I believe for urban areas, low gain is suggested. I’m in a suburban area, and after testing I found my repeater did better with a 2dbi antenna than a 6dbi.

Little update. Tried out this 2 dbi antenna tonight, and got probably about a 50% improvement in range. About 4500 feet before, to 1.25-1.5 mile depending on direction. So, definitely appreciate the suggestion!

In terms of layout, there were a few decisions. For antennas, it’s because I didn’t want to put too tight of a bend in either cable, preventing a crimp. Not sure if it matters. Likewise, the rak boards are pushed up as far as I can to keep enough room to easily access the USB ports should I need serial access.

Awsome! Yea, I’ve still got a lot to learn about antennas. I’ve been working towards my general HAM license, and antenna design starts to come into play at that point.

I’ve also been trying to incorporate a raspberry pi into another node I’m working on, but it’s a pi zero 2w. I’d like to build a fully off grid, solar powered ADS-B node. The current build is too much for even 3 18650s. Not sure it’ll ever work out. The ultimate goal is a mesh repeater set up with a pi for occasional serial control and updates. We’ll see if I ever get there.

Yes, as mentioned in another comment, I understand the impact. The mesh traffic in my area is extremely light, and I expect cross node interference to be extremely rare. But, it’s something I plan to address in the next version.

That makes sense. My understanding is gain is expressed relative to a perfect omnidirectional antenna. So, higher gain means you’re making trade-offs in the area covered by the antenna. I’ve ordered some 2 dBi antennas to test with before deploying these.

Yea, it’s definitely not ideal for a high traffic repeater. My area’s got pretty minimal traffic, so I don’t expect there’s enough traffic to cause interference right now. When I get to a V3, I’ll probably be upgrading to a wider enclosure to get better spacing. The same company has a 200mm tall box I could mount horizontal, and put the antennas on the long side.