Signal Strength?

[RunamuckRez]

Just a quick question for you all. My Eris's signal strength seems to bounce between the 80 dps to 96 dps? My signal bars rarely go above one or two and I have all the typical dialer lag, 50% bug etc, but no silent bug, and all the usual remedies. Is there a way to improve my signal strength at all? I live in NJ so I figure I'm probably relatively close a tower.

Thank you in advance.

Rez

 

[scary alien]

Just a quick question for you all. My Eris's signal strength seems to bounce between the 80 dps to 96 dps? My signal bars rarely go above one or two and I have all the typical dialer lag, 50% bug etc, but no silent bug, and all the usual remedies. Is there a way to improve my signal strength at all? I live in NJ so I figure I'm probably relatively close a tower.

Thank you in advance.

Rez

Rez,

That's a fairly typical signal strength reading... I get -89 dBm here at home on both my Eris and my Droid X. The number of bars on the Eris has always been at odds with the signal strength reading (I'm typically at one or two bars also--never recall seeing anything higher, by the way).

Don't know of any ways to improve signal strength other than moving closer to a tower (careful of radiation burns, though ).

I've had the "50% bug" which I don't (and I think others also) think is really a bug--never seen any side or bad effects as a result of it. I also checked my Droid X today and checked on the time without signal. Guess what it was? 50%...so, I think some folks obsess about it too much.

There is a way to improve your dialer lag. Cleaning call history seems to help and there is also a way to change your phone's "slot cycle" assuming that this what you are speaking of. Here's some threads to read through that are at least interesting:

http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/68517-so-when-i-lower-my-slot-cycle.html
http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/37976-regarding-slot-cycle-setting-2-x-thread.html
http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/116638-takes-forever-my-phone-ring.html
http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/16859-eris-tips-tricks-2.html
http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/79811-so-much-lag-between-incoming-call-notification.html
http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/53792-any-experience-these-two-tips.html

Cheers!

 

[L0stS0ul]

I think that the eris down powers the radio when not on a call. I'm sitting between 2 towers not that far apart right now and I've got two bars at -80dBm. As soon as I make a call, and I just did it right now, the phone jumped to 4 bars and -70dBm.

It's a theory but seems to hold up on my phone. Whenever I am on a call I get 4-5 bars otherwise I see 1-2 bars always.

 

[razorclose]

I think that the eris down powers the radio when not on a call. I'm sitting between 2 towers not that far apart right now and I've got two bars at -80dBm. As soon as I make a call, and I just did it right now, the phone jumped to 4 bars and -70dBm.

It's a theory but seems to hold up on my phone. Whenever I am on a call I get 4-5 bars otherwise I see 1-2 bars always.

Yeah, I mean it might also be that 3G is flakier, because I know when I switch to 1X when sending a text or making a call, my bars are more populated and numerically better as well.

 

[scary alien]

I think that the eris down powers the radio when not on a call. I'm sitting between 2 towers not that far apart right now and I've got two bars at -80dBm. As soon as I make a call, and I just did it right now, the phone jumped to 4 bars and -70dBm.

It's a theory but seems to hold up on my phone. Whenever I am on a call I get 4-5 bars otherwise I see 1-2 bars always.

+1 Good point! I've also heard others report seeing more bars when on a call--I've never remembered to look, lol! It makes sense though that this is a battery-saving tactic.

 

[Hiroshika]

Now is that sustained dps or no? I guess the biggest question is how are you playing WOW on your eris??

 

[L0stS0ul]

Here is something interesting. If we all had iPhones we'd all have 5 bars all the time even after the new os update

iPhone 4 bars to signal strength mapped, antenna issue partially explained Boy Genius Report

 

[Deleted User]

Hey guys, I'm new here and have a noob question on signal strength (didn't think I should start a new thread).

I have the motorola droid and was wondering what a good signal strength is. I've downloaded the real signal app and it is showing my CDMA signal as -92 and my EVDO signal as -4. From what I've read, the higher a negative number, the worse the signal is, so based on this I would assume the EVDO signal is very good. I am having a problem however with the phone constantly dropping from 3g to 1x whenever I am using data (using browsers and apps). If the signal is good, why would it keep doing this, is it an issue with the phone?

Thanks for the help

 

[Demache]

How in the hell are you getting -4? The best I think that is possible is -50.

The app is reporting the strength wrong methinks.

 

[Deleted User]

How in the hell are you getting -4? The best I think that is possible is -50.

The app is reporting the strength wrong methinks.

I have no idea, is there another way to check the EVDO signal strength?

 

[LexusBrian400]

How in the hell are you getting -4? The best I think that is possible is -50.

The app is reporting the strength wrong methinks.

Nah... With 4 bars I get -47dbm all day.

 

[Demache]

Nah... With 4 bars I get -47dbm all day.

Close enough to -50. Still, -4?!?? No way that can be right!

 

[jgsouthard]

Close enough to -50. Still, -4?!?? No way that can be right!

I think domhas1 is right. The Motorola Droid has a different strength scale for 3G EVDO signal than does the HTC Droid Eris. Take a look at some of the info on the Real Signal app -- Eric has to have different scaling for different phones.

On the Motorola Droid, the CDMA signal strength is the usual -105 to -50 (ish) dBm scale, but the EVDO scale runs from about -15 to -10 for a minimum usable signal up to -1 when you're sitting right under a tower. -4 would be a good strong 3G signal, something in the range of 3-4 bars if you use the default scaling in Real Signal. But again, only on the Motorola Droid (and maybe Droid X and Droid 2, not sure about those).

The only thing that surprises me about this post is that his CDMA signal is only -92 dBm even though the 3G signal is that strong. It almost seems like he's next to a tower with 3G only, while getting CDMA from another tower further away. When you couple that with the fact that he's getting dropped from 3G to 1x (which shouldn't occur unless EVDO signal strength is under -10), it makes me wonder if there indeed might be something wrong.