“Will this antenna work?” I get that question a lot, usually about some antenna that was discovered after hours of searching and sifting through Google results. Antennas are one of the most confusing parts of Helium, mostly because RF is fairly complicated and the average hotspot owner has as much experience with antenna design and …
Helium is a gateway into the world of RF, or radio frequency. While the easiest thing to do when you get your hotspot is just plug it in and set it in a window, most of the time you’ll earn far more if you optimize a bit. Most of those optimizations are focused on improving …
Here is a step by step method for understanding how to choose the best antenna for your hotspot placement. Each placement demands a well matched antenna in order to provide value to the Helium Network and consequently earn the most HNT possible for that location. First though: Hotspot placement optimization is FAR more important than …
What’s The Best Antenna For Your Helium Hotspot? Read More »
Short version: Use a low gain antenna, report your location and antenna gain accurately, and PoCv11 will have more or less no effect on you. Super short version: Don’t worry. PoCv11 is designed to help the Network more accurately assess location from radio frequency strength signals and to keep Hotspots in RF regulatory compliance. It cleans up …
I got into Helium accidentally. I was looking for a way to find and communicate with other paragliders out back of beyond. I had participated in a Search and Rescue for a well known paraglider out in remote Nevada at the end of summer 2020. The missing paraglider pilot (James Johnston, aka Kiwi) had GPS and …
Ok, so you just found Helium and are wondering what to do next? Let’s walk through the whole system so you’ll know what to do and what NOT to do. We’ll go through the ecosytem of Helium, the incentive of HNT, explain Helium Wallets as well as the Burn and Mint equilibrium, and make sure …
Winning At Helium: The Right Way To Get Started Read More »
Seeing other deployments is one of the fastest ways to get great ideas (and avoid costly mistakes!) I thought it’d be useful to the community to share a little more detail about our Helium Hotspot deployments. Here’s your chance to shine! What hotspot are you using? What antenna? Are you happy with this deployment? What will …
Well, the race is officially on. With at least two unofficial halvings coming in the near future, it’s pretty darn important right now to: A) Get your Helium hotspot up and earning and B) Secure the best spot you possibly can. In the case below, this hotspot is on private property with an incredible view of both my …
So you’ve got your Helium Hotspot up and cranking and you’re all proud of your new deployment. Well done you! As you cruise around Explorer to see how much better your deployment is than everyone else’s, you notice a neighbor who’s earning more. What’s the deal? Are they cheating? Do they have a magic antenna? How …
Having trouble understanding why your hotspot isn’t getting a Witness? Are you seeing messages about being above or below the bounds of an RSSI metric? Let’s dig in! We’ll start with this, the infamous PoC V10 SNR limits graphic: I’ll explain the X and Y axis in a bit, but at first glace it’s pretty basic. Green …
