The present invention provides an apparatus and system for accurately predicting and evaluating cellular system performance before an actual system is installed at a site. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, only two persons (or under certain conditions, as few as one) are required to operate the portable measurement and antenna placement (MAP) tools of the invention, and evaluate system performance (e.g., voice quality) at varied locations of a site without the system being in place. A user can measure out the size of cells using a bar graph display that shows the range of acceptable signal levels for the system, and an audible warning tone that signals the user when the cell edge has been exceeded. In addition, other quality determinative system parameters (e.g., bit error rate (BER), etc.) can be evaluated simultaneously with voice quality and average received signal strength.