sorry, didn’t want to mean the opposite… antena placement is a key factor!
When I say “better” I mean sector/directional types vs omnis (not entering into construction details). Of course more antennas/radios required to cover 360 degrees…
This isn’t the case… If PIRE is 1W, and system knows antenna gain, or is configured accordingly, radio will lower Tx power according to antena gain to keep those 1W. You aren’t Tx’ing with less final power, final power is radio + Antenna. So is radio power what is lowered, but the final Tx power remains the same.
When Gateway needs to “hear” from nodes, won’t need to resort to high amplification gain in the radio circuit to hear them. And this makes a world of difference in noise when picking faint signals.
This being said, I’m not advocating for high gain antennas per se… specially in omnis, where usually the point of diminishing returns is around 5dBi.
Neither using non legal PIREs either; that’s why I said to reach even wider coverages is better to go to sector antennas + multiple radios, as done in the Telco industry (check any tower…)… always staying within legal PIRE.
