Cell tower install taught me a better way to test signal strength on site

I was on a commercial job in Austin last month, and the existing alarm panel kept reporting low signal to the cellular communicator. I spent an hour moving the antenna around before realizing the metal roof deck was shielding it entirely. Has anyone else found that pointing the antenna at the nearest tower instead of straight up makes that big of a difference on metal buildings?

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kimr7414d ago

Austin TX, 3dB difference here. I tested the same thing on a metal framed build and found tilting the antenna to about 45 degrees toward the tower helped more than pointing it straight up, but the bigger win was moving it just 6 inches away from the steel beam. Once I did that, the signal went from 2 bars to full, so it was more about distance than angle honestly. I think people overthink the aiming part, the shielding is the real killer on those roofs.