Practical Range Test Results

Nope, i have 2 tbeams (865mhz) and i believe they both have a SX1276 and no tcxo onboard.

Hi, @Der_Bear, what is this machine that you are using to measure frequency and power output?

Thanks!

Might be either as I have gotten 166kms off the tbeam on 868

What antenna did you use?

SX1262 on 433Mhz? Let me guess the problem.

Semtech never published reference design for SX1262 on 433Mhz, they also never documented the optimized impedance for the 433Mhz, thus the RF design could not be simplify coping the reference. We need to perform the load pull for finding out the optimized operation point.

So, most likely the 433mhz device has poor RF front-end design.

All linked in post 70 above

No, the SX1262 ones are on 868 Mhz. And the range I am getting is 100 meters. I am not sure but I think my hardware setup is faulty somewhere. Either the antenna, the antenna cables or the board itself.

My SX1278 on 433 Mhz on the other hand gives me a 2 KM range in the same environment.

How much range are you able to get in an urban or dense city environment?
Also, did you swap out u.FL connector on the board and place a 90 degree SMA connector?

Depends I did some testing LOS from a tall building to a hill maybe 6km and another test from that tall building to a hill that was around 24km ish but the hill was in a rural location…
Elevation is key…
The urban landscape that I tested in is fairly likely less dense than some, as it was in a small city with 170,000ish population relatively spread out and 864-868mhz is not very crowded :slight_smile:

The Neo 6m version of the T-Beam with the SX1262 comes with a SMA connector those are the versions I have.

Have not been testing much as recently as I moved to a very rural location that only get cell coverage a year or so ago.

I think my cable or antennas is creating a huge loss.

I wish I had your units to test my antennas.

I have VSWR measurements that are good from my stuff. I can say flat out that my SX1262’s don’t work, and still don’t work correctly. 100m range as well.

I am using the manufacturer provided 1m tall 8DBI antennas on both units (RAK4631’s, but also 1262 lora modems.). So I know the antenna is good.

Have you tested in a rural location to see if it works better in that environment?

I have measured a chinese manufactured antenna that claimed alot of gain 14dBi With a length of over 1 meter. it had an almost perfect vswr but it was worse than a simpel half-wave antenna. So do not trust antenna’s that claim a lot of gain.

Do you have the T-Beam with u.Fl connector?

Yes I even tried in the middle of a forest.

Okay. in a completely strange everything it started working. got a 18km LoS hit without issue at -3dBM.

Can’t test further yet.

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Can you please specify the details of your setup? The antennas, boards, TX power and geography?

I updated to the latest beta firmware today, 1.2.57, and the latest beta android app.

Surprisingly, I got a 1.7 KM range through a dense capital city full of tall buildings. I checked on Google Maps, it went through 23 buildings. Before this, I got only 700 meters, with direct LOS on an open field. I have no idea what changed today.

My setup: One node in my living room on the 4th floor, the other node on the ground level, walking on the roads. The buildings in between are taller than my building.

I used 2 T-Beams, at 433 MHz, SX1278 with Neo-6M, tx_power set to 20 dBm, LongSlow mode:

Antennas: 2 of these, 1 on each end.

I too had a “1.2.57 just works now” type thing. I wonder oddly if its the included RadioLib version starting to work again or something.

The only thing I changed wa the version and it all works now with no other changes.

What was not working for you before? The devices were not talking at all, or did you have a really short range?