Thank You
There's nothing you can do to fix it unless you want to modify T-Mobile's towers, it is a problem with where you live I've noticed poor signal strength and extreme signal attenuation (signal drops from -50 dbm when I'm right in front of a femto cell to -100 when I'm about a half mile away from it and inside my house) when switching to T-Mobile from VZW. I asked on here and apparently it's due to GSM requiring twice as many cells per area compared to CDMA, and also T-Mobile using higher frequencies which don't travel as far. Think of the difference between FM radio waves in the kHZ range (which can reach 50 miles) compared to WiFi radio waves in the gHZ range which only reach about a hundred feet or so. I'm regularly in -100 dbm service areas and I can make calls perfectly, signal drops occasionally but I can deal with it since I don't make calls that often.
This problem only really plagues areas which are still on EDGE/HSPA(+), once you get upgraded to LTE you won't have this problem anymore VoLTE will truly fix this problem though, but that's probably a year or two from now though.
brando56894 said:
There's nothing you can do to fix it unless you want to modify T-Mobile's towers I've noticed poor signal strength and extreme signal attenuation (signal drops from -50 dbm when I'm right in front of a femto cell to -100 when I'm about a half mile away from it and inside my house) when switching to T-Mobile from VZW. I asked on here and apparently it's due to GSM requiring twice as many cells per area compared to CDMA, and also T-Mobile using higher frequencies which don't travel as far. Think of the difference between FM radio waves in the kHZ range (which can reach 50 miles) compared to WiFi radio waves in the gHZ range which only reach about a hundred feet or so.
This problem only really plagues areas which are still on EDGE/HSPA(+), once you get upgraded to LTE you won't have this problem anymore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks of the great info!
When do you think we will be upgraded to LTE?
You're welcome, I have no idea. I don't work for T-Mobile lol I know they're on a roll with it and they wanted to have a bunch done by the end of the summer, I don't have LTE in my home (South-Central Jersey) but at work (50 miles away, right outside of Philadelphia but still in NJ) I have LTE. I'm going to take a guess that you may have it by the end of the year.
brando56894 said:
You're welcome, I have no idea. I don't work for T-Mobile lol I know they're on a roll with it and they wanted to have a bunch done by the end of the summer, I don't have LTE in my home (South-Central Jersey) but at work (50 miles away, right outside of Philadelphia but still in NJ) I have LTE. I'm going to take a guess that you may have it by the end of the year.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was editing it while you replied. I had an S2 and a HTC Sensation and I did not have calls dropped and I had service almost everywhere and they were on GSM, too. So I think it is a software problem.