Tracking down towers?

[t720]

I was just wondering...is there any way that you can tell what tower a CDMA, TDMA or GSM phone is using at any moment? Is there some type of menu that you can pull up and it will tell you the ID of the cell tower? I was just wondering this because I want to see where and how far away the cell towers I'm using are from me. If you could solve this problem, that would be awesome! [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

[bobolito]

You would need to get armed with a lot of info. First, investigate how to pull up the "Network Monitor" or "Field Test" or "Test Mode" or whatever its name is in the T720. In these screens you'll find a lot of information regarding the system. All the information is represented by numbers and normally there's no label telling you what each number means so you'll need to figure that out. You'll also need to learn how to navigate these screens. In order to locate your nearest tower, probably the most important piece of information is the signal strength. The signal strength is represented by a negative numeric value (measured in dBm) which will be greater as the signal gets weaker. For instance, values around -100 are weaker than values around -75. It is easy to locate this number since is is constantly changing every few seconds.

With experience you'll learn to predict more or less how far a tower is from you by looking at the signal strength value, but you won't be able to tell which direction the tower is. You will also need to find out where in the screen the control channel number is. This is important since you need to know when your phone is "listening" to the same tower or a different one. Depending on the system and what network band they use, the control channel number can go from 1 to 1023 for 800Mhz systems. For 1900Mhz it can go higher. By moving around and looking at the signal strength value, you'll be able to tell if you are moving closer to or away from the tower, and with the help of the channel number, you can tell if you are still monitoring the same tower or not. When your signal strength value reaches its max (which is the lowest negative value) you know that you are within line of sight of the tower and you can look around to see if any towers are around you. Look for any building roof tops, if any. You'll learn later on that it can get tricky trying to spot the correct tower and you'll learn to differentiate when your phone is changing from one sector to another or from one tower to another. Just know that most towers have 3 sectors each with its own control channel number. However, each tower has different control channels than the other towers around it.

So basically, find out if any T720 experts know how to get into the test screens and start from there.

[RichXKU]

Unfortunately as far as I know, you need to order a special SIM card for the t720 to get field test info from it. You also cannot make calls with this sim card in, and would have to power off, swap sims, and turn it back on to go between field testing and regular mode.

[bobolito]

Wow!, they make it more difficult everyday, don't they? Do you know what kind of SIM is this and where to get it?

[HelloMotoV70]

bobolito, i've seen them for sale on Ebay, search for, "SIM Card" and it should pop up a few for different model phones that specifically use field test cards, these often are also the programing cards so you can change the # in the phone, etc.