Meshtastic

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Tx Range with HeltecV3+Ziisor antenna (feddit.org)

submitted 5 months ago by smokeysnilas@feddit.org to c/meshtastic@mander.xyz

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Hi everyone,

I need some input on my setup. I live in the suburbs of a medium sized city in Germany, so running in EU_868. Node and antenna are mounted in my attic which is the 4th floor, so ~10m height. And as the title says it is a HeltecV3 with this Ziisor antenna. I can get good connections in my area. However for reaching the city center nodes I need to bridge ~9km. I can receive plenty nodes from the city center but I don't manage to be heard. I specifically for this purpose upgraded from this to the Ziisor and while I do see some reception improvements, they are not that big. And I can see no benefit on the Tx side at all. I expected more and I wonder if I am doing something wrong? I am using this connector, could it be bad? Any other ideas?

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[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It is my understanding that it's a total crapshoot with aliexpress antennas. You might be lucky and get a good one, but you might as well get a shitty one.

[–] smokeysnilas@feddit.org 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I mean it is generally hit/miss with AliExpress, but I've read that the Ziisor shop is quite reputable, which is why I chose it.

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

Are you certain it's actually ziisor? There's also a "ziisor official store" on aliexpress which is different from the one you bought from (according to the one you link)

[–] smokeysnilas@feddit.org 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

...god damn

[–] ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I don't know which is selling "authentic" antennas, maybe they both are, but it could be that it's a "fake" that you have.

[–] smokeysnilas@feddit.org 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yesterday I played a bit more and moved the node one floor upstairs into the attic. That, and playing with the exact placement, made quite a difference. I can now reach one node in the city center, distance shows 10km on the map. And the meshtastic app even shows signal level good. And from there my messages can hop to other nodes in the city too.

So I feel I got lucky and the antenna might be genuine?

[–] mesamunefire@piefed.social 1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

One of the things you can do to test it out is to use an RTLSDR OR another meshtastic device (like another HeltecV3 + original antenna) and you can tell via the software how "loud" the signal is.

With RTLSDR you can usually see how powerful the signal is by how load the audio is.

With another Meshtastic device, you can look at the RSSI level. If it says signal Good, then the signal.....is probably good.

Try with the original antenna/device, power off, then try with the new antenna/device. If the new one isnt as good, then you have your answer, regardless of brand.

I had to do this a couple of times. The new android interface is soooo much better than what we had before.