THE 3G APOCALYPSE

So the last day of 3G mobile phone service in Australia has begun 
and this morning my mobile broadband modem is once again not 
finding 4G signal. When I selected these modems I missed that 
Telstra were planning to use a new 700MHz band to improve regional 
coverage, which they've branded 4GX. According to this website 
they're now using 850MHz for 4G as well, perhaps in a last-ditch 
effort to match 3G coverage on 4G because it says "This band was 
added to Telstra's network on August 4, 2024", after their first 
3G-switch-off deadline (since extended twice):

https://www.frequencycheck.com/carriers/telstra-australia

I missed all that a few years ago and bought a modem (and spares) 
that only supports the higher 4G frequency bands: 900MHz, 1800MHz, 
2100MHz, and 2600MHz. Of those, that link states that 2100MHz "was 
removed from Telstra Australia on August 4, 2024", and 900MHz 
hasn't been used at all, so that leaves 1800MHz and 2600MHz, both 
much higher frequencies than the 850MHz 3G band being used before. 
I knew that this was going to be a problem for reception when I 
picked the modems, since generally higher frequencies travel less 
distance, but websites weren't updated with info on Telstra's 
700MHz 4G band back then - why oh why can't Telstra just _say_ what 
they're doing instead of everyone relying on 3rd party info?!

Anyway I hate the design of all the modern 4G USB modems with their 
web interfaces and limited configuability. These ones still talk 
good old AT commands, and they weren't designed by some suspicious 
Chinese company that's probably loading them with spyware or 
killswitches like modern offerings. So I still stand by my choice. 
The trouble is, I needed to build an 1800MHz 4G antenna this month, 
and I've run out of time for it.

It is complicated by needing to mount it on a tank stand for 
line-of-sight to the tower, so I wanted to build it on top of my 
backup gravity-fed water tank I've been meaning to install for a 
decade in order to supply water to the house when the power's out 
or the the house pump's otherwise dead. For that I've ended up with 
that old bathtub I mentioned in the last post, that I'm trying to 
build a platform for. Then on top of that build a 4G antenna from 
an old satellite dish, which itself still needs to be pulled off 
the steep roof of my father's house, based on the designs on 
Whirlpool:

https://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/nextg_3g_satellite_dish_antenna
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/37xqz059

Towards this, I've managed to patch up the rust spots in the old 
bath with marine epoxy and bitumen paint, and build half of a base. 
Pretty pathetic in a month, but I've been too focused on failing to 
make money instead. I guess I should have dropped everything, but 
even as things are I've got to race to finishg my tax return due at 
the end of the month now. I'm just too slow. I really didn't 
realise it was even this close to the deadline, I've been too 
focused on finishing other things that I just _knew_ I could finish 
way before this. But I didn't. It's all so frustrating.

Before yesterday and today I was getting 4G signal quite 
consistently, it's just gone bad again now at the end, so maybe 
I'll still have internet most of the time until I get an antenna 
set up. If not, I guess I'll have to go up a hill with a laptop or 
something. Hell I can drive up the mountain that the phone tower's 
built on if it comes to that. But if I'm never heard from again, 
you'll know it really didn't work out!

I did at least secure myself a Nokia 4G flip-phone to replace the 
old Samsung model I pulled apart in for my 
2022-07-06Jirka_Made_Me_Pull_my_Phone_Apart.txt post, kept in the 
car for emergencies only (with an increasingly long list of 
exceptions for things that you need SMS 2FA codes for now). That 
was another long saga for which little of my research in 
2023-06-10Facing_4G.txt turned out to be correct/useful anyway.

Really the problem here is that I just feel too tempted to say 
"fuck it" and give up on it all. Frequencies/bands, carrier network 
locking, VoLTE support (which doesn't support 5G, that requires 
"VoNR", so the "it's a 4G phone but it still won't work without 3G" 
confusion will happen all over again with 5G when 4G is turned 
off). It's a minefield, especially when seeking out the few 
products that are fit in my niche of cheap and minimal. I still use 
a (real, copper-rotting-in-the-earth) landline for actual phone 
calls and the internet keeps pissing me off by moving things behind 
Javascript. Most of my computer projects are about making things on 
the Web as easily accessible as they were around 10 - 20 years ago, 
and I'm never getting around to most of those anyway so I just stop 
using those websites as much. Internet users that moved to social 
media for everything are gone to me anyway, I want no path into 
that land of commercially-manipulated insanity.

All those frustrations with the internet are what I'm going to all 
this trouble to provide to myself!

 - The Free Thinker.

PS. I keep getting the frequencies in the first paragraphs mixed 
up. This doesn't bode well - what's bet I end up building an ideal 
antenna for a discontinued frequency? That's _exactly_ the sort of 
mistake I keep making lately...