Why elevation beats wattage every time
A field comparison of two rooftop nodes in the same neighborhood — one higher, one stronger — and what it means for where you put your next radio.
We ran an informal test with two nodes about four blocks apart in a hillside neighborhood: one on a third-floor balcony with a higher-gain antenna, one on a two-story roof with a modest whip antenna but a genuinely clear line of sight over the surrounding rooftops. The lower-gain, better-placed node consistently reached three additional nodes the balcony node couldn’t hear at all — including one nearly two kilometers away across a valley.
The setup
Both nodes ran the same firmware and transmit power. The difference was entirely in what the antenna could actually “see.” The balcony node had a clear view down the street, but tree cover and a taller building blocked most other directions. The rooftop node cleared the tree line in almost every direction.
What we measured
Over 48 hours, the rooftop node logged direct contact (zero hops) with 9 distinct nodes. The balcony node logged 5, and needed a relay through the rooftop node to reach several nodes it could otherwise not see at all — proof, in this case, of the mesh doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.
The takeaway
If you’re choosing between a stronger antenna and a better vantage point, take the vantage point. This lines up with what Recommended Hardware → Antennas already recommends: mounting height changes range more reliably than almost any other single factor. A $15 antenna up high will usually beat a $60 antenna behind glass.
For the physical-layer reasoning behind this result — the FCC power ceiling, path-loss exponents, and Fresnel-zone clearance — see Height vs. Power: Why You Can’t Buy More Range.
If you’re mapping out where Puerto Rico still needs coverage, see Puerto Rico Mesh — line-of-sight gaps, not raw radio count, are usually the limiting factor.