I'm a cell hunting noob

[MarkyD]

yes, this is an FAA facility.

I guess you guys are right. That said, I've been hunting cites with this exact app for weeks now, and have never had it lead me astray. It's always EXACTLY where it says it is. Oh well. No idea.

Anyway, I've found a way to identify LTE sites here in OKC. Cox is providing the fiber/ethernet backhaul to all Verizon LTE sites.

sure fire way to know I've found an LTE site: Cox boxes in the cage. They are providing the fiber backhaul for Verizon's LTE network here. I got chased by a farmer today trying to get this picture. LOL

[Yankees368]

Interesting, that box is manufactured by Huawei. Sprint tried using them for cheaper CDMA equipment, and the federal government got all pissed off about it because they are owned (at least partially) by the Chinese government.

[RadioRaiders]

Verizon is using Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent for LTE infrastructure. COX is using Huawei for LTE infrastructure (read: here). Huawei sells equipment very cheap, but are owned in part by the Chinese gov't, and I think most of the larger US cellco's avoid them for political reasons ie: they don't want the nations network infrastructure running on equipment and software built and maintained by the Chinese gov't. Seems COX is ok with that tho.

[mmillard]

This happens a lot with folks who use cellular boosters, when those boosters emit too much power in close proximity to a tower. The tower has no choice but to instruct all other handsets to Boost power (to meet the new noise floor), and folks on the edge of that cell's coverage cannot comply if their handset are already at maximum power. Those calls are dropped.

Also, there could be a problem with a booster on an adjacent block of spectrum (for another carrier's subscribers) that is interferring. The technican can locate this quite easily, if that is indeed the problem. Happens all the time.

Or, as mentioned, there could have been recent changes to the network coverage, including antenna downtilts, that have reduced signal on campus.

[mmillard]

Not sure if anyone answered your question:
"Beta" refers to the compass direction that the antennas are pointed to.
The industry uses the terms "Alpha", "Beta" and "Gamma".
Alpha generally refers to the sector that is most nearly pointed north.

Hope this helps.

[mmillard]

Looks unusual, for sure.
Didn't the poster say he was out near the airport.
I wonder if this unusual looking setup has anything to do with navigable airspace restrictions on tower height?
Just a thought. Or, maybe it's something temporary while they work through a zoning process? It sure looks temporary.

[drplc3]

Possibly ATT has a BDA on the facility itself, but what you pictured today is, at least the lattice tower, is a FAA installation.

I'm confused then. I've scoured every square inch of this campus and can't see anything that even remotely resembles a cell antenna. I mean, this is the EXACT COORDINATES that the netmonitor app is reporting. It's never wrong - I have tracked down dozens of cell sites using this program.

[JohnCena83]

I too want to say, interestingly, the box is manufactured by Huawei. Sprint CDMA devices tried to use them for cheaper, and the federal government was recently angered about it because they are owned (at least in part) by the Chinese government.

[rfhunter]

When I saw the last set of pictures, I immediately thought FAA RCAG. Also could be co-located with the airports A/G communications and ATIS.

As far as the talk early in the thread, antenna size is not a good indicator as to what frequency bands or technology (LTE, UMTS ect..) is being used. This is especially true of lower microwave end of the UHF spectrum as it relates to cell communications.

Antenna's made by the same manufacturer can be used for different bands and yet have the same housing. To further confuse you, antennas are commonly have a wide range of frequencies that could support almost any frequency between 650-2.5k. True some antennas are single band but more and more multi-band is the popular way to go. They can hide several behind the radome.

Typically, the smaller the antenna, the higher the frequency. This isn't always the case anymore, especially with multi-band antennas.

[rfhunter]

BTW, the OKC RCAG is located here... 35.381468,-97.687321

Goole Maps view

[cdmatech]

The UBS base station sold by Motorola (NSN) is built by a Chinese. Omni antenna are widely used thought all sysytems. I just cut 4 sites last week that were omni.