GSM 900/1800 Frequency

skearon

Is it possible to find out whether my local Vodafone mast (Rathdrum, Co Wicklow) is broadcasting on 900 or 1800, or both?

I ask as the reception at home is dire inside the house, I have come across a number of companies which offer in home boosters, however want to get the correct one (i.e. 900 or 1800)

Plus does anyone know whether they are they legal in Ireland ?

lucernarian

Yes, it is possible, but unless you want to spend a good bit on an engineering-mode enabled phone, your best bet is picking up an old nokia 3310 or 3210. It's then possible with a cable that costs €10 to €20 and the trial version of logomanager software to manually enable the engineering/test mode on the phone.

Quite a lot of information can be picked up from the phone in test mode.

I'm pretty sure that those devices are illegal in Ireland as I believe they are actively transmitting on those frequencies and this is illegal under the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1926 or suchlike.

They could be license-exempt or not termed as a "transmitter", I'm not sure. They are probably very low power aswell so that may make them legit.

bminish

skearon wrote:

Is it possible to find out whether my local Vodafone mast (Rathdrum, Co Wicklow) is broadcasting on 900 or 1800, or both?

I was going to say use comreg's Siteviewer
but they don't list this info unless the site has an NIR report. Another worthless offering from Comreg

Anywhere voda have 1800 Mhz coverage they will also have 900 Mhz Coverage. 900Mhz has much better non LOS properties and range than 900Mhz

I ask as the reception at home is dire inside the house, I have come across a number of companies which offer in home boosters, however want to get the correct one (i.e. 900 or 1800)

It's crap in my house too

Plus does anyone know whether they are they legal in Ireland ?

They are almost certainly not legal since these devices transmit and there does exist a very significant potential for creating harmful interference if the device is not very carefully installed.
Can you provide a link to the device in question ?

You could also use a GSM fixed terminal such as the Ericsson F251m (or F250m)
http://www.expansys.ie/p.aspx?i=105673

.brendan

skearon

bminish wrote:

Anywhere voda have 1800 Mhz coverage they will also have 900 Mhz Coverage. 900Mhz has much better non LOS properties and range than 900Mhz

Thank you for the very informative post, just to confirm that you are sure they broadcast on both 1800 and 900? If this is the case a 900 MHz repeater should work for me.

skearon

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&item=120045928810

Del2005

Here is the site with all their technical details, they are transmitting on 900/1800.

http://www.vodafone.ie/aboutus/company/publication/index.jsp

Dundalk Daily

Yes they have both frequencies on all masts, what you need to do is get a dual band phone that will hop between frequencies and see if it makes a difference.

bminish

skearon wrote:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=002&item=120045928810

Ohh
that's not legal, one of the problems with units such as that is that if the outside antenna can see the inside antenna you would get RF feedback which WILL cause interference to the GSM spectrum. If you avoid actual feedback you still run the very real risk that the quality (spectral purity ) of your handset's signal will be significantly degraded (& possibly outside permitted specifications ) by the time it reaches the base station.

even if it was perfectly clean and had no negative effects on the network, only the GSM operators are allowed install kit like this

.brendan

lucernarian

Dundalk Daily wrote:

Yes they have both frequencies on all masts, what you need to do is get a dual band phone that will hop between frequencies and see if it makes a difference.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. I've been 200m from voda masts but only 900MHz frequencies showed up. Have Voda now put 1800MHz equipment on every mast?

skearon

To_be_confirmed wrote:

I wouldn't be too sure about that. I've been 200m from voda masts but only 900MHz frequencies showed up. Have Voda now put 1800MHz equipment on every mast?

What did you use to see what frequency was in use? Was it a phone or special equipment?

bminish

To_be_confirmed wrote:

I wouldn't be too sure about that. I've been 200m from voda masts but only 900MHz frequencies showed up. Have Voda now put 1800MHz equipment on every mast?

No 1800 is not on every mast, It's on a lot of them but not all of them by any means