Is this a Sprint Cellsite or a T-Mobile Cellsite?

If your RSSI is reading -95dbm to -100dbm then that is not a Sprint panel. Unless it is not active.

 

I believe the poster is referring to a brand new site that is in the process of being put up and not yet active. And yes I do believe it is going to be for Sprint. It's a typical looking Sprint panel. Also Sprint only uses 1 panel per sector now.

 

I've also seen these on buildings where they aren't "Cellular" at all.
If they never install any other sector panels, it could just be a microwave or wireless lan type link antenna......

 

But there are more than just one panel at this site. The poster also posted some other pics of the site on another forum and it appears like it is 3 different sectors with one panel each.

 

Thats odd ... Sectors are usually at the same elevation level .. & no other panels are on that roof structure .... You would think that all sectors would be visible there ....

 

I've seen quite a few sites on buildings where different sectors were placed far apart and lower or higher in elevation. It's not uncommon at all.

 

They probably felt they didn't need an East facing panel as much so they directed the 3 panels towards where the coverage was weakest.

 

Normally there's only 3 sectors in any site. I haven't seen any site that points to the four cardinal points. If one points north, the other two would point southeast and southwest forming a triangle. Each sector usually faces 120 degrees apart from the others. There are some exceptions, though, where due to geographical features, coverage requirements, or other reasons, they don't follow this rule and you can see weird configurations, but those aren't that common.

But I agree, that does seem like a typical Sprint panel. Just wait a few days/weeks and let us know if you see a huge improvement in signal strength.

 

Here's another tip if you can get close enough. Sprint will always post a blue and white radio frequency warning label with a toll free phone number to call in case of emergency when the site is finished. That number is: 888-859-1400. If you see that number posted on the site you will know it's Sprint's.

 

As have I. Verizon has cells located on an existing radio tower near my old house. The panels that face Interstate 270 (about 3/4 mile to the west) are very high on the tower compared to the other two sectors, which are much lower and face residential and business areas.

 

Here is a tower picture I took that has 1 panel lower then the other 2, it is wierd how they do it.
http://gallery.wirelessadvisor.com/showimage.php?i=509&catid=member&imageuser=54599

 

By the way there's one Sprint tower just a couple of miles from my house that actually has 5 brackets per sector on it. There are 4 panels attached and the 5th bracket is empty. This is very unusual because I've never seen another one like it. I keep hoping that Sprint will add that 5th panel. LOL

 

That's usually done to avoid interference problems in the direction where the sector is lower. It prevents the coverage pattern to reach beyond the desired levels.

 

What would adding the 5th panel do? I though that capacity does not get increased by the amount of panels anymore...

 

Your right it doesn't. That's why Sprint uses one panel per sector now. But I just wanted to see that 5th panel because it would be the only one like it.

 

Lol, so what's the advantage of Sprint using 4 panels per sector on that site, instead of just one?

 

On the older sites they still have 4 panels. I guess they don't see any reason to remove them.

 

Oh I see it's an older site, somehow I thought this was a newer Sprint site. I guess it would cost them more to remove those extra panels than it costs them to just keep everything the way it is.
Strange thing is that one Sprint site in my area was changed, maybe 1/2 year ago to have 3 panels per sector, instead of 2 and the panels were exchanged, they now look different. What explanation could there be for this?

 

Yep exactly. No harm in leaving them up.

 

Congratulations! I guess Sprint is raising the bar for you

 

Sprint has raised the bar in NYC!

 

No Larry,
Sprint, together with NEXTEL, has raised the bar in NYC!

 

Oh ok you got me there.