A review of the EnGenius SN-920 by a user, 1/15/2001
I used the same method and criteria for testing the EnGenius 920 with the outdoor antenna as I used testing it without the antenna. That is, I rode around on my bike testing for connection and clarity at various distances.
Here is what I found. As I rode my bicycle north and slightly uphill, the reception kept on going, and going and going. Finally, at just over one mile, I was no longer able to connect. Voila! The manufacturer's/advertisers' claim of one mile range in suburban areas is vindicated!
As for clarity, it worsened the farther away from the base station I got, eventually exhibiting the same "crappy cell phone connection" sound as without the outdoor antenna.
However, when I traveled south, downhill, and over a small hill, the phone was unable to connect after just half a mile.
My town is in the Piedmont, the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and has a relatively hilly topography. What I found was that the further you went in any direction, the more likely that a hill or valley would come between you and the outdoor antenna. And that's when connection was no longer possible. The range of the EnGenius SN-920 was perfectly correlated to the topography--topography which didn't come into play without the outdoor antenna because I couldn't ever get far enough away from the base for the topography to change much.
So, what was the range of the EnGenius SN-920 with the outdoor antenna? I would say one half mile to a little over a mile in my hilly suburban setting.
Remember that claims about the range of the 920 were given for two arenas: urban and open. Now, on to testing the range in "open" territory. The manufacturer's or advertisers' claim was that the phone had a range of "up to 8.5 miles" in open territory.
My testing method for open territory was to travel up to the top of three local mountaintops: Observatory Hill (1 mile), Monticello, yes THE Monticello (3.5 miles) and Pantops Mountain (5.6 miles). I tried to connect with the EnGenius SN-920 from each. For scale, I took this photo from atop Observatory Hill; the mountain on the left is Pantops, the little one on the right is Monticello:
The results? Very simple: I could connect on all three mountaintops! Clear line of sight was CRUCIAL, and I believe this is what the EnGenius folk mean by "open": NOTHING but air between the antenna and the handset. If there were trees in the way, I either couldn't connect or had an awful signal. From Observatory Hill (1 mile) the signal was as good as if I were in my back yard. From Monticello (3.5 miles) the reception was OK. And from Pantops Mountain (5.6 miles) the EnGenius 920 just barely connected.
Now, what of the claim that the phone had "up to 8.5 miles" range in open territory? I got 5.6 miles range in an informal test. So I would say that those range claims are not terribly exaggerated. I imagine a connection range of 8.5 miles is entirely possible in the right setting.
EnGenius SN-920 User Review Home Page
1) Purchasing the EnGenius SN-920
2) Installation Without Outdoor Antenna
3) Testing the Range Without the Outdoor Antenna
4) Installation With the Outdoor Antenna
5) Testing the Range With the Outdoor Antenna
6) Technical Details and Miscellaneous Observations
8) Conclusions about the EnGenius SN-920
10) Ten years later, the Project Ends
copyright Eric Geilker geilker5@aol.com