I have been looking for an application/utility that is precisely measuring the current signal strength of the phone radio. This is to compare and find the best Radio ROM for my location and provider. I can't find anything. Does it exist?
Not sure if this is of any use, I found it and can't work out what it is showing, someone more technically minded maybe able to.
Have this application for you....simpel but ok.....propably does the same as app posted above.....
Related
This has started to happen recently. I am with AT&T Wireless in Brooklyn, NY. The phone used to carry the signal around almost the whole day and never lose it, but these days if I leave it alone for a while and come back it may say "no service" or "searching..." . If I do a soft reset it may find the signal, or if I turn wireless off and then on (which doesn't always respond, by the way -- on my phone it's called "Turn on Flight Mode". Is that what it's supposed to be called?)
I got this phone two months ago and I am extremely thrilled with it. It's a phone, pocket pc and (video!) camera in one. Sometimes it can achieve great clarity on conversations.
I wish someone can help me out though with some advice or information on upgrading the phone. I have the following questions:
1) What GSM frequencies does this phone use? Can I make it work with AT&T's 850 band? Is anyone familiar with making this phone work better with AT&T wireless?
2) What are some of the icons I see on the top, such as the G in a square? On my old phone that used to mean GPRS connection (i.e. internet/wap). I don't know how to control these things. To turn wireless off, I click a link that says "Turn on flight mode."
3) Finally, what can I do to stop losing the signal?? I tried putting manual selection of the AT&T Wireless network on, and it didn't improve things -- the phone still lost the connection. Once it had the connection thoguh, it didn't drop it -- I don't know why the connection gets lost.
Thanks a bunch for any advice and info,
Greg
Egreg,
I have similar problems. My provider uses GSM 1900 & 850.
1) It uses GSM 900/1800/1900. Unfortunately doesn't have an 850 radio; which is really bad, they should have made it a Quad Band for the price we pay for it. GSM 1900 is really terrible in buildings etc.
2) G Means the radio has negotiated GPRS availability.
3) I've gotten better results with signal locking on by following this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=7619&highlight=signal
Download the application and set it to "Search GPRS on start GPRS connection". That way it doesn't have to negotiate for GPRS unless you actually want to use it (helps to establish signal lock much better as there is less protocol overhead).
Also now, I'm using Radio Version 1.06 & 1.08 as they seem to reconnect much better than 1.14.
Hope this helps.. Mine is performing much better now, not perfect, but not as annoying.
Thanks. I'll download the GPRS tweak program. Will that alone help the situation a bit? All I need is the voice capability, I won't use GPRS, only the GSM voice -- for internet browsing I may get a WiFi SDIO card from SanDisk.
I thought that changing to some other Radio software would help, but I heard on this site that changing the OS is risky. Can you tell me what I could do to get some a better connection, perhaps guide me through installing a correct version of Radio?
I haven't had this phone for very long, so I'm unsure if I should attempt to upgrade/downgrade.
-Greg
Greg,
I think the tweak program will help things a bit.. As I mentioned I am able to get signal seemingly quicker when I have it set...
I was pretty paranoid about OS upgrades, but I've gone through about 4 versions so far. This week is the first time I ventured out to use a different radio version than what comes with the upgrade.
Try the tweak and see how things go for a while, and then make your decision to upgrade your ROM...
My Hermes AT&T 8525 has problem that phone signal is too low about 1-2 bar.
Sometimes 'No service'. It's like weak and swing signal. So I miss important calls.
Which radio rom version can do the best for phone signal? I've tried all version
the best radio rom is 1.46. The best can do only 1-2 bar but still swing signal.
Can anyone modify radio rom to amplify phone signal for me? (Lower battery is not problem.) Thank you
polaris300d said:
My Hermes AT&T 8525 has problem that phone signal is too low about 1-2 bar.
Sometimes 'No service'. It's like weak and swing signal. So I miss important calls.
Which radio rom version can do the best for phone signal? I've tried all version
the best radio rom is 1.46. The best can do only 1-2 bar but still swing signal.
Can anyone modify radio rom to amplify phone signal for me? (Lower battery is not problem.) Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't amplify a radio, otherwise it would have been done loooong ago.
Try 1.48. Its an AT&T build.
They can adjust the power of the transceiver but its a balance between signal strength and battery life. The same can be done with the WIFI signal strength.
On another note there is a new radio stack 1.54 thats just been released and you should be able to find link to it here. A number of people reporting better signal levels with this new one...
Theres also the option to plug in a external GSM antenna into the back of the phone this would likely increase your signal strength.
Thanks Starfury,
How can we adjust it please give more detail or web link to do?
mcorrie1121, I have try all version of radio roms, even 1.54.
The best is 1.46 but signal is still swing to no service.
Anyone can help me through this problem??
Can any expert can do this? Please participate for this issue. All Guru
Anyone know if any software exists that uses the GPS and mapping software, but also tells you locations of cellular towers on the map?
Doesn't www.navizon.com software do this? im not sure so if anyone else knows and can chime in. i do recall it showing on there login page it does show the cell tower locations.
Meh..i've tried navizon, and it's a bloated piece of software if you ask me....
i'm looking for something small that merely has a map that uses the gps, but just shows the locations of cell towers....it probably doesn't exist...
gcincotta said:
Meh..i've tried navizon, and it's a bloated piece of software if you ask me....
i'm looking for something small that merely has a map that uses the gps, but just shows the locations of cell towers....it probably doesn't exist...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Second that, I think it is tough to set up to work well and it doesn't have near enough intuition.
As a new direction, is there a free place to get points-of-interest downloads to incorporate into TomTom that show towers, speed cameras, nudist beaches (just kidding)...
gcincotta said:
Meh..i've tried navizon, and it's a bloated piece of software if you ask me....
i'm looking for something small that merely has a map that uses the gps, but just shows the locations of cell towers....it probably doesn't exist...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well being as you have tried navizon, that means you have an account. If you log into the account from their website, you can view cell tower only info on a map. I know this is not exactly what you are trying to do (you want it on your ppc I assume) however this is the only way I know of (currently) to see tower info on a real map. It might suffice for your needs for now...
Serfboreds,
I have downloaded speed camera POIs for TomTom6 from http://tomtom.gps-data-team.com/ I dont know how accurate it is because there are very few speed camera's in my area (Kansas City). But when I was in France and Australia it was spot on.
Nuguy,
Love your signature. "Mine is also a theft deterent device. Go ahead, try to take my wallet..." Best mobile phone ad I have ever seen. I even downloaded it and sent it to my friends in Australia so they could have a laugh too.
>>help! Question about flashing radio baseband for reception/battery issues<<
I am new to this website and sorry if I am in the wrong section but not sure the tech term of my issue, but I have Droid Eris on Verizon (well page plus) in Tampa, FL area and I am getting weak signal and did some reading about "flashing my radio" to get better signal and better battery life, I have 2.1 android running on my phone and I am wondering can I flash the radio while my phone is activated in service?
I read somewhere that your phone has to be unlocked in order to flash the radio?
was told this version or whatever works good: Telus v1.04.05v
Tried searching for my exact issue but could not locate it, please help, thanks
Hi, welcome to the forum, but please refrain from posting the same question in multiple areas/threads.
I was told to take my thread over to this area and I asked to have the other closed
I realy need help Still been reading and I guess I need to root my phone first, then I can flash custom roms and or flash the baseband radio, but still can't find out anywhere if I need to "unlock" my phone first and will this interfere with my phone being currently activated, please help thanks
Cheeva316 said:
I realy need help Still been reading and I guess I need to root my phone first, then I can flash custom roms and or flash the baseband radio, but still can't find out anywhere if I need to "unlock" my phone first and will this interfere with my phone being currently activated, please help thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rooting will not affect the activation status of your phone. About the only thing that clears that information is performing a factory reset with a STOCK ROM and an STOCK recovery. Installing the S-OFF bootloader will also not change the phone's activation status.
As for the radio thing - you are probably chasing ghosts. There really is no objective evidence to suggest that any of the radio firmware versions "improve your signal strength". There are plenty of subjective claims of that to be found here on XDA, but absolutely no hard evidence of it. It is damnably difficult to test such claims without a microwave antenna range and a very well controlled environment (anechoic chamber).
When it comes time to "look at the signal strength", the only thing you should be looking at is dBm - not some stupid "bars" display, which means nothing at all. Generally, you will have decent calls if you see signal strength greater than (more positive than) -90 dBm. And if you are seeing low signal - for instance from -90 dBm to -115 dBm - the next thing you should do is drive to a different area. If you occasionally see signals in the -70 dBm range, then there is nothing wrong with your phone - it probably just means that one of the areas you are using it in has poor signal coverage.
Can't find an answer to this, hope someone knows. Short version is while there are many applications to monitor and track which cell tower you're on, I've not found a way to latch onto one manually.
You can on some phones (blackberry), it's quite handy if you know you're in an area where either handoffs are hard drops or you end up needlessly pingponging off the same towers. Think of being in a park for example.
Any ideas? To be clear I'm not referring to locking onto a particular provider or technology which most phones can do, rather the tower itself.