Author: Nik

  • Victory With Helium: Power Moves For New People

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    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…

  • What Does A Great Helium Hotspot Look Like?

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    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…

  • How Do You Find The Best Site For Your Hotspot?

    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…

  • Why Isn’t Your Hotspot Earning More?

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    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…

  • Why Are My Helium Hotspot Earnings So Spiky?

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    Why will a Hotspot earn well on one day, then noth­ing the next?  Why isn’t there more con­sis­ten­cy in earnings?  There’s a clear rea­son for spiky earn­ings, and I’d love to walk you through it.  Let’s start at the begin­ning of the Proof of Cov­er­age (PoC) cycle, with the con­struc­tion of a Challenge.  Every Hotspot…

  • How To Set Up a RUT 240 for an Off Grid Helium Hotspot — Prepare for Challenge!

    With a gen­er­ous assist from the folks over at HNTen­na, here’s a step by step method for set­ting up your RUT 240 (the cell modem that allows an off grid Heli­um Hotspot to con­nect to the internet.) I’ll start by say­ing that off grid set ups are not for the faint of heart, the eas­i­ly…

  • Can I Get A Witness?

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    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!  There is an UPDATE to this post over here. Feel free to read on, but the rest of this post talks about a sys­tem that is no longer…

  • How To Use PoE To Power Your Helium Hotspot

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    How do you use PoE? Do you need a split­ter, an injec­tor, or both? How does it all work? Let’s dive in! PoE is one of those things most of us nev­er have to deal with and can seem like a mys­tery. It’s not. It’s super sim­ple, let me show you how it works. First, P‑O-E stands…

  • Light Hotspots Explained

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    What the heck is a Heli­um Light Hotspot, and why does it mat­ter? If you’re not tech savvy, the whole thing can seem con­fus­ing. Let’s clear it up. We’ll begin with the dif­fer­ent types of Hotspots: Reg­u­lar, Light, and Data Only. Reg­u­lar (I call ’em Full Fat) Hotspots are what Heli­um start­ed out with. They cre­ate…

  • Does A Helium Hotspot Actually Expose You To Powerful Radiation?

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    Are Heli­um Hotspots dan­ger­ous to be around? How much RF ener­gy do they emit? Should you or your hosts be wor­ried about the expo­sure lev­els? Let’s run through the facts, then you can make your own decision.  We’ll start with this: In gen­er­al, Heli­um Hotspots rarely emit any RF. They’re built to receive sig­nals far…