LoPy LoRa range testing

[DKlomp]

In the specifications of the LoPy module it is mentioned that the gateway can reach up to 40km and the node up to 22km. I was wondering what kind of setup (antennas, envoironment ect.) was used to reach these distances?

[jmarcelino]

@dklomp
It's the shown the other way around, node 40Km and gateway 22Km. I think this was can be done using regular antennas, perhaps transmitting at the maximum power 20dBm and of course clear line of sight .

[jcaron]

@dklomp Just for reference I have had a LoPy with the standard antenna sold by Pycom reaching gateways (with a decent outdoor antenna but still omnidirectional) 7-8 km away, definitely without line of sight, across a dense urban environment (Paris), with the standard ETSI power setting (14 dBm). But it had to be by an open window.

Once you get indoors the situation is quite different though :-(

[costelcotae]

@jcaron you can tell me what setting are you using for lora mode to achive this distance?
with this setting
LoRa(mode=LoRa.LORA, region=LoRa.EU868, bandwidth=LoRa.BW_125KHZ, sf=10, coding_rate=LoRa.CODING_4_7, tx_retries=0)
i only achive 3-4km
thank you

C.

[jcaron]

@costelcotae it was not a real effort to do it, just a byproduct of some other testing, so I don't have much details. I believe it was just set at SF12. Of course I can't say it was reliable, I just know I saw a few such packets in logs.

As far as I understand it, the gateways are outdoors, roof-mounted, with relatively large antennas (but not directional), so this may make a bit difference.