so I get a high dbi antenna for long range in a high place, but also a low dbi one to service everyone in the area? or that’s too much and not needed?
You’re better off with two radios and then putting a wired network between them. Meshtastic supports UDP meshing now over TCP/IP, so if you use a crossover cable between them, given them both static IP addresses, and letting them talk, they can mesh over networking and each serve the functions you’re describing.
Nope. Or rather, you can, but it won’t work like you think it will, and at the very least will result in overall poor performance and at worst may damage the device.
I think the fundamental problem here is the term “gain.” Antennas don’t have actual gain, they merely sacrifice radiation in some directions to provide more radiation in others. You don’t magically get more radiated energy by adding antennas, regardless of their published gain figures.
id imagine it isn’t as simple as splicing the antenna wires, just wondered if there is an easier way to have a dual antenna setup, than just using two esp32 boards for each antenna
As far as the physical connection is concerned, you need a coaxial splitter that is rated for use at 900 MHz. They exist but cost a few bucks.
The thing is, your signal strength at each antenna will be half the total output of the LORA device, minus the loss in the splitter. It will provide less effective range than a single antenna.
The fact is: in almost every situation, a simple ground plane antenna will do as well or even outperform any fancy antenna setup. The only exception is if you really only want signal going in one direction, in which case you want a yagi. The only time it makes sense to drive more than one antenna at a time is in a phased array system (a specialized directional antenna system), which really doesn’t make sense for Meshtastic.
I don’t think that will work. At best, it would split the signal power and neither antenna would perform well. That’s not even getting into the RF wizardry which I’m not equipped to fully explain (or understand lol).
The “proper” solution would be to have two Meshtastic units. One in a high place for long range and configured with the “client base” role and the other one(s) with regular antennas optionally in the “client mute” role. The reason for that is they’d likely be able to “hear” the base station one just fine and relay through it and wouldn’t necessarily need to rebroadcast locally. If they do, then they can be in regular “client” role.
Since I have multiple units inside, I keep mine in “client mute” when I’m home so they go through my “attic node” and switch to “client” when I’m out and about. The 2.7 firmware makes this easy to switch directly on the device without having to mess with the app settings.
https://meshtastic.org/blog/demystifying-router-late/
Now if you’re talking a highly directional Yagi for the high gain/high place antenna, then I believe the general guidance still stands. The newer firmware has some zero hop configuration where you can “pair” devices (via favoriting) and while they still hop the signal, it doesn’t decrement the hop count.
https://meshtastic.org/blog/zero-cost-hops-favorite-routers/
I concur. 2 units. It’s how we all do it. I keep a 2dBi dipole on my balcony up high as CLIENT_BASE and some number of portable CLIENT/CLIENT_MUTE units. That said, maybe I should try adding a 5dBi balcony unit.
Wouldn’t the higher antenna also service the local area?
that’s the idea, but those boards can’t handle dual antennas (i think they can’t, the peak of my skills is being able to spell meshtastic)
Why do you need a lower antenna at all?
not sure, I put a 9dbi antenna on top of a 3 storey building, and in theory I shouldn’t be able to get a signal underneath it. yet I do get good signal.
I genuinely have to idea what I’m doing, but I’m learning
Yeah you don’t need short and long range typically. Maybe if it was directional you would need a 2nd one.
