Dipole would require a balanced signal. When you want to use a dipole antenna you would need to have a balun to convert between transmission line and the differential dipole. So it is not as easy as soldering just two wires.
Most of the antennas for LoRa transceivers are monopoles and require proper grounding.
Thank you for your suggestions. Yesterday i changed the direction of the antenna so it is on a 90 degree angle with the shield. I did not noticed that much difference. @arjenvanb : what is the range you have with your device?
Tonight i will try to add a sma connector to my lora board in order to use a grounded antenna and test the range again.
Better lave than never. Here is the info on my setup:
Gateway: iC880a with raspberry pi
Node: RN2483 with arduino leonardo copy
This was my results from testing the range:
Gateway was in second floor(UK)/third floor (US). The node was moved around on ground level.
Yes, that’s the one I’m using. When I’ve evaluated it I’ll forward my findings on the the forum. It’s at least as good as the one provided by IMST
Is it possible to extend the length of the coax for those antenna’s?
Sure, I don’t see why not.
But you have to remember that any cable adds some attenuation. The amount of attenuation depends on the type of cable and the length. Also take note of the fact that the cable should have the right impedance (50 ohm).
This means that you should not just cut the cable and solder something in between. Always create a proper antenna cable with connectors and place this between antenna an board.
The type of cable used for the pigtail (the small cable between the board and the antenna) is RG174. This cable has about 1 dB attenuation per meter, RG58 only 0.5 dB and Aircell 7 even just 0.2 dB.
So if you add 1 meter of RG174 cable, you could have 5m Aircell 7 with the same attenuation.
Adding a long cable to get your signal from the ground floor to the roof might even give you a worse signal than with the antenne next to the window … Always use a good quality cable with good quality connectors.
See Coax kabels - Coax & connectoren or Coaxkabel en connectoren van DDS Antenne kabel. Verkoop van super low loss antenne kabels for the stuff you need
Look at RF240 coaxial cable, 50 Ohm, 100m
I am using AUREL GP868 + 30cm pigtail RF240 with N connector and 8m of CNT400 Cable.
Be aware of using cables like H-155 and RG174 pigtails. Use N-SMA Adapter like this https://www.arrow.com/en/products/33n-sma-50-511-ue/hubersuhner.
Remember about cable lenght and wavelenght!