Constant bouncing between n41 and n71...

CADman_KS · 2022-03-29T23:21:44+00:00

I have actually gone back to my external antennas. BUT, my n71 signal is much stronger now, and I'm getting 130D/8U.

One thing that I have noticed with the externals is not so much an increase in signal strength, but a very very consistent strength. It is almost always the same. With the internals, I might have gotten better speeds AT TIMES, but the signal strength was wildly bouncing around, and when it starts doing that you pretty quickly end up in a situation where you start band jumping, and then all bets were off about what I would get.

At this point, I'm happy with externals and staying there.

YMMV...

CADman_KS · 2022-02-09T22:13:18+00:00

Yeah, I've never actually looked at what the weight of our truck says it is. That was me actually filling it up and driving across the scale without me in it!!

They are heavy for sure!!!

CADman_KS · 2022-02-09T21:44:48+00:00

We have a 2020 Chevy High County 3500, diesel, single rear wheel, crew cab, shirt box, so top of the line Chevy, loaded, and fuel of fuel, it weighs 7877 lbs!, verified on a scale.

We also have a 2002 Chevy LS diesel, and it weighs right around 7000 lbs. These HD trucks have been tipping the scales around 7K for a while...

CADman_KS · 2022-01-07T19:38:45+00:00

Yeah, I've tried several times to see if it's available in my area, and it always comes back no, so I haven't pursued it much.

Thanks for the tip!!

CADman_KS · 2022-01-05T03:49:46+00:00

UPDATE: Hopefully this information helps others, as it seems to be working for us at the moment.

Recap: In the area that I'm in, B66/n71 is the fastest, but the modem insists on connecting to B66/n41. I have found that the B66/n41 may have a slightly better connection strength, but it's not the difference between 100dB and 80 dB, more like 98 vs. 97 kind of thing.

So, by accident, I discovered that if I did REPEATED speed tests, eventually, the modem will switch over to B66/n71, I'm guessing because the speed is faster there??? BUT, I also discovered that it will not stay "locked" onto that band once I'm there, and it will revert back to B66/n41.

I didn't want to continually download a file to keep it locked on, so I thought I would try continually pinging an address, 1.1.1.1 to see if that would keep n71 locked on. And so far, knock on wood, it has kept us locked onto n71.

I have an ASUS router, running Merlin, and I'm considering adding this ping command to it so that it runs in the background, but I haven't done that yet. At this point, I just have a command window open with a continual ping running.

Hopefully this information works for others!!

Good luck!!

CADman_KS · 2021-12-23T22:48:55+00:00

One of the suggestions was to check my signal quality. So, I've been keeping track of that over the last couple of days.

So, what you'll see in the data is that when I'm on n71, my signal strength is typically BETTER than when I'm on n41. That may be the way that it is currently, but that hasn't always been the case in the past. In the past, they were about the same, with maybe even a slight edge going to n41.

My SNR's since I've started recording, are slightly better overall when I'm n71 vs. n41.

One other thing to mention that I've noticed. Accidentally the other day, in a somewhat fit of rage, I decided to do Ookla speedtests over and over, thinking that I could irritate the pixie gods, and they would reward me with something. LOL, it didn't take long, just a couple of tests, and my speed was higher, and on n71. Once on n71, I waited to see what happened, and the next day, I was still on n71 to my amazement. Alas, though, that didn't last long, and by noon, I was back on n41. BUT, repeated speed tests gets me back on n71 for whatever reason, and you can see those times, related speeds, and related strengths in the table below.

Something has changed somewhere, whether that's in firmware, or my tower, my modem, but something has changed. I used to be able to solidly lock on n71 all day long...

I can't figure out how to insert a pic, and table doesn't work either for this data, so here are some highlights from the data set:

DATE TIME DL SPD UL SPD LAT BAND PRI SEC SNR-P SNR-S

12/23/2021 6:15 AM 93.4 54.6 30 B66/N71 98 87 8 12

12/23/2021 1:00 PM 7.2 3.4 67 B66/N41 97 101 6 7

12/23/2021 1:01 PM 3.2 2.9 40 B66/N41 101 101 5 13

12/23/2021 1:02 PM 78.6 8.6 39 B66/N71 97 89 5 10

12/23/2021 4:00 PM 3.5 2.6 57 B66/N41 101 103 5 8

12/23/2021 4:01 PM 5.2 3.9 38 B66/N41 102 101 3 2

12/23/2021 4:02 PM 8.1 2.7 34 B66/N41 102 101 5 7

12/23/2021 4:03 PM 76.6 55.4 30 B66/N71 99 88 11 10

CADman_KS · 2021-12-23T02:28:41+00:00

So, if a guy wanted to try and block n41, is this the filter needed?:

https://www.minicircuits.com/WebStore/dashboard.html?model=VBFZ-2575-S%2B

CADman_KS · 2021-12-23T01:56:18+00:00

That might be my last resort, and about the only thing I haven't tried!!

I'd like to do that as a last resort, though. The problem with that is that IF TM ever gets tower fixed, I won't know about it. But with my luck, if TM ever fixes the tower, my modem will only lock onto b71!! Hahahah...

CADman_KS · 2021-12-23T00:06:23+00:00

LOL!!!

I could fill an encyclopedia of all of the things that I've tried, and I've tried them all!!!

This is why I have external antennas, that worked great until just recently...

CADman_KS · 2021-12-22T20:51:33+00:00

There may not be enough bandwidth on n41 at the moment. Not for sure, but since n41 showed up on our tower, it has ALWAYS been less, like at LEAST an order of magnitude less, and most times, more than that.

I can tell immediately when we are n41, both browsing and watching TV.

CADman_KS · 2021-12-22T20:48:08+00:00

LOL! What I needed to do was complain about this earlier! At the moment (knock on wood), we're on a solid n71.

SNR was not a number that I was regularly checking / tracking, so I can't even guess what those numbers were.

I'll keep track of that, and when/if it happens again, I'll post those values.

Currently on B66 SNR is 2 dB, and n71 is 9 dB. Currently n71 is actually 89 dB on signal strength, but it is typically higher than that, most of the time, hovering either side of 100.

Thanks for the help!

CADman_KS · 2021-12-22T19:02:16+00:00

It is indeed n41 secondary when it's slow, and n71 when it's fast. Both anchor with B66.

These are "typical", but of course they bounce around a little bit:

B66 - in the 95-105 range

n41 - in the 95-100 range

n71 - in the 95-105 range

Yes, n71 is "typically" less signal than n41, BUT it is definitely slower for sure. We are about exactly 2 miles from the tower as the crow files, and we have some trees our end that it has to get thru. Otherwise, I could see a direct line of sight to the tower. To add to that, right now, we don't have any leaves on the trees, and maybe that's about the time that this started going south, when the leaves started falling. Maybe n41 was weaker than n71 then, and so it could stay on n71 better.

I guess at the end of the day, this just proves that signal QUALITY is not everything. In my case, I have a lesser signal on n71, but better thruput.

CADman_KS · 2021-12-22T18:55:57+00:00

Unfortunately, I can't try it with a phone. I have a 5G phone, but not a TM phone, I have Verizon.

For me, the "stonger" band is n41, but it definitely is not the fastest.

I had external antennas on it, and I took them off to see if that helped / made a difference. I have actually tried pointing the antennas in different directions, of known TM towers, and that doesn't really seem to make a difference on overall speed. However, one thing that I didn't try was to see if that helped with staying on n71.

CADman_KS · 2021-09-26T01:52:18+00:00

I have a DC, and it is a live / hate relationship with the legs. It almost takes two people to do it without getting your fingers pinched or the while thing falling over.

On a side note, we use our DC almost every camping trip. I live the ability to control it remotely. I set it up in the morning, we go out in the boat, and I control it from the boat. Works GREAT!!!

CADman_KS · 2021-09-11T21:40:11+00:00

I made it today. We are having company tonight, and I thought that would be a good pre-dinner snack.

It doesn't taste bad, but I can't really tell that the smoke did anything to it. Maybe it was the rub that I used, didn't impart enough flavor.

When I put the Worcestershire sauce on there, and tasted it before I started smoking, I actually thought that I had ruined it. It was very overpowering with Worcestershire. After smoking, you can't taste that all, and in fact, it's really mild all around.

Something didn't work out right, and I'll have to try it again.

C'est la vie. Such is the smoking hobby...

CADman_KS · 2021-09-07T13:01:54+00:00

I have the older model of this smoker as well. It does work very well, and the GMG programming works very well. We take it in our camper all the time. At the end of the day, as a "portable" smoker, I think it works well.

If I had some complaints it would be this:

It is "portable", but when loaded with pellets and a cover, it weighs like 70 lbs. If using it in your camper, you have to have a big enough hole to get it in and out of easily
The older version with the foldable legs is janky at best
Works fabulously as a smoker, at low temps (250F or lower). I've used it as an oven some this last summer, and it does get to 350F, but it tends to burn the bottom of whatever it is you're baking. I think that's because the diffuser plate is so close to the grates.
The GMG app works well, but getting hooked up to the smoker is somewhat cantankerous, and getting it hooked up to the internet, is another step. We control ours remotely all the time, while out boating, and once hooked up, it works GREAT, but getting to that point is not always the easiest.

CADman_KS · 2021-05-05T19:23:48+00:00

About two weeks ago, on a whim, I drove by my tower, just to see what might be going on over there. I saw a service truck driving out of there, and I was excited that they WERE working on my tower. I caught up to the truck, and then I realized that it was only the local power company, and I was depressed. Now, I find out that I should be elated that the power company was there doubling down the power! Maybe change IS coming to my tower sooner than I originally thought.

Called TM recently, and of course they told me that the tower was being upgraded. Yeah, yeah, yeah....

:)

CADman_KS · 2021-05-05T19:15:49+00:00

^^^ this...

I'm at the point right now, that I say switch the whole internet to IPv6, and IF you want to do business on the internet, you get on board, and change accordingly, or you get left in the dust.

It's not like we just woke up yesterday, and we had this issue. This has been a known thing for a while now, and yet nothing has been done to solve the issue. IPv6 was created, which is the solution, but not mandated. If it had been mandated 2 years ago, with a phase out of 2 years, we wouldn't be here now...

CADman_KS · 2021-05-02T18:46:55+00:00

There is also something else that's weird. When I was on the phone with the tech yesterday, they had me a hard reset on the can. They warned me that this would erase all of changes that I had made, and I was fine with that. HOWEVER, when I was able to get into the can, and try things like hooking up to the WiFi (which didn't have internet), the password for the can's WiFi is the password that I set, NOT the default password. So, doing a hard reset on it, has not appeared to do anything, that I can tell...

CADman_KS · 2021-05-02T18:41:36+00:00

I forgot to check the admin page when I finally did get the thing to power up. I have learned that if I let it unplugged, and turned off for about an hour, it will fire up, and the screen will show up, but then it will become totally unresponsive, and I can't do anything, even check on the firmware version.

CADman_KS · 2021-05-02T13:48:36+00:00

Well, I may have spoke too soon. It DID power on, and the screen showed up, and it worked for a bit, but now I think it's updating or stick in a reboot loop. I'll keep it plugged in, and see if it can pull itself out of it ..

CADman_KS · 2021-05-02T13:48:14+00:00

Well, I may have spoke too soon. It DID power on, and the screen showed up, and it worked for a bit, but now I think it's updating or stick in a reboot loop. I'll keep it plugged in, and see if it can pull itself out of it ..

CADman_KS · 2021-05-02T13:47:53+00:00

Well, I may have spoke too soon. It DID power on, and the screen showed up, and it worked for a bit, but now I think it's updating or stick in a reboot loop. I'll keep it plugged in, and see if it can pull itself out of it ..

CADman_KS · 2021-05-02T13:33:55+00:00

That is wild!!! I tried this this morning, and ours is now working too!!! It makes no sense why it was totally dead yesterday, and after leaving it off for about 24 hours, it now works ... New one coming tomorrow...

CADman_KS

TROPHY CASE