Are you sending 1005 to at 1 Hz? I did not calculate/test but MSM messages unlikely fit within 10 kbs. You probably do not need 10 kbs but if every other attempt failed, you could change MSM messages to legacy and 10 kbs would be more than enough.
I would try stronger/ low impedance power supply. POE would seem like a good source but it needs a surge of power to transmit. Thereās a lot of resistance in that 22 awg wire heading up the pole. Possibly a capacitor could fix it?
Look at LED brightness on XBEE. It should flash bright. If not, try running on a battery, or heavier power supply temporarily to see if LED is brighter. I thought a 3A 120v USB charger would be plenty good. I was wrong. I bought a 5A USB charger and it wouldnāt even transmit! I ended up with a heavy 5V power supply that makes LED bright. May not be issue, but worth a try.
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So I threw another xbee up the tower about 10 ft lower than the old one with just the small antenna that is sent with the xbee development kit, I went for a drive and it is pushing significantly further than with the higher gain antenna, so it appears I have a bad cable or connector even though I tested each cable to ensure there was good continuity between each pin and no short across the ground. I have checked that each cable has the right end as well, so not sure what the deal is, I guess I will do more checking. Also goofy thing is when I put the new unit up and unplugged the old one I am only getting rtk float instead of fix (i am using existing f9p etc only changed the wire to the xbee) I have checked my xbee settings multiple times and they look correct so I guess I have some troubleshooting ahead of me.
Kevin, as for the power I looked and the lights are nice and bright the entire time, I dont think its a power issue. We used to run poe dishes when we ran the wisp and a few cases we ran Ethernet cable 500 to 1000ft and it still had no trouble powering the dishes and receiving 30 plus meg of data. But it was definitely something to check so thanks.
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I ended up going through my cables and one end the crimp seemed a little loose so redid it and tried it again with the 8dbi gain antenna. I worked better but I would not recommend going to the expense and work to put it up. When I did my testing it might have given a little more distance maybe 1/2 mile more but for the extra work and cost i.e. antenna, making up adapters and cables unless you need the extra little bit of distance I question whether I would do it again. I tested all my cables and made sure to keep my antenna cable with lmr 240 cable under 4 ft which should have resulted in only .4db loss. With an 8dbi gain antenna versus stock 2.1dbi gain I should have gained at least 4 to 5 dbi even after taking into account connection and line loss, that should have provided about 150% increase in signal strength but it did not seem to translate on the road.
I guess at the end of the day if you wanted to use this antenna and a long run of cable up a tower so you could still access the box on the ground you could probably use this antenna with a booster, to make sure you stay within legal limits you would have to calculate your line and connection losses and ensure you stayed below the eirp limits for your country.
Just wondering if you tried using the stock antenna?
Have a coax cable to extend the distance from the xbee to the antenna, but I have the stock antenna and I seem to have good range. I had asked arduinosimpler about putting a better antenna and they recommended using what they sent.
yes I did try the stock antenna and it does a very respectable job for a small antenna just thought a 8dbi antenna should do a lot better, but it didnt do quite as well as expected.
Where did you get the 8dbi antenna? Any of the RF components cheap Amazon or AliExpress?
No all items were from digikey. Antenna is made by lcom and connectors and cable were from digikey
How seriously would one need to consider EIRP limits in a place that does not have proper cellular coverage (a place needing radio for RTK instead of NTRIP)?
so crimped your own cables? I dont have experience with that but could be the error. have you tried a pre made cable?
I have tried bought in the past and have found that just as often I have gotten poor cables so just do them myself. Usually if you use good wire and ends and test that there is no short and little to no resistance between the ends they are good.
After having been up and down about 15 times it sure would be nice to have the box on the ground with the xbee in it, but to do that I would need a booster to compensate for losses, has anyone found a good booster/amplifier with a centre frequency of 915 mhz. Most I have seen are not rated for the input power even at minimum setting with the xbee pro sx, I could go to a xbee sx but would be nice to use what I already have.