This seems like a great technology to build resiliency and redundancy in a community, especially for places where cell service is spotty, or in the odd event where normal lines of communication are blocked.
The LoRa boards can be easily powered with a small solar panel for continuous use, and if put in a high enough place with a good antenna, they can have a surprisingly long range!
In addition to being genuinely useful, they also seem like they’d be a lot of fun to experiment and play around with, printing cool 3D cases for them, or designing a better antenna or repeater setup.
If and of you already have experience with LoRa, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts! :D
But when we’re talking antennas, do I need to get a big one that I need to try and get above the tree line, or does it boost signal penetration?
You don’t need to, though the higher up the better since you get better line of sight. You can get several kilometres with a cheap antenna that is better than stock.
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