1.1   Google Earth >> Tools >> Options
 - Configure to display Latitude and Longitude in Decimal Degrees.
 - Stop GE from automatically tilting the view as it zooms.

TIPS:
A. In Win 7, use the + key combination to
    auto-scale and locate the active window to a split screen.
B. Right-mouse-click the Place maker, to bring up the options
    and access its properties.(On a Mac: Get Info)

1.2   Drop a marker at your location.
1 - Paste the Lat/Long coordinates, Press [Search].

2 - Drop a marker near your location and drag it to
     the exact position your antenna will me mounted.
     [Add], [Place mark].
     Name your Place marker for future reference.

3 - Highlight the Coordinates without the "°" and to copy to the
     notes box, as shown above.
     This can make for easy copy/paste in a later step. 

1.3 Leave Google Earth open.
You'll be using this later, so minimize or re-size without closing it. 

1.4  Save your work.
Its a good idea save your place-mark by clicking
"Save my Places" on the "File, Save" menu of Google Earth.
This saves all your work in Google Earth, so if your PC or Google Earth crashes while your doing this research, you wont need to start all over again.

1.5  Alternatively , E-mail or Save the KMZ file in Google Earth.

A. Drop a Place mark at your location
B. Right mouse click on the Place mark.
C. Select "Save Place As" or  "E-mail".   

Notes:
The ACMA uses AGD66 datum formatted coordinates whereas the coordinates accepted by Google Earth use WGS84. The an AGD66 coor'd is about 200m south east of WGS84.

Telstra Example

Vodafone Example

2.1   Check your telco's coverage.
a. Check the Telstra, Optus and Vodafone coverage maps.
b. Copy and Paste your coordinates from Google Earth.
 -  Telstra Coverage Maps accept Lat/Long or street address. 

2.2    Coverage estimate for your location.
 -  Vodafone and Optus Maps allow only valid street address.

2.3   Zoom Out to get the big picture.
 -  Zoom in/out to get an idea of where the Cell Towers are located.

TIP: Enable POP-UPS in your web-browser for onwireless.com.au to view all the content such as the Mobile Coverage Maps.

The ACMA / RADCOM website has been updated with improved search functions.
You can now search for Mobile phone towers near your location by Latitude/Longitude or Post code.
The Results can be filtered by Emissions Designator, Client Name (e.g. Telstra), Frequency and much more.
Click here to open the ACMA/RADCOM website new window

3.1  Enter your GPS coordinates.
 a. Click the Zoom to Lat/Long or Post code drop down menu.
 b. Select Lat/Long Decimal, (see now the reason for Step 1.1 above)
 c. Copy the Lat/Long coordinates from Google Earth into the boxes.
 d. Press GO! 

3.2  Filter the site results.
 a. Click the Filter Sites (Filter in Use) drop down menu.
 b. Select the By Assignments tab.
 c. Press  Update Map!

3.3 Filter Sites having Assignments usage.

With Clients where:
[Any Details] [matches] [your carrier]
[your carrier] would be Telstra, Optus, Vodafone etc.

With Licenses where: [not needed, leave blank]

With Assignments/Device Registrations where:
[Emissions Designator] [matches] [optional- blank]
If you wish to filter by Emissions Designator [optional- blank] would be 'Em Des'. Otherwise leave blank. This is handy to isolate certain services such as Optus 4G LTE 1800MHz services only.
[see Table 1.]

By Assignment/Device Registration Frequency range:
Low Frequency: [see table below] [MHz]
High Frequency: [see table below] [MHz]
 

3.4 View the Site Summary, Locate tower in Google Earth.

a. Zoom and drag the map to find cell tower locations.

b. Click on the site marker to show the Site Summary bubble.

c. Right Mouse click on [Site Details] to Open Link in New Tab

Example Search - ACMA/RADCOM Website

• Two sets of Telstra services (2 sets of three Rx and sets of three Tx) between 1710-1880 MHz.
• These have Emissions Designators for 4G LTE of 15M0W7D and 5M00W7D.
• Each set of Rx and Tx antennas are at the same Azimuths, thus servicing the same areas.
  Reference: ACMA
  

Shown below is a modified extract from the ACMA RADCOM Site Details page for the GILSTON cell tower. Intended as an example only.
Explanatory notes have been added to the right.
Click any of the live links below for more info (subject to change without notice)

Locate the EXACT position of the cell tower that you found using the ACMA/RADCOM site
Draw a path from your location to the cell tower tower of interest
Do a rough check of the terrain and any obstacles that lie in the path.

You may need to use Street View to find the ACTUAL tower location.

 C. If the location of the tower is not obvious from the first Sky View, you may need to use Street view to visually locate the tower.
 1. With the mouse, click-n-drag the Street View icon to a position where it appears you'll get a good view of the tower.
 2. Scanning around look for the tower. It may help to draw a line to where you expect the tower to be.
 3. Drop a Place marker Pin at the exact Tower location and name it.  

4.2 Draw the Path

A. Zoom out so that you can see both your place marker and the tower marker.

B. Click the ADD PATH icon select the [Style, Color] tab.
 - Set the Color to RED or BLUE, something that stands out.
 - Set the Width to about 2.0

C. Zoom out so that you can see both your place marker and the tower marker.

4.2  Show the Elevation Profile

A. Right-mouse-click on the Line you've just drawn and select Show Elevation Path.

TIP. The profile becomes more accurate as you zoom in on parts of the path line. Double click on sections of the elevation profile to zoom in and load that section of the contour.

Things to note about the above example:

A. Note the position highlighted red above, at the position of the first hill (obstacle) closest to your location.
    This hill is about 14m higher than your location and may obstruct the Line-of-Sight (LOS) to the tower.

B. The distance is only 7.2km which is quite a short distance and will give stronger signal to counter act the effect of obstacles in the path.
    This also means that the effect of the earth's curvature will be negligible.
    Distances of 26km must take into account the curvature of the earth.
    Google Earth does not account of this curvature, so we need to use a more sophisticated calculator .

C. This example Cell Tower is quite elevated in altitude. This will also help with getting signal over obstacles. 

1. Enter the values in order of importance (refer to default settings list below):
a. Select Metric System
b. Enter Radio Type "Custom" for both TX and RX
c. Enter Antenna Info copy/paste from the ACMA website.
d. Enter Metric copy/paste from your place marker in Google Earth.
e. Enter Latitude and Longitude paste in as Decimal degrees with a "S" or "E" see example/defaults.
f. Enter all other values following the guide below. Note for brevity, Name is not mandatory

1. Press Calculate Link:
The most important result is the Signal Level at RX site.
↑ -51 ~ -73 dBm is Excellent signal, 5/5 bars.
-75 to -83 dBm is Good signal, 3-4/5 bars.
-85 to- 95 dBm is Fair signal, 2-3/5 bars.
-97 to -113 ↓ dBm is Marginal to None 0-1/5 0 bars.
These are typical values which may vary between modem models, For mobile phones these values are generally lower, with good signal down to -105dBm
Some phones such as the iPhone represent signal quality, rather than signal strength via the bar bisplay

Default Settings, Hints and Explanation for LinkCalc.

OTHER PARAMETERS

Received Signal Strength Indication
RSSI is a dBm signal strength indicator of the wideband signal for the band to which the device is connected.
RSSI is a value that takes into account both RSCP and Ec/I0.
 

Calculated as follows:
RSSI [dBm] = RSCP [dBm] – Ec/I0 [dB]

The higher (less negative) the RSSI value,
the better the signal quality.

Received Signal Code Power
The pilot channel power level received by the mobile handset or modem for the connected cell (code signal) . Different cells using the same carrier are compared using this value to make cell re-election and cell handover decisions.

Energy per chip (Ec)
to total received power (Io) ratio.
This is the ratio between the connected code signal (RSCP) from the cell tower and the total noise, interference from other towers and non code signals (RSSI).

Higher (less negative) values can indicate a better signal quality.
However EC/Io is often misleading due to the nature of the interfering signals, and varies with the number uf users connected to the cell.
This value is less than 1 and negative when expressed as dBm.

Calculated as follows:
Ec/I0 [dB] = RSCP [dBm] – RSSI [dBm]