Brian's Brain

Continued from 'Spotwave's Z1900: C'mon, Peel The Noise'....

We placed the Z1900's directional reception antenna (Network Access Unit) in the dining room, against the east-facing wall, and connected coax cabling between it and the omni repeater antenna (Coverage Unit) in the southwest corner of the living room. After powering up the Coverage Unit and confirming that we were getting valid status indicator LEDs on both units, we re-measured signal strength and got the following numbers:

One possible interpretation of these results is that the Z1900 boosted reception in the immediate vicinity of the Coverage Unit, but degraded it elsewhere. I have a different interpretation; while the Z1900 may have had a minor positive effect in the kitchen, bedroom and living room, I'm more inclined to explain the before-and-after differences as being the result of the earlier-described usual moment-to-moment and orientation-to-orientation reception variability. The source signal strength was just too weak for the Z1900 to discern and amplify amidst the ambient noise, I suspect. And, to its credit, the Z1900 didn't subsequently try to boost the signal anyway, a move which would have not only further degraded the cellular reception but might have also caused other wireless interference problems.

The reception at our other abode isn't great either, so I thought I'd take the Z1900 up there last weekend to give it another opportunity to shine. Normally, indoors I get between 1-2 bars of GSM reception on my iMate SP5m, along with 1-2 bars of Sprint CDMA coverage on my Samsung SPH-A660. If you punch zip code '96161' into AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile's coverage map sites, you'll find that the CDMA and GSM signals are strongest along the I80 corridor and, specifically, in Truckee.

We're several miles away from Truckee, but we're also several thousand feet above Truckee, so I placed the Z1900's Network Access Unit in a window, oriented down and towards town. Much better results this time; I now consistently get 4 bars' worth of both Sprint and GSM reception throughout the entire interior of the home. Consider me a pleased consumer, and an impressed engineer, with Spotwave's product performance. Once I get our friend Denis and his Sidekick 3 up there to visit us, I'll report back with more precise before-and-after dBm data.