W215 poor mobile service & quality

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Craiglxviii

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Hi Craig
I bought a
Mercedes Bluetooth HFP Adapter
Mercedes part number:
B6 788 0000
If you have a mobile prewiring, it just slots into the glove compartment.

https://www.commandonline.co.uk/Mercedes_Bluetooth_HFP.html

I have an oldish iPhone 6S Plus.
The reception is fine and all the integrated telephone features work with the Command perfectly.

When first installed, it took 4 mins to sync a huge address book, but now it active by the time I have started the car and put my seatbelt on :)

I understand it doesnt use the cars antenna which is a shame but the phone reception is pretty good .. good enough for me.

I dont like 2nd hand stuff but bought it in eBay, was listed as mint perfect boxed etc. And it was. Paid £180 I think.

A pretty simple ... obviously approved solution

Reception has been fine in a rectangle from Oxford to Southampton to Manchester and London

The HFP is another Bluetooth dongle type device that does the same job as my Visseeeeeooooo. So that bit is covered. Ironically on today's trip out, I've had 5 bars everywhere so I guess it's just Bedfordshire"s superb cellular service manifesting itself...
 

alexanderfoti

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I tried searching around to see if metalised glass attenuates certain frequencies more than others. It makes sense that it would, and certain providers would be better than others.
 

V6Matty

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All run in the same range actually Alex, so it tends just to be who's got a better presents in the area mast wise, metalised screen do again make a big difference between to signal strength with anything up to a 20% loss quite possible.
 
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alexanderfoti

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That's true, but there is some variation over which carriers use 800mhz or 2600mhz for 4g.

Latest phones support "HD voice" which allows calls over 4g. It may be that the glass attenuates 800 but not 2600mhz so users making calls over 4g may be getting a better experience.
 

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Is this wrong then?
Capture.png
 
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Craiglxviii

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I tried searching around to see if metalised glass attenuates certain frequencies more than others. It makes sense that it would, and certain providers would be better than others.

That makes a lot of sense and I'd not taken my thoughts that far...
 

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That's true, but there is some variation over which carriers use 800mhz or 2600mhz for 4g.

Latest phones support "HD voice" which allows calls over 4g. It may be that the glass attenuates 800 but not 2600mhz so users making calls over 4g may be getting a better experience.

That's more choice of the carriers as to where they steer their traffic, your not wrong in what your saying but the 4g @ 2600mhz is a truly woeful wavelength to run at, well I say that but it does work at certain ranges to the tower and with little obscuring the signal, as you say the glass is probably better at blocking some wavelengths over others hence being different in certain areas

Is this wrong then?
Capture.png
not wrong at all Alex but the closer you look at it the differences are really not much especially where you see certain carriers utilising others towers, it's an interesting subject and not something I've looked into in much detail (spent more time investigating wireless around buildings and open spaces), but about 90% of the masts are not actually owned by the carriers but a couple of seperate companies who are very clever at how things have been placed to stop the carriers putting up their own masts without huge expense ;)
 
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Craiglxviii

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Well I did some digging and found this. I use EE which uses the 1800MHZ band. The CL has double coated IR cut glass (coating is applied on the inside and interlayer boundaries), so I will experience anything from 40-50dB of attenuation due to the glass.

As my mobile signal is poor anyway (I just found the Field Test mode for my iPhone to show actual service strength, complete loss of signal occurs at -115dB and I'm currently on -90, with 0 being maximum) this goes a long way to explaining why I get so damn frustrated with making calls in this car!
 

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Craiglxviii

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Ok. More digging.

To get best reception from an omnidirectional antenna, a ground plane is required. Cue me digging very deeply into memory banks to dredge up all the antenna theory I learnt for the CLANSMAN radio family... hiss squeak pop. Anyway. To get a decent groundplane means mounting the antenna on a big lump of metal with nothing in front of it to block signal. So, for my 215, this means the outside face of the rear bumper crash beam... letting the omni view through EM transparent plastic and foam.

http://www.connextech.co.uk/710259---alldisc-high-performance-4glte-puck-antenna-1250-p.asp this little beauty offers pretty good gain at my desired freq bucket.

https://m.aliexpress.com/s/item/32362368281.html This little beauty offers 65dB gain.

Now I just need a small whip antenna to bury in the rear parcel shelf or just inside boot trim, some extra low impedance co-axial cable, a 12-5V power supply, a blade fuse power take-off and some rubber grommetry to seal the cable coming out of the car.

Then I might bottle it and give the job to Phil.
 
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Update- all purchased, whip antenna for £7.55 from the same place as the Omni.

Delivery in a couple of weeks... now to plan my dashcams!
 

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Be interested to see how it turns out. Good set of kit there!
 
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Craiglxviii

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Be interested to see how it turns out. Good set of kit there!

You'll be providing half the technical assistance Alex via here so I've no doubt you'll find out!!!

I'm quite excited. I bought a 12-5V buck converter, 4m of ultra low impedance RG316 cable and some natty gold plated connectors for it, plus a piggyback fuseboard power takeoff.

Total bill:

1800MHz booster: £39.69
Puck omni high gain antenna: £34.00
Whip omni antenna: £7.55
Cable: £10.07
Fuseholder: £5.21
Connectors: £14.79
Buck converter: £8.35

Total: £119.66
 

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So, you're installing a high-gain antenna, an ultrawide bandwidth RF amp and a re-radiator for the inside of the car. Does the amp/re-radiator remodulate the signal to another frequency or won't you have intermodulation/cancellation of the external signal?
 
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So, you're installing a high-gain antenna, an ultrawide bandwidth RF amp and a re-radiator for the inside of the car. Does the amp/re-radiator remodulate the signal to another frequency or won't you have intermodulation/cancellation of the external signal?

The amp is only for the 1800MHz freq band which is most attenuated by the car's structure. It re-radiates at 1800MHz; the high gain omni will be shielded from the re-radiating antenna by the rear crash beam which it will be mounted on the outside of.

That's the plan anyway...!
 

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I wonder if putting my phone in the boot temporarily will give it better signal than the cabin.
 
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I wonder if putting my phone in the boot temporarily will give it better signal than the cabin.

If this works for me Alex it should for you, the cars have similar structural layout.
 
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alexanderfoti

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If this works for me Alex it should for you, the car's have similar structural layout.

True. I very rarely had this issue on the 215 but on the 221 I cant have a conversation at all. Its frustrating that there is a whole aerial system there that I cant use!!!
 
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True. I very rarely had this issue on the 215 but on the 221 I cant have a conversation at all. Its frustrating that there is a whole aerial system there that I cant use!!!

How strange! Which network provider are you with?
 

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Craiglxviii

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Some further thoughts on this.

There is an aerial connector right up to the UHI connector. Looks like Fakra to me?

s-l1600.jpg


s-l1600.jpg


What about tapping into that with this on the end:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GSM-GPRS-...922435?hash=item235ca12e83:g:s9oAAOSwo6lWPgq-

OR dismantling one of these for the patch antenna:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/iPhone-5-...976578?hash=item3613a77902:g:8xkAAOSw3KFWgg8P

Then plonk the phone on top of the patch antenna inside the armest and it should work?

I had that thought. Then I thought that the built in amp on mine wouldn't handle anything beyond WAP as it's a 2000 build car.
 
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