Fyi: I have updated the topic title to better reflect the discussion.
I believe, that is what @it-gypsy is trying to do, with disappointing results.
I was merely pointing out, my experience differs (but I run no gateway - vague plans do exist, but I have no use for LoRaWAN, so I would not benefit, only the community would).
I would urge @IT-Gypsy to shop for a decent, probably glass fiber, outdoor antenna. Seems like lots of gateway owners have such a set up. Just search for it. Andreas Spiess has some nice video’s on the subject, and holds the distance record (over land)
That is an incorrect generalization because there are also good ‘Chinese antennas’ (and the ‘GSM types’ are often the very small indoor types).
While I have no personal experience with outdoor antenna’s, decent/good Chinese outdoor antenna’s do exist (if untrue then experts should correct me).
There even exist more decent ‘Chinese’ indoor ‘rubber duck’ type (actually it’s more stiff plastic) dipole antennas that can be used with a gateway. But don’t expect outdoor range miracles when placed indoors.
The problem with many ‘Chinese antennas’ advertised on sites like AliExpress is that they are most often not suitable and not designed for what they are advertised for (and there are very crappy ones).
99% of the sellers of those antenna’s are not specialized in RF (at all).
The ones specialized in RF usually also sell better suitable antenna’s.
Just like the indoor antennas, there are good and bad ones. In general when buying goods check what the seller claims to sell carefully. Vague specifications like at least x dBi are a sign of potential issues. A seller should be able to provide a report with details on the radiation patterns and other performance details of their product, if that isn’t available the antennas might not have been tested and all claims regarding performance are to be handled with care.
I have at least 15 outdoor antennas from different manufacturers, from reputable USA based to cheap Chinese. The antennas that do not perform as expected in my collection are cheap Chinese where the documentation wasn’t available. Some of those antennas arrived chipped (as in the plastic antenna outer shell had damage, small ‘cuts’) while the packaging was excellent. If that slips past quality control the issues might not stop at the outside of the product. As a result of my experience I stopped buying cheap Chinese outdoor antennas and get them from reputable manufacturers these days.
Some reputable manufacturers have their antennas manufactured in China so not all Chinese manufactured antennas are bad, it is just hard to find which are good and which aren’t if there isn’t an reputable party doing the quality control for you.
However, no matter the quality of the antenna, if the mounting point is not right the best antenna won’t work well. The ideal mounting point is high up with an unobstructed view of the horizon. No buildings of trees (trees especially when in leaf are a significant RF obstacle) should block the view.
If the ideal antenna position is not an option you need to adjust your expectations accordingly.
And of course the antenna cable and connectors are very important as well. Use good quality cable with low attenuation at the target frequency, keep it as short as possible.
I agree with what I have read so far. You have the worse antenna setup in the world and I think you are lucky to have already a 1km range.
- an unknown antenna with no documentation about its gain
- a very long lossy cable between the antenna and the receiver where you loose 99% of the signal
- a metalic roof which stop any electromagnetic wave to come to your antenna.
I understand your disappointment, just correct those points and you will be happy :
- get a good quality outdoor antenna and install it outside you house above the roof (not inside) with a good attachement
- place you gateway as close as possible to the antenna with very good quality cable.
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I am pretty sure if you use proper antenna (Farnell 230-5899, just for an example), your LoRa waves will travel over long distance. Just that you can feel what LoRa can do. You can see on a picture my node in underground shaft, covered with metal cover. Still got -110 dB on the Rpi+IMST gateway, 12 meters away, mounted on the roof of my house. 
Assuming that your gateway has 0 dBd gain and no cable loss, while your node has a 0 dBd gain antenna (which is not true) and no cable loss (which is likely), your Free Space Loss (FSL) at 868 MHz is about 53 dB. Lets calculate your actual path loss in your case: +14 - 110 = 124 dB. Now we can calculate the attenuation that your hole-in-the-ground-with-metal-lid implies: 124 - 53 = 71 dB ! In no way you can compensate this loss with a better antenna. When you increase the gain of one of these antennas with 6 dB you will double the range of your gateway from 12 to 24 meters. 
You better get out of that hole.
Ps. I love this use-case. Thank you for the example.
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I see antenna mounted horizontal, vs I assume gw ant vertical Reflections in pit will help but also try 45 deg or vertical mount as may see 3-10db signal improvement depending on ant patterns and relative positions. If gw directly above vertical ant may even get worse but suspect that’s not the case here…
Typo?
Well, you are not the only one anymore 
Because of the lack of Lora in our homecity (Medemblik) i also created a gateway.
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