While using a goTenna Mesh with my app GliderLink, a user received a message from 61 miles away! The previous record was 47.4 miles air-to-air. This one is astonishing because the transmission was ground-to-air. The sender was on the ground here:
and the receiver was in the air at 3,205 ft here:
The fact that this was ground-to-air suggests that the real maximum distance air-to-air may be even longer. Get ready for more range records! As I mentioned last time, there was not reliable reception at this range. I’m seeing reliable air-to-air reception at around 10 miles.
7 Likes
Ben, you’ve done it again! Congrats. 
Contact @anon62894636 for some swag to celebrate your newest record!
3 Likes
This makes me wonder…was the sender outside, with the antenna fully exposed? I think part of the problem sailplane to sailplane might be the metal and other items…you two might need to be faced just right to get it to penetrate both aircraft at a long distance (glass to glass, perhaps)…versus a sender on the ground only needing to penetrate the one! 61 miles is incredible! That is ~322,080 feet, for those wondering!
Also, the fact they were able to do that over some populated areas where interference may exist is even more impressive! Makes me wonder if there was a little more altitude, in a “quiet” setting, just how far you really could get!
Just playing around on Google Earth, and using a distance of ~50 miles, that means in 3 hops, I could potentially talk to someone in Knoxville, TN (I’m about 20 miles east Winchester, KY). Of course, if you successfully got 60 miles both bounces, it could be up to another 20 miles past that…but still, that would be quite a feat! goTenna needs their own commercial airline fleet so we could have relays flying over all the time lol
1 Like
The sending goTenna Mesh was inside my glider, on the ground. It is mounted underneath a plexiglass canopy, so it has only plastic to go through. Most sailplanes are made composite; either fiberglass or carbon fiber. Radio signals can pass through fiberglass fairly easily, but have a harder time with carbon fiber. That’s why I recommend pilots velcro the Mesh to the top of the canopy.
3 Likes
Ben, how many users do you have? @GliderBen