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Realistic Range and Coverage Expectations

Realistic Range and Coverage Expectations

Understanding realistic range helps you plan deployments, set expectations with community members, and know when a link will or won’t work. The numbers below are based on real-world community mesh experience.

EnvironmentTypical RangeLimiting Factor
Urban (street level) 1–5 km Buildings blocking line of sight; multipath interference
Suburban (rooftop-to-rooftop) 5–15 km House heights, trees; rooftop placement dramatically improves range
Rural (ground level) 5–15 km Terrain, vegetation
Rural (hilltop-to-hilltop) 20–50+ km Primarily limited by earth curvature and Fresnel zone clearance
Flat terrain (North Dakota, Great Plains) 15–30+ km even at modest height Minimal obstructions; terrain is primary advantage

With Mesh Hops

Each repeater hop extends coverage. A chain of three repeaters on hilltops spaced 30 km apart extends coverage 90+ km. The mesh topology means messages can route around failed nodes as long as an alternative path exists.

Key Factors Affecting Range

  • Antenna height: The single most impactful variable. Going from ground level to a 10-meter rooftop can double or triple range.
  • Antenna gain: A 5 dBi external antenna vs. a PCB trace antenna provides roughly 3x effective range improvement.
  • Spreading factor: Higher SF (e.g., SF12 vs. SF7) increases range ~4x but reduces throughput ~16x and increases time-on-air proportionally.
  • Terrain: Line-of-sight clearance is critical. Even a small hill between two nodes can reduce range from 20 km to 2 km.
  • Vegetation: Dense forest canopy attenuates 915 MHz signals significantly. Summer foliage can reduce range compared to winter.
  • Buildings: Each wall the signal passes through attenuates the signal. Inside-to-inside through multiple walls can reduce range to under 1 km.

Planning Conservatively

For emergency planning, use these conservative estimates:

  • Inside a building: assume 300–500 m reliable range
  • Outside in urban area: assume 1–2 km reliable range
  • Rooftop with external antenna: assume 5–10 km reliable range

Actual coverage may be better, but plan for the conservative case. Use MeshMapper wardriving to measure actual coverage once deployed — real measurements beat estimates every time.

Use Coverage Planning Tools

Before deploying, model your site with:

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