[MOD] Using Skyrocket on T-mobile/AWS Bands

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SGS2X

Senior Member
Nov 12, 2011
187
13
Toronto
Anyone try this with wind mobile or mobilicity in Canada? They are AWS networks.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App

I just switched back to Mobilicity from Wind a few days ago and I'm quite upset with signal :( I got my other mobilicity phone right beside me and my Skyrocket barely retains signal and is usually at -111, 1 asu whereas my other phone is in the -80s with at least 12 asu at the same spot :/ Tried all 3 radios and they have no effect. Worst part is the texts keep failing, thats the one thing I need most

I feel so frustrated right now... why didn't I just stick with the Big 3 :( been flipping back and forth between Wind and Mobilicity for the past 4 months and each time the signal gets worse. The worst part is that the phone has more of a part in the bad signal than Mobilicity because phones they sell work fine, but mine keeps flipping between no service and 0-1 bars -.- I've wasted more money in the past 4 months than I would have spent with Bell/Telus/Rogers and I've had bad experience this whole time. Why is this such a **** antenna in our phones? it's not just the Skyrocket but the Hercules too... First with mobilicity i was getting mediocre service, switched to Wind and had slightly worse service, switch back to Mobilicity and I have NO service most of the time, wtf man

I see theres 2 external antenna ports at the back of the phone... can anything be done with those to boost signal?
 
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sigsegv0x0B

Member
May 3, 2006
38
2
I just switched back to Mobilicity from Wind a few days ago and I'm quite upset with signal :( I got my other mobilicity phone right beside me and my Skyrocket barely retains signal and is usually at -111, 1 asu whereas my other phone is in the -80s with at least 12 asu at the same spot :/ Tried all 3 radios and they have no effect. Worst part is the texts keep failing, thats the one thing I need most

I feel so frustrated right now... why didn't I just stick with the Big 3 :( been flipping back and forth between Wind and Mobilicity for the past 4 months and each time the signal gets worse. The worst part is that the phone has more of a part in the bad signal than Mobilicity because phones they sell work fine, but mine keeps flipping between no service and 0-1 bars -.- I've wasted more money in the past 4 months than I would have spent with Bell/Telus/Rogers and I've had bad experience this whole time. Why is this such a **** antenna in our phones? it's not just the Skyrocket but the Hercules too... First with mobilicity i was getting mediocre service, switched to Wind and had slightly worse service, switch back to Mobilicity and I have NO service most of the time, wtf man

I see theres 2 external antenna ports at the back of the phone... can anything be done with those to boost signal?

Actually yesterday I compared a skyrocket with a galaxy nexus on wind. Results are very strange both phones were showing full signal but the network performance was pretty terrible with the GN doing a little better then skyrocket. But not by much. Skyrocket was getting 30-40Kb/sec and 5-10Kb/sec up. (that's Kilobytes not kilobits) and the GN was doin about 60Kb/sec down and 15Kb/sec up. Not a huge difference. No idea a SGH-T989 would have done.

But all of these phones have wildedly different radio implementations. The GN is different entirely while the T989 and I727 use same modem chip their radios are totally different. And their performance will be very different on any network.

There is a actually a really good tear down on the SGH-I727 on the internet if you search for it. It gives you a very good overview of the I727 radio layout. And it's rather complex. The SGH-T989 supposedly has a single SKY77604 power amp that supports AWS. The I727 has a weird layout with a SKY77606 handing the quad band WCDMA and then it has 3 more ampilifers (ACPM-5004 UMTS 1700MHz) (ACPM-5017 698-716 MHz) (ACPM-5202 1850-1910MHz) Not sure why the ACPM-5202 is there because I think the SKY77606 supports this band. So if this information is correct the I727 has tons more of radio hardware then the SGH-T989 even though the actual modem is the same. This might mean that the I727 won't be able to match the battery life of the T989 due to having so many more power amplifiers.

If someone can find a very good tear down for SGH-T989 it would be nice because my info for T989 comes from someone who opened it up but never punished a proper tear down.

Galaxy Nexus has also lots of excellent teardowns published and it has an single pentaband RF6260 power amp handing all the bands.

So from the current phones the Skyrocket has by the far the strangest and most complex radio layout with at least 4 power amplifiers in it's radio where the other phones usually have only 1.
 
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SGS2X

Senior Member
Nov 12, 2011
187
13
Toronto
Actually yesterday I compared a skyrocket with a galaxy nexus on wind. Results are very strange both phones were showing full signal but the network performance was pretty terrible with the GN doing a little better then skyrocket. But not by much. Skyrocket was getting 30-40Kb/sec and 5-10Kb/sec up. (that's Kilobytes not kilobits) and the GN was doin about 60Kb/sec down and 15Kb/sec up. Not a huge difference. No idea a SGH-T989 would have done.

But all of these phones have wildedly different radio implementations. The GN is different entirely while the T989 and I727 use same modem chip their radios are totally different. And their performance will be very different on any network.

There is a actually a really good tear down on the SGH-I727 on the internet if you search for it. It gives you a very good overview of the I727 radio layout. And it's rather complex. The SGH-T989 supposedly has a single SKY77604 power amp that supports AWS. The I727 has a weird layout with a SKY77606 handing the quad band WCDMA and then it has 3 more ampilifers (ACPM-5004 UMTS 1700MHz) (ACPM-5017 698-716 MHz) (ACPM-5202 1850-1910MHz) Not sure why the ACPM-5202 is there because I think the SKY77606 supports this band. So if this information is correct the I727 has tons more of radio hardware then the SGH-T989 even though the actual modem is the same. This might mean that the I727 won't be able to match the battery life of the T989 due to having so many more power amplifiers.

If someone can find a very good tear down for SGH-T989 it would be nice because my info for T989 comes from someone who opened it up but never punished a proper tear down.

Galaxy Nexus has also lots of excellent teardowns published and it has an single pentaband RF6260 power amp handing all the bands.

So from the current phones the Skyrocket has by the far the strangest and most complex radio layout with at least 4 power amplifiers in it's radio where the other phones usually have only 1.

Do you know if there is any way to tweak the amount of power that these amps deliver to the radio? Maybe the kernel controls that? I don't mind sacrificing battery life if it means I can actually use my phone to text/talk at home
 

sigsegv0x0B

Member
May 3, 2006
38
2
Do you know if there is any way to tweak the amount of power that these amps deliver to the radio? Maybe the kernel controls that? I don't mind sacrificing battery life if it means I can actually use my phone to text/talk at home

I wouldn't imagine any phone user level control over these amplifiers it's likely fully automatic and done by the modem. It would be great to have some RF engineer to answer this. The IC docs do mention that the amplifiers have power control levels and likely the modem does manage them. There is a good chance that to work on AWS the Skyrocket must keep at least 2 amps going one for the 1700mhz (ACPM-5004) uplink and one for 2110mhz downlink on the (SKY77606).

Tying to browse the specs for these amps this functionality seems to be split across different chips on the skyrocket. While in the SGH-T989 it's all on the SKY77604.

And on top of all this is the fact that these IC's actually have multiple power amplifiers inside them. There is likely at least 2 amps inside SKY77606 some for rx and some for tx.

So my guess would be skyrocket simply has no choice but to run at least 3 AMPs when operating on AWS. The two in the SKY77606 and 1 in the ACPM-5004 for uplink. On the hand maybe the power-management in the SKY77606 will turn off the uplink amp if it's not being used.

In the end this all wild conjecture it would be up to someone who really has good experience with this and understanding of these chips to explain how it all works in the skyrocket.

---------- Post added at 04:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------

In the end this all wild conjecture it would be up to someone who really has good experience with this and understanding of these chips to explain how it all works in the skyrocket.

Another guess I would put is that the T-Mobile modem firmware when running on the Skyrocket simply is unable to properly manage the Skyrockets AWS Uplink amp so it's running with some defaults that are maybe not optimal. Perhaps isn't outputting the power needed and T-Mobile modem firmware might simply not know how to change power level on the Avago amp.

---------- Post added at 05:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:44 PM ----------

It seems that a few sites list the "Docomo SC-03D Samsung Galaxy S II LTE" with 1700mhz support. Chances are this is basically a Skyrocket (of course without a proper tear down we won't know). But if they do support 1700mhz there is a good chance we can get proper AWS support with their modem firmware. So if someone has radio from this phone to flash and try that would be interesting.
 

SGS2X

Senior Member
Nov 12, 2011
187
13
Toronto
Another guess I would put is that the T-Mobile modem firmware when running on the Skyrocket simply is unable to properly manage the Skyrockets AWS Uplink amp so it's running with some defaults that are maybe not optimal. Perhaps isn't outputting the power needed and T-Mobile modem firmware might simply not know how to change power level on the Avago amp.

---------- Post added at 05:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:44 PM ----------

It seems that a few sites list the "Docomo SC-03D Samsung Galaxy S II LTE" with 1700mhz support. Chances are this is basically a Skyrocket (of course without a proper tear down we won't know). But if they do support 1700mhz there is a good chance we can get proper AWS support with their modem firmware. So if someone has radio from this phone to flash and try that would be interesting.

That might as well be true because the T-Mobile modem wouldn't really know how to properly control the amps in the Skyrocket radio... as for battery, I haven't seen ANY difference in battery between my Skyrocket and old Hercules. With my latest rom (Paradox), my battery was still at 32% at 2:00 AM after taking it off charge at 6:00 AM the day before (and it was at 93% when I took it off) so battery life is great. I'm not running LTE tho so that may be why

Also, the 1700 is probably listed under LTE & not HSPA for those devices
 
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Ok, been reading through this post and still have a couple questions.

In order to get this to work, do I have to use a SG2 T-Mobile ROM and one of the radios in the OP, or can I use a custom Skyrocket ROM and one of these radios?

Trying to find out how to make a good combo to get this working.

Thanks!
 

jose makalolot

Senior Member
Aug 21, 2009
2,001
156
Florida
Ok, been reading through this post and still have a couple questions.

In order to get this to work, do I have to use a SG2 T-Mobile ROM and one of the radios in the OP, or can I use a custom Skyrocket ROM and one of these radios?

Trying to find out how to make a good combo to get this working.

Thanks!

You can use any hercules roms or some skyrocket roms and hercules radio/modem.

-----------
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tomin.fhl

Senior Member
Sep 30, 2007
198
154
I wouldn't imagine any phone user level control over these amplifiers it's likely fully automatic and done by the modem. It would be great to have some RF engineer to answer this. The IC docs do mention that the amplifiers have power control levels and likely the modem does manage them. There is a good chance that to work on AWS the Skyrocket must keep at least 2 amps going one for the 1700mhz (ACPM-5004) uplink and one for 2110mhz downlink on the (SKY77606).

Tying to browse the specs for these amps this functionality seems to be split across different chips on the skyrocket. While in the SGH-T989 it's all on the SKY77604.

And on top of all this is the fact that these IC's actually have multiple power amplifiers inside them. There is likely at least 2 amps inside SKY77606 some for rx and some for tx.

So my guess would be skyrocket simply has no choice but to run at least 3 AMPs when operating on AWS. The two in the SKY77606 and 1 in the ACPM-5004 for uplink. On the hand maybe the power-management in the SKY77606 will turn off the uplink amp if it's not being used.

In the end this all wild conjecture it would be up to someone who really has good experience with this and understanding of these chips to explain how it all works in the skyrocket.

---------- Post added at 04:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:39 PM ----------



Another guess I would put is that the T-Mobile modem firmware when running on the Skyrocket simply is unable to properly manage the Skyrockets AWS Uplink amp so it's running with some defaults that are maybe not optimal. Perhaps isn't outputting the power needed and T-Mobile modem firmware might simply not know how to change power level on the Avago amp.

---------- Post added at 05:03 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:44 PM ----------

It seems that a few sites list the "Docomo SC-03D Samsung Galaxy S II LTE" with 1700mhz support. Chances are this is basically a Skyrocket (of course without a proper tear down we won't know). But if they do support 1700mhz there is a good chance we can get proper AWS support with their modem firmware. So if someone has radio from this phone to flash and try that would be interesting.

Wonder it this is what is preventing consistent user experiences with the AT&T Galaxy Note to T-Mobile mod.
 

sigsegv0x0B

Member
May 3, 2006
38
2
Doesn't list the ICs. Pictures are blurry and doesn't take off the RF shields off the modules. We need a much better one like the one ifixit normally does.
 

iNeedICS

Senior Member
Jan 26, 2012
1,540
235
that one place
Which Radio is the best??

As it says in the title so which ones faster?
and lets say i flash juggernaut with the conversion pack wouldnt i get the jugg radio?? pardon the noob question
also if i flash the tmobile rom with the conversion package is my phone gonna boot up with tmobiles logo ( i would really love that! im a tmobile guy im just getting the skyrocket for future tmo lte for next year;)
 

jose makalolot

Senior Member
Aug 21, 2009
2,001
156
Florida
I am using [ROM] MHX-SUPERLITE-3.0 Stable

But my phone still shows I am using baseband UCLA3 after flashing it.

So any roms does not work and i am still trying to figure out what the :mad: went wrong...

Also tried other UCLA3 roms and the modem sticks to that also. Also tried asking both in Q and A and Devs sections, but no one knows.



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Razor1973

Senior Member
Jun 23, 2006
682
31
Florida
I have NexusMod 4 ROM and faux's kernel 5.0 and no matter what radio I install, I can't seem to overwrite UCLA3. I have tried both T-Mobile radios here, also AT&T's official I727ATTKJ2, I727ATTKJ7 and I727ATTKK1 as well as Da_G's radio from here and nothing. The flashing from recovery goes smooth and when I reboot, I still have UCLA3.

Is anybody else experiencing this problem? I tried with the MHX-SUPERLITE ROM (also UCLA3) with the same results.
 

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smully1

Senior Member
Dec 29, 2010
368
66
Fayetteville, AR
I have NexusMod 4 ROM and faux's kernel 5.0 and no matter what radio I install, I can't seem to overwrite UCLA3. I have tried both T-Mobile radios here, also AT&T's official I727ATTKJ2, I727ATTKJ7 and I727ATTKK1 as well as Da_G's radio from here and nothing. The flashing from recovery goes smooth and when I reboot, I still have UCLA3.

Is anybody else experiencing this problem? I tried with the MHX-SUPERLITE ROM (also UCLA3) with the same results.

It is a problem with ucla. You need to flash to a nom-ucla rom and then change modems. Then you can reflash the rom but not the ucla modem.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using XDA
 
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Razor1973

Senior Member
Jun 23, 2006
682
31
Florida
It is a problem with ucla. You need to flash to a nom-ucla rom and then change modems. Then you can reflash the rom but not the ucla modem.
You have been thanked, sir. Right after I posted last night, I decided to give Juggernaut 5.0 a try with the VKL1 modem and was on HSPA+ in no time! I did like NexusMod 4, but don't know how I could flash that ROM via CWM without flashing the radio. Unless there's an Odin version somewhere?

EDIT: By the way, which of those modems I mentioned above would you recommend? Based on the date in which these were posted, is it safe to assume that the ones in this thread are newer and better than the one posted by Da_G back in December? My speeds were very high (10 MBps) last night, but barely reach 1 MBps today with the VLK1 modem. I may try another one. And is that Telus modem going to get me connected to T-Mobile's HSPA+???
 
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jose makalolot

Senior Member
Aug 21, 2009
2,001
156
Florida
You have been thanked, sir. Right after I posted last night, I decided to give Juggernaut 5.0 a try with the VKL1 modem and was on HSPA+ in no time! I did like NexusMod 4, but don't know how I could flash that ROM via CWM without flashing the radio. Unless there's an Odin version somewhere?

EDIT: By the way, which of those modems I mentioned above would you recommend? Based on the date in which these were posted, is it safe to assume that the ones in this thread are newer and better than the one posted by Da_G back in December? My speeds were very high (10 MBps) last night, but barely reach 1 MBps today with the VLK1 modem. I may try another one. And is that Telus modem going to get me connected to T-Mobile's HSPA+???

So far VLK1 worked for me when I was still on Simple Mobile. i get 5mbps+.

If you want to try, I repack a rom with my mix based on UKK1. So far, worked great for me. :)



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Razor1973

Senior Member
Jun 23, 2006
682
31
Florida
Actually, I had no voice with VKL1, either incoming or outgoing. Using Da_G's radio, I had voice, but only EDGE. The KID radio just wouldn't flash and I tried re-downloading and repacking it. Lastly, I tried the Telus radio and everything seems perfect. Funny... the Telus radio gets me the best results on T-Mobile when installed on an AT&T phone. hahaha
 

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    So a lot of people have been PM'ing me in regards to this matter.

    There are also a couple of threads lingering around in the General section on both the t-mobile and skyrocket forums which brush on the topic but don't really go into the details.

    I decided to post this here as a MOD.

    Yes the Skyrocket will support HSPA+/3g on T-mobiles network. How do I know this? I had one and was using it on t-mobile with no problem.

    There are a couple radios you can flash to get HSPA+ on the skyrocket:

    T-mobile SGH-T989 KID: http://minus.com/mlupRDTvJ#1
    T-mobile SGH-T989 VK1: http://minus.com/mlupRDTvJ#4
    Telus KJ3: http://minus.com/mlupRDTvJ#2


    Here is the Stock Skyrocket radio: http://minus.com/mlupRDTvJ#3



    Depending on where you are located/what bands your operator uses I would assume one of these radios would work better than the other.

    On a side note a lot of people have just "claimed" that the skyrocket doesn't pick up hspa+. This is not true, it does but you will have to figure out the right ROM/Kernel/Radio combination. I experienced intermittent connectivity on certain skyrocket kernels while running a T-mobile radio etc. Either way I ALWAYS had the ability to connect to hspa+. Most often I would get speeds of between 3-7mbps. I personally used VK1.

    When it comes down to the bottom line though, the skyrocket is essentially the same device as the galaxy s2 but with LTE.



    IF this helped please hit the thanks button!
    3
    Thought I would validate what a lot of people were saying with some speed test screenies.
    I'm in NYC, so all reception is great. running the UCMC1 modem on CM10.1.2, Moretz 3.0.9. No t-mobile modems, or kernels and all is well :)

    Fastest one is T-mobile LTE
    Second fastest is HSPA (Listed as Cell for some reason)
    Third is simply edge.
    3
    How to Use Skyrocket with ICS on T-Mobile Bands

    Guys, I've solved it, and by solved it I, of course, mean I used the solution from another phone, so all props go to original finder of the solution. Basically, we just use the T-Mobile Radios/RILs and flash them after installing whatever UCLD2 (or any other baseband ICS ROM) and VOILA! T-Mobile reception, mms, sms, calls, and of course, 4G/Edge. And of course, make sure you add the T-Mobile APN.

    Goto Settings>Wireless and Network>Mobile Networks>Access Point Names>Hit Menu>Add
    Name: T-Mobile
    APN: epc.tmobile.com
    Proxy:
    Port:
    Username:
    Password:
    Server:
    MMSC: http://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc
    MMS proxy:
    MMS port:
    MMS protocol: WAP 2.0
    MCC: 310
    MNC: 260
    Authentication type:
    APN type:Internet+MMS

    Here's the link for the conversion package: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1426001

    You want to download/flash the LB7 radio with ICS RILs.

    PROOF: (To be fair, reception has always been this bad or worse in my apartment with all my phones.)
    screen_20120421_1940.jpg

    Speedtest app confirms 4G speeds of 5Mbps/200Kbps (I think this is a known issue, but hey, at least it's working). No pics. Sorry.

    EDIT: This is on Sky ICS UCLD2 ROM, but I don't see why it shouldn't work for all the others.
    2
    This phone is essentially the T989 with an LTE radio added any way. It was created with the TMobile merger in mind, and was an AT&T handset that could use all of the available bands after the merger was complete. Same reason the T989 supports 850/1900 and is a TMobile device.

    I've been able to get HSPA+ working on Tmo with my skyrocket using all of the radios listed, however I have noticed that the LTE radio stays turned ON. While it is obviously unable to connect to anything, it is polling for an LTE signal.
    This should not be the case, as when I use the Sky specific radios, the LTE radio "Parks" after it determines there is no LTE signal available.
    I can see it pulsing out at what I would venture to guess is maximum power every 8 seconds on the LTE band. (I've got some pretty nice RF testing equipment from my HAM days, not to mention cellular specific stuff from my tower contracting days)
    What I'm wondering, is if any one has tried and flash the T989 ROM on to the Sky Rocket and had success. My running theory is that the RIL is making some sort of call for an LTE specific request even if it is as simple as "Hello are you there" and it starts the LTE radio up but never shuts it off. I'm theorizing that the T989 rom which would have an RIL native to the radio sw being used may not make any such call, and therefore never activate the LTE portion.
    It would also give us the WiFi calling and what not.

    Thoughts?
    2
    Alright I did. Picked the ICS one. Still not getting hspa :( network connectivity seems to be the same as the blaze 4g modem. See screenshots.

    Do I need to select a specific option from the service mode screen? I have chosen the network mode as GSM/HSPA which seems like the right option. Thoughts?

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using xda app-developers app

    Ok I was able to get SKY ICS Rom Working with Blaze 4g. Changed Kernel to ULCF6. Getting some nice results but it varies from place to place. At one point was able to get 8mb dwn and 3mb up. [Location: Chicago]

    Here's the thing though. I used a trick I found from another thread and this works for both my Galaxy Note and Skyrocket.

    NOTE: You must be on TouchWiz. [something about their dailer.]

    1. Must be on a tw rom
    2. Go to service mode by using *#2263#
    3. Go to wcdma per. and click on wcdma 850
    4. Signal bar will be replaced with a circle with a line thru it.
    5. While about 5-10 seconds. Your signal bars will return but you will have no 4g.
    6. Hit settings button, go back and click on wcdma all and 4g will come back.
    7. Do a speed test and profit.
    8. Every time you reboot you must do this every time. Only takes about 30 seconds.

    Big thanks to Rob4828 for this. Without it, I would never be able to connect at 4g speeds.

    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1931679

    **Please be aware link above is a thread for the At&t Galaxy Note, don't go in there thinking you can flash anything from there to your Skyrocket**

    I hope this helps.