Raise your Antennas! What to consider when choosing an antenna for your Helium project

When you hear about Helium, the people’s network, the first thing that comes to mind is interconnected devices. But have you ever wondered how exactly those devices connect between them to exchange data? Well, the reason for this is due to several factors, and among them are the hotspots and their antennas.

Those antennas (tiny or big, depending on your needs), are part of the magic of the Helium network. This is why choosing them strategically is part of the positive result of your idea. This decision can guarantee that your data is going to be successfully sent and received through the environment where you are going to deploy your project.

And if you are a Crypto lover, you will not only contribute to increasing the number of connections in the Helium network: you are also more likely to increase your $HNT earnings. It’s a win-win situation!

Let's begin with the important questions

To be able to choose the right antenna for your project, you must ask yourself some questions:

• Are you going to develop an indoor or an outdoor project? What are the conditions of the environment? With this answer, you will be able to determine the type of antenna.
• How further data must travel? This is key to finding out the size of your antenna.
• In which region your project will be located? It's very important to find the right frequency of your antenna according to the one that is defined for your country.

Also, depending on the type of Helium hotspot that you are going to use, you must look for the matching type of connector. And last but not least, according to the place where you are going to install your antenna, you may need extra accessories to mount it on different surfaces.

The answers to these questions will help you choose the right antenna. And regardless of the answers, we can assure you that we will keep making IoT easy, so we will offer you all the options you may need to set up your project.

What's so special about antennas for Helium?

Typically, Helium hotspots require long-range antennas that can be installed outdoors so they can create reliable connections between devices in this network. These are commonly dipole antennas, and they come with different gains (that’s a feature that you should check depending on your project’s goals).

Also, we protect them with a fiberglass shield and design them to endure different environmental conditions, such as humidity, wind, dust, heat, etc.

But these are not the only reasons our Helium antennas are special. As you already know, it’s very important to consider where you are going to mount your antenna. So we have created a wide array of complementary mounting accessories, so you can securely install them on rooftops, walls, balconies, floors, or poles.

Finally, something you may already know: for a Helium project you will need an antenna containing a Semtech LoRa® IC, so don’t be confused with other antennas that use different network protocols, like WiFi, LTE, GPS or BLE.

Ok, so what’s next?

Now that you know how to choose the right antenna for your Helium-related project, go to our web store and check out the many options we have for you.

But remember, this doesn’t end here. There are more factors you should consider. As Helium takes advantage of the LoRaWAN® connectivity protocol, the height at which the antenna is installed, the topography, and the line of sight is also important. So you have still a bit of work and research to do.

For this purpose, we have created this comprehensive guide about all the different antennas we offer, where you can also discover more about the technology behind them.

Don’t worry: all of this will help you deploy an incredible project that will contribute to the people’s network growth, and will make it possible for cities, businesses, and individuals, to interconnect devices and exchange information taking advantage of Helium’s awesome technology.