Meshtastic (LORA) range test : Dipole antenna vs out-of-factory antenna

Meshtastic range test : Dipole antenna vs out-of-factory antenna

A range test comparison between the DIY dipole antenna (built in a previous video) and the default factory antenna delivered with an off-the-shelve RAk wireless LORA/Meshtastic board

[C--]

Make sure all of your antennas are polarized in the same plane. Different planes don't receive well. Also, with a horizontally polarized dipole antenna needs to be way off the ground as part of the "doughnut" radiation pattern is aimed at the sky and the ground at those heights and the ends of the antenna have "cones of silence". Good for yagi's, not so good for dipoles.

[LibertyEver]

On your build video for the dipole antenna, I was a bit disappointed that you didn't discuss performance or range, and here it is in this video, with a real world test. Excellent! Thanks! The results were in line with my expectations. I'm building a small local network of three Meshtastic devices, each 2.5 miles apart, in similar rolling urban/suburban terrain. I'm hoping to get enough reflections and refractions when using 8.5 dBi antennas at each location to make it work.

[PeterJavea]

Very, very interesting.
I'm going to see about making your dipole
"The proof is in the pudding"....
I live just north of Brussels and was quietly disappointed with my 2 Heltec V3s. Tiny range.
This is really helpful.
Thank you

[jameshall]

I bet you could get more range with long moderate. It would be interesting to see. I increased my range in my area by a few miles changing to long moderate

[stuartmccloud]

Great Video. I have to build the Dipole as I can't get far enough out to my closest contact.

[kurtdobson]

A dipole is 2.15 dBi gain. There are much higher gain antennas available.

[frspascal]

Bonjour.. Quelle configuration ?? Client, routeur?? Frequence ?? Quand je vois le nombre de nodes recus, je pense que mon t beam gps ne fonctionne pas.. (pourtant toujours une antenne connectee, 1.3/1de ros) longfast, client, 869.525 Mhz, jamais rien recu, meme en mobile... Des idees ?? Merci..

[Jordan-yprp]

La boîte de Tic Tac: fallait y penser !

[EdoDijkgraaf]

I wonder if (or how much) the position of the antennas influence the outcome. Will horizontal positioning vs vertical positioning matter?

[gilgsn]

Good initiative to start this channel! I have a node in Antibes on 868, as of today! I will get you some subscribers...

[efvalve]

Confused, how do you know you are getting back to your own base station and not being accepted by another Meshtastic device. I was under the impression that any device rebroadcasting your message and picked back up by your own device would give you a tick in the cloud when using Longfast which is the common channel?

[hanfo]

7:28 1200m pcb stock lost signal and switched to dipole

[OHSTN]

Awesome test.
Was this 433 or 868mhz?

[justOffgrid-phuo]

Can I order the antenna you built? Loving your movies

[MatthewBrownUK]

Great video, how does the size of the antenna affect the range, or is that governed by the frequency?

[venopsis]

Hi,
Interested into this subject. Went to a LoRaWAN conference years ago.
Noticed you are in Brussels. Do you have any good place to recommend to go to meet people working with Meshtastic and/or website to discover more, any site where to buy stuff and what stuff you recommend?
Thanks!

[jschaeke]

I see you are like me in Belgium. Last year at the Maker fair in Ghent talked with one of the amateur ham radio guys who had a booth over there, he told me you still need a radio license for Lora. I assume we're ok if we leave the default radio (strength) settings and antenna of the heltec (868), right?

[bellimmo]

Bonjour,

Ce serait super que vous vous fassiez des vidéos en français aussi 😊
je suppose que par votre accent vous êtes français

[UnknownUser-pfrk]

HOW does everybody get results like this? In an Urban area? I can't even get messages through over 1km, line of sight, from one hill slope to another with just a hand full of trees in the way 🤷‍♂ And yes, I tried all sorts of antennas.

[williamna]

Cant you set both units to "range test" in settings and just keep riding until the unit on the bike quits popping message? Seems like that would be easier, not to mention it can log straight to SD card with location?