this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2025
6 points (87.5% liked)

Meshtastic

744 readers
6 users here now

A community to discuss Meshtastic (https://meshtastic.org/docs/introduction)

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Sal@mander.xyz
6
The bigger the better? Good idea to use a big Helium antenna with a tiny node? (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by Streusel@lemmy.world to c/meshtastic@mander.xyz
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Just out of curiosity and inspired by a previous post here, i ordered two XIAO ESP32S3 - Wio-SX1262 Kits and a SenseCAP Card Tracker T1000-E.

I dont expect much if any nodes in the area around so the plan is to put one ESP+SX1262 up as a Router to the Internet (if this is the correct wording). The other one can be a sensor later on but first i want to test out the GPS tracking around the area (countryside).

As the SX1262 only comes with a small antenna, i thought about getting a used big (like 6dbi) Helium antenna for cheap to increase the range of the Router.

Whould this be an acceptable setup to start with, or just stupid? (especially the antenna and Router Part?)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 weeks ago

Don't do this. Do a maximum of three DBI. The reason is higher DBI gain antennas cause your antenna to be very narrow, and so steep elevation changes or nodes that are trying to access your device from a different elevation can be easily blocked. A 3DBI antenna has 2x gain over a 0DBI antenna and yet still retains its spherical radiation pattern.