this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
90 points (96.9% liked)
Technology
65819 readers
5133 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related content.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
What's the range and power consumption of these bad boys?
Depends but I have some cheap esp based heltech knock offs from temu that do about 2km from being haphazardly taped into my upstairs windows. Power draw is about 200ma but I don't bother with deep sleep or other optimizations. I'm in a flat suburban area.
I imagine it'd be much better if I whipped them up on the chimney with proper antenna but for something that just fits in my pocket they're really impressive.
Its 800/900ish MHz depending in where in the world you are. So UHF ranges. 1 to five mile range can be expected just carrying one around with a rubber duck style antenna. Range goes up considerably if you out it up in top of your house, fivish to twenty. Pit on a dedicated mast or high building with clear sight lines? Could get up to fifty miles.
Current record I think is 170 miles but that's transmitting from a mountain top and I think a directional antenna.
For vhf/UHF the key is 'height is might.' That's why I can use a handheld and, with the right antenna, hit the ISS but also have maybe five miles point to point and need a repeater to hit anywhere of worth.