Lee,
We purchased a true spectrum analyzer a while ago. It was not cheap but it was well worth the money. We've never used it for surveying cell coverage, but there have been instances where cell carriers turn on devices that conflict with our WiFi and the spectrum analyzer allowed us to locate the source. Having said that, if you have one with a pretty broad frequency range, you can certainly use it for what you want. Unfortunately, as you mentioned, it will require a level of technical skill. Hector Rios Louisiana State University From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Lee H Badman Sent: Thursday, April 29, 2010 12:24 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Cell/mobile broadband in-building survey tools? We are kicking around the notion of quantifying cell coverage campus wide, in all rooms of all buildings. Though we have worked with a local company in a couple of specific areas for professional survey work, there is interest in perhaps doing our own more far-ranging survey to get a general sense of areas that are truly bad off for specific carriers. That being said, I know that the options for pulling this sort of thing off are somewhat limited. If you can find a phone for each carrier that can be reliably put into survey/diagnostic mode, it may be enough to send students out and about with their marching orders and a list of rooms, recording signal-related information for each carrier. Then there is the option of investing in the likes of these sorts of tools: * http://www.3gforensics.co.uk/products/site-survey/itemlist/category/11-c surv-m-tek * http://www.tessco.com/products/displayProducts.do?groupId=700&subgroupId =05 But then you have a different level of investment and technical skill at work. Has anyone else on the list gone down the road of self-surveying for cell coverage on a grand scale, and how did you do it? And was it worth the effort? Thanks as always, -Lee Badman ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.
