Question first then back story:
Instead of giant Yagi, would it be possible to add another coiled antenna or simple wire antenna to the 'ant2' pad? Will the two interfere? The ant2 has two pads, would a coiled 1/4 wave even work? Which pad would you solder to?
One possible very simple solution would be to flip the board over so the antenna is on bottom... A well placed hole and some creative plastic transplant/welding may be in order to keep things water tight.
Thanks!
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Back story:
When I received my array and IP receiver I did not know about the reception issues. After initial unboxing I had the receiver hanging in the middle of my house, second story (coiled antenna pretty much horizontal, 7ft high) and then took the array outside looking for a good mounting point. To avoid trees and structures I decided to pole mounting to the top of my single story barn. I left the array sitting in the back of a golf cart for a few days to make sure it would work. I purposefully left it an additional 10-12ft further away just to make sure... I had no signal loss for over a week, WITH alkaline batteries, freezing temperatures, rain, frost etc.
I finally mounted the array to a galvanized pole above the barn. The final height put it 3ft-4 below the receiver and around 235 ft away. I lost connectivity. I went back out and took the array off of the mount and I regained signal. Holding the array in my hand at installed height, things seemed to work but when I put it on the pole, nothing.
I contacted tech support and they gave me the lithium battery/other device interference BS. I changed the batteries and nothing. I finally moved the IP receiver to an exterior wall, in a window, 225 ft away, same height, hanging again so antenna horizontal. With this setup I would have data for a few days then nothing for a few. At one point I had data for 15 days straight.
I contacted tech support again they refused to send a new receiver but did send a new array.
Once the array did arrive, I added a 1ft PVC conduit extension to the pole before swapping the new array over, just in case that really was the issue... No real difference. I would have data for a few days then nothing. Finally I tried taping the receiver to the window so the antenna was oriented vertically. YAHTZEE! I ended up buying a suction cup tray from amazon and have had no data drop out since, fingers crossed.
Aside from low transmitter power, I believe my issues are due to signal combing and antenna placement.