A ceramic chip antenna will have an efficiency of around 50% compared to a dipole (half dummy load!!).
An attenuation of 0.3 dB (6.7 %) will be barely noticeable while 3 dB (50% chip antenna) will be good noticeable.
More important though is the correct matching of the antenna to the transceiver chip. Nearby materials or wrong placement can easily detune an antenna resulting in a loss of 10 dB.
Our first real life tests of the antenna yielded satisfying results: 14 kilometers at 14 dBM / SF12 while the module was placed indoor on a desk with far from ideal circumstances.
And measured our the Onethinx Core main oscillator (without touching the board and influencing the capacitance) using a self constructed magnetic loop antenna and the GenComm oscillator locked to the super accurate GPS.
It’s only 1/32th of one PPM off. Incredible!!
And finally the FIRST test result out there in real world.
It’s joining on a gateway which is over 13KM away!! While having the board on my desk in far from ideal situation!
Yes, I saw at the workbench topic you’ve got a GenComm Analyzer as well. I’ve been searching for a VNA for a long time and have used a PocketVNA as well.
The GC747A is an incredible piece of multi-tool which is perfect for small companies or die-hard hobbyists with lots of features. I was really surprised by the dynamic range and stability of the VNA, compared to the PocketVNA. I guess the fact that it’s called LTE analyzer, this tool doesn’t come to people’s mind.
the user application runs on a physically isolated core as which the stack runs on: stack functionality and security cannot be compromised by (errors in or a malfunctioning) user application
the secure element is embedded in the same silicon (electrical interface is not exposed)
true random generator (DevNonce is not derived by reading radio noise)
the secure implementation is based on ARM PSA, which defines the secure guidelines for IoT
The user just gets a smal set of API calls to set up and do the LoRaWAN communication, without having to bother about security and or it’s implementation.