Wireless Joint

We have 3 VZ cell towers within range of our house. One is 2.2mi away, SE of us, which gets very congested. It seems to only have bands 2 & 13 on the side that serves us. I've occasionally seen speeds up to 45mbps during the day, but it drops to <1mbps every evening.

There's a tower 5.4mi away, South of us, that I can only pickup outside (0-2 bars inside), and only band 4/66 from this range. It also has band 2 if close enough, and probably band 13. I consistently get 7-20mbps in our backyard, when on this tower.

I ordered a couple of the triangular shaped Wilson yagi antennas to connect to my LB1120 modem, in hopes that I can latch on to the tower to the South. If I recall, these have a wider beam than some other more directional antennas, so I may not have any luck at all.

There's also a tower somewhere North (according to cellmapper) of us that I can connect to, but I can't seem to pinpoint it's location. I will try when the antennas arrive.

Back to my question... can I bypass the closer tower, or will it connect us to it still, because of the internal antenna on the LTE modem? Supposedly it doesn't have one, but I can get 3 bars of signal without external ones. 🤷‍♂️

Also, would I be able to receive band 2 on the other tower? Obviously, with the closer tower having band 2, it won't let me connect to the one farther away on that band, with just my phone.

Here are the 2 tower locations:

http://imgur.com/a/0BaMukX

-UPDATE for those that stumble upon this-

Ended up getting a NEXQ6GO-M w/an EM12-G so I can lock onto a specific tower. I think any Quectel modem will do? You specify tower PCI + earfcn which can be found in cellmapper or similar app, or by using the AT command below. You can also see other PCIs nearby:
AT+QENG="neighbourcell"

Apps usually show the band along with the earfcn. EARFCN contains the band & frequency data.

When you lock to a tower (see below), you will have to also select the PCC (primary band). To lock the tower/PCC, you will use this command:

AT+QNWLOCK="common/4g",1,EARFCN,PCI

Example: AT+QNWLOCK="common/4g",1,67086,58

No spaces. Mind the quotes & commas. Just replace the last 2 values with the appropriate ones for the tower you want to use. One tower will have multiple PCIs - usually one or more per side. Use the one with the best signal. If you use the above command as-is, your modem will likely get stuck on "Connecting". You can reissue the command with correct values, or reboot the device. Allow 30-45 seconds for each command to take effect.

This does not lock to one band. It should still use CA as it normally would.

To reset it to default, use:
AT+QNWLOCK="common/4g",0

Rebooting the modem should reset any of these changes to their default.

Special thanks to those that contributed in this other post.

Possibly. You need the highest dBi antenna you can afford. The higher dBi means a tighter beam; basically. You want an antenna to be like a laser beam. You also should shield the antenna, if you can, in the direction of the other tower.

If you built your own router with a Quectel modem, you can lock the modem onto the tower of choice.

Didneywhorl wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:59 pm Possibly. You need the highest dBi antenna you can afford. The higher dBi means a tighter beam; basically. You want an antenna to be like a laser beam. You also should shield the antenna, if you can, in the direction of the other tower.

If you built your own router with a Quectel modem, you can lock the modem onto the tower of choice.

Didneywhorl, I am also interested in locking a modem to a tower...at the least for testing purposes. I have an EM-12G, so I'll look up the at commands elsewhere, but I am assuming the only way to know where towers are is just drive around with my laptop on the passenger seat? I did this once not too far from home, and sure enough I sparked trouble with neighbors wondering what I was doing

Can you recommend an app to simplify this process? I have android, windows, and mac.

Didneywhorl wrote: ↑Fri Mar 26, 2021 12:59 pm Possibly. You need the highest dBi antenna you can afford. The higher dBi means a tighter beam; basically. You want an antenna to be like a laser beam. You also should shield the antenna, if you can, in the direction of the other tower.

If you built your own router with a Quectel modem, you can lock the modem onto the tower of choice.

I have done this. Also sometime might need to lock out lower frequencies from unwanted tower to be picked up. For example needed to block out band 13 on Verizon before cause it kept picking it up. After that it was fine.

j2227 wrote: ↑Thu May 06, 2021 11:04 am Didneywhorl, I am also interested in locking a modem to a tower...at the least for testing purposes. I have an EM-12G, so I'll look up the at commands elsewhere, but I am assuming the only way to know where towers are is just drive around with my laptop on the passenger seat? I did this once not too far from home, and sure enough I sparked trouble with neighbors wondering what I was doing

Can you recommend an app to simplify this process? I have android, windows, and mac.

Understanding cell tower IDs from Cell Mapper and the output from the command and will help you get the info you need for the command: That command, above, will give you the format you need. Look it up on this forum for more posts and details already spoken about.

Lots of misconceptions in this thread.

You don't need a specific antenna to block cells. You should always use a high gain directional antenna when it makes sense to do so. You just need a Quectel modem that supports AT+QNWLOCK

Each Quectel modem has a different QNWLOCK syntax, and its very poorly documented. The instructions posted pertain to the EM12-G specifically.

You can query the modem for the syntax with:
The response is some bare bones documentation

kz333 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 15, 2021 12:48 am Lots of misconceptions in this thread.
...

What is the misconception? It would help to identify if there is a false bit of info, instead of being vague.


I'd prefer to be corrected where needed, than continue giving bad advice.

What command is used to block a certain tower/freq?? Im trying to lock two towers and i have one tower that jumps on and slows my speeds. Or if there was anyway i can just command the em20 to only connect to my best two towers?? Thanks

Not sure the em20 has the support, but look up the at command at+qnwlock