LoRa marketing loves to throw around numbers like “miles of range,” and technically, under perfect conditions, that’s true. In the real world, with trees, buildings, hills, and a node clipped to a backpack strap, expectations need serious adjustment. Here’s what actually moves the needle.
Antenna height is the biggest single factor
Just like every other VHF/UHF radio technology, LoRa is fundamentally line of sight. A node in your pocket at waist height will get a fraction of the range of the same node mounted on a rooftop, mast, or hilltop. If you’re serious about range, the single highest-leverage change is elevation, not a different radio or a bigger antenna.
Antenna quality matters, but less than placement
Stock antennas on most LoRa boards are compact and mediocre. A quality external antenna tuned to your region’s LoRa frequency will help, but it won’t overcome a bad location. Fix placement first, then upgrade the antenna for incremental gains on top of that.
Terrain and obstructions
Dense trees, hills, and buildings between two nodes will cut range dramatically, sometimes down to a few hundred meters in heavily wooded or urban areas, even though the same nodes might reach several miles with clear line of sight. This is exactly why relay nodes matter so much in Meshtastic, a single obstructed hop can be routed around by a well-placed relay in between.
How to actually test your range
- Test with two nodes at a known, fixed location first, to establish a baseline before adding variables
- Walk or drive away from a fixed node while checking signal reports in the app, most Meshtastic apps show SNR and RSSI for received packets
- Test at different times and in different weather, foliage and humidity genuinely affect performance
- Repeat the test with the modem preset you actually plan to run day to day, since range changes significantly between presets
Set expectations accordingly
A couple of miles in mixed terrain with decent antenna placement is a reasonable real-world expectation for a two-node link. Multi-hop networks with well-placed relay nodes, like the solar repeater setup in Building a Solar-Powered Meshtastic Repeater Node, can extend that coverage considerably further.
For more on antenna fundamentals that apply across every band and technology, see my Building Your First Ham Radio Station pillar page.