You should return it, it’s a scam. I ended up getting some eByte antennae and they work pretty ok
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This would cost me a lot (much more than the antenna itself). But I can try (and will) to make a dispute for a (at least partial) money return.
It’s quite sad because the antenna has a good (heavy) quality - but it’s just totally useless.
Wonder for what it could be used at all with this frequencies of ~170 and ~570 Mhz
LoRa works wonderfully at 170 MHz. I’ve used some UART E32-170T30D 30dBm SX1278 from Ebyte for a cave link at times I wish there were better antennas available for that frequency. I let it go at the time, because they never got under VSWR of 3, but now that I know of this bad 433 MC antenna, you’re just giving me ideas to dig that project up again!
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Wow, great. Beside possible regulatory issues (guess for most countries a license is needed to use 170M MHz bands) is this Ebyte UART module you link supported by meshtastic?
In theory it should have better coverage than higher bands (like 433 or 868 for example) - so it’s actually quite interesting!
Not really supported at the time, no. But quite feasible, yes.
There is no actual Meshtastic support yet for the UART module in Meshtastic, but the SPI-version of this Ebyte module (look for the S-version) should work straight after adding the 170 MC channels as for the other bands, I think.
In most European countries (a here in France), the 170 MC band contains a similar license-free telemetry portion, like the 433 & 868/915 bands do for LoRa. These are not limited by TTN frequency plans, as those are mutually respected agreements between its users. TTN are open to other frequency plan proposals. Country law are limiting total radiated power and frequency range for license-free operation in these telemetry bands.
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Looks interesting are the gains for real, anyone into drones?
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Got me this one, delivery 11 days! Initially looking at the elements sizes and location on boom (while waiting for an N to SMA cable) they are a match for around 900Mhz. The pigtail is 22 cm.
Elements are spot welded, dipole is screwed on, pigtail not that easy to replace as there is no connector on the dipole but the cable goes straight in.Quality ok, for 6 dollar cheaper then a DIY.
The swr…!
Total beam length 44cm, just about portable, will take it outside in the next days with a Tbeam and compare.
Done a few tests at ranges of around 1km, was amazed to see how much reflexted signal you get in an urban concrete area. In some locations I could just point the yagi at a large building and get a 70-80% signal. Found a location behind (50m) a fat large building that reduced the signal and with nothing to reflect around. Compared against the small stub that came with the TBeam.
Stub 30% Yagi 85%, yagi pointed with back towards signal 15%. yagi pointed sideways 0%
Once the rssi and autoreply option is in the app/firmware will do more (long range) tests.
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That good…See I’m into ham radio and the one thing we can do is antenna I’m 
uploading this antenna that can made a stationary antenna
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Going to keep searching for and bringing back old threads to prevent repeated topics.
I took my antenna apart after my first field test with my 915mhz T-Beams, which didn’t work as well as I was expecting.
Is this a common antenna design? I was really expecting some coiled copper. It’s also not the antenna that was pictured when I ordered them from here.
To improve the range and reliability I am thinking of ordering this antenna for the GPS
https://www.amazon.ca/CIROCOMM-Antenna-Ceramic-25x25x2mm-Geekstory/dp/B078Y2WNY6
And these for the Lora
https://www.amazon.ca/Connector-868-915MHz-Lora32u4-Internet-WIshiOT/dp/B07LCKNN4H
Although I am skeptical that antennas that small are going to be the best that I can buy, I might hit up the local electronics/radio store soon.
Hi,
Found a interesting article, may be worth looking at
i purchased a LilyGo TBEAM and it came with a IPEX connector on the board and a ~3" wire with a BNC connector on the end. are there any downsides to having the extra wire? what sort of parts would i need to solder a BNC connector directly to the board?
Here you go:
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If your soldering one on, you could even get one that you can seal.
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Curious to see what techniques y’all are using for range tests and capturing the results…
Are most of you just setting the position_broadcast_secs to a really small timespan on the “traveling node” vs the fixed router node, and then examining the packet log?
I have the same antennas on my t-beams. Best I got so far was around 2.6km between two units, not a perfect line of sight.
These were ordered as 915MHz units, I have no way of testing the antennas.
I also ordered LoRa32 V2 1.6 boards (915MHz) that came with stubby antennas like in your Amazon link. These were actually labeled as 915MHz. Again, no way for me to test.
Point I’m making is that physical appearance does not seem to indicate what frequency they are built for. I think it is best to buy a cheap VNA and maybe SDR and do your own testing. Side note, I’m guessing you’re in BC?
Yes, I’ve been wanting to buy a cheap VNA but I feel as though I’ve already maxed out my current budget for this project.
From my research, it seems the best/cheapest antenna is a home made 1/4 ground plane like this one here. (Not Mine)
The form factor is a bit bulky though for your pocket 
And it still depends on having a VNA to tune it exactly right.
Still having trouble finding a consensus on what is the best omnidirectional 915mhz out of the box that you can buy. By the way, I had 8km with line of sight and 87% strength with the stock antennas, urban/trees is around or under 1000 meters I’d say.
Yes, BC!
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I did a proof of concept “hack” of the device firmware a few months ago to help with range testing. It really was a total hack but I’ve started porting it over to use the Plugin API. No timeline when it’ll be done.
It’s far from done, but you can follow the work here:
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I’ve been buying some used outdoor omnis, most from 3-6dbi off of eBay for testing. I accidentally bought a circular polarized antenna, most likely originally used for RFID applications. It looks really neat, but since it’s circularly polarized, I doubt it will work well in a mesh of vertically polarized nodes. I wonder if anyone has experimented with them. I’m a web developer by trade though, and I don’t have as much knowledge on the radio / RF topics.