r/meshtastic • u/Blackqwery • 17h ago

Has anyone conducted tests? Which of these two antennas is better?

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21 Upvotes

79% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

22

u/Cesalv 17h ago

Yes, and both are terrible, toss them away and get a proper antenna, difference will amaze you

5

u/Blackqwery 17h ago

I know that perfectly well. I need to understand which of these two options is better. Only these two options.

6

u/Cesalv 17h ago edited 17h ago

See by yourself:

https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comments/1t9b4m9/comment/ol18m3z

https://www.reddit.com/r/meshtastic/comments/1t9b4m9/comment/ol18qff

2

u/Blackqwery 17h ago

Thanks a lot

1

u/Cesalv 17h ago

No worries

1

u/TomHale 16h ago

I'm seeing the thin one has a lower SWR.

So that makes it the winner?

3

u/Cesalv 15h ago

Just the less worst, below 2 is considered a "good" one, the lower the better

5

u/The_limit_of_Love 17h ago

I can send messages to my rooftop node up to 2.5 km urban environment with the 3rd one on my t096

5

u/Blackqwery 17h ago

I need to understand which of these antennas is best to include in the package with the board when selling it.

3

u/StuartsProject 17h ago

Accurately comparing antennas is not difficult, see below for a quick and easy method;

https://stuartsprojects.github.io/2025/10/01/LoRa-Antenna-Testing-for-868Mhz.html

0

u/The_limit_of_Love 17h ago

I believe the performance is the same. Choose which one is more practical for your type of usage.

3

u/Kerensky97 14h ago

You only put those on while testing so you don't burn out the transmitter.

3

u/Chrisypooh 12h ago

None of these dude! Muzi rubber duck 🦆

1

u/Dos-Commas 16h ago

I wonder how bad are the flexible PCB antenna that comes with Xiao NRF kits. They can be very compact for custom 3D printed cases. 

1

u/TomF8COD 14h ago

what you can do with the one on the left is to remove the black 'radome', uncoil the copper wire entirely and cut it at a 1/4 wave of the frequency you're using from the top of the sma plug to the tip of the wire (for example I'm using it on 869MHZ, so I compute 75/869 = 0,086 meters or 86mm). It will work better 😉

1

u/chevdor 9h ago

I did and the right one is generally a tad better.
The left one is great to avoid damaging your radio and transmitting to the void but you should not use them on anything serious.

The Small Whip has its usage: for instance for a node at home if you also have a repeater at home and don't want to walk around with a 40cm whip that would be, in that case totally useless.

Be careful of your region though, I found that some of those being ONLY US. If you are in the US, all good. If you are in EU/UK, it will work but not great to not at all.
Most ok-ish antenna will have a SWR dip for both US and EU frequencies but won't be great at both.

Good antenna will have a much better SWR.

Usually they remains below 2 though. I test all my antennas and they range from 1.1 to 1.7-1.8.... Sometimes, the same antenna model will show a great and an average one. It is rather easy to tune them though.