August 23, 2025
I've been playing with the two Heltec V3 Meshtastic transceiver boards that I have flashed and set up for portable use. My son and I took them out to a local park to see what the range is like with the little pigtail antenna inside the plastic case it came in and with another radio with a little stubby antenna. The range wasn't great, but that was to be expected with my son's radio having the internal antenna. He also had it in his backpack which further reduced the signal. I am not sure the exact distance because I haven't measured on a map yet, but it was a decent 100 yards with reliable comms. Anything beyond that would have to rely on MQTT without improvements on the antennas.
I did set up another radio with a pigtail IPX from the board to SMA female to SMA male converter to N male. I attached an 8 dbi antenna and have been able to get great signal readings from a node in my town about 2 miles away. My antenna is on a tripod about 6 feet above the ground, so I am sure it could get greater range if I install it higher.
It's fun playing and experimenting with the little radios. My son enjoyed being able to text off-the-grid. It is also good to see how well they work in real world situations because there is a lot of hype about the range. The reality is that the range depends on the set up and most portable uses aren't going to have the best antenna set ups because of practicality. Knowing those limitations keeps expectations realistic, i.e., it might be necessary to place nodes at intervals if there is a need to cover a larger distance.
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