Outdoor Antenna

[deki]

I have the 900 MHz LORA version of MightyHat and want to make sure I get the maximum possible coverage. I have have a big area to cover but my electronics test bench is inside a metal building so getting descent coverage is not practical with an indoor antenna. The dipole PCB is really not designed for the outdoors so I was looking at a fiberglass antenna: http://www.altelix.com/900-MHz-6-dBi-SCADA-WiFi-Omni-Antenna-p/au09g6-nf.htm coupled with a 1 M SMA to N cable. The antenna has a 6 dBi gain. Mounting the antenna above the roof line would be real easy.

I could not see anywhere on the forum where anyone has done anything like this. Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Kilo95]

I use a 915mhz PCB dipole outside and it works fine. I took some 3M Mastic Tape and folded over it lengthwise and completely encapsulated the PCB dipole with the Mastic tape.

https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/all-3m-products/~/Scotch-Rubber-Mastic-Tape-2228/?N=3294317059+4294890742&rt=rud

[Felix]

I think deki means to run a long coax to the roof somewhere.
Certainly possible, use a good quality 50Ohm coax, try to impedance match the length if practical, ideally use an antenna analyzer.
I haven't tried or heard of a use case like this (really long coax from a 100mW transceiver). It's not a lot of power and any interconnects in the feedline and a long cable are lossy, nothing you can do about that. Keep it as short as possible. Try it on the bench (with/without coax in between, everything else the same including physical orientation) to gauge your signal loss and see if this is practical.

Would be great if anyone else who's done a similar setup would share.

[Kilo95]

I didn't think about that. I didn't figure it'd be feasible with the 100mW transceiver and much of any length of coax. too much loss. you'd have to use LMR-400 or Heliax or something like that to minimize loss. LMR-400 can be found from $0.50-$1 a foot. 1/2" Heliax is usually $1.25-$4USD a foot. I believe the 1/2" Heliax has loss somewhere around 0.4db/100ft. just for fyi

[deki]

Connected my AAI RF Vector Impedance Analyzer to the PCB antenna and see the return loss bounces around more than I like. So I was looking for something more stable. 

Have a 3' length of LMR400 in my garage; will order the antenna and try the combination. One can do quite well with low power if you have good antennas. My longest distance is 600' with a few trees obstructions. If I have to I will put yagi's at the remotes. I also have access to an Anritsu Site Master (more horsepower than AAI) so I can verify return-loss.

Will post again when I get some results.

[Felix]

Will post again when I get some results.

Looking forward to that!