"ecno" signal determines number of bars?

[cregal121]

(ecno shown under settings>about phone>status)

i always thought the dBm reading determined the number of bars, but just now realized that the signal strength on the Atrix depends on "ecno". that's why i was always confused when my phone was showing only one bar even though it had a pretty decent dBm signal.

anyway, i'm no techie, so what the heck is ecno? and how's that different from dBm?

 

[WolfmanRobby]

Well crap, let me type this again (I hit submit and got the stupid Database Backup error from the server!)

Ec/No = Signal to noise ratio. That's the QUALITY of the signal.

dBm = Signal strength

Number of bars is determined by a combination of the two.

You'll get more bars on a weak, but clear signal than on a strong, but noisy signal.