6 posts tagged with "lora"

Ready to push hard into IoT outside of the US? Meet Helium In the Wild!

Starting in November with Solana Breakpoint in Lisbon, Portugal, I'll be heading out to see how Helium is being used in the wild. I'll be looking for and sharing lessons, inspirations, and interviews with real people who are getting up to their elbows in this network.

• Details for Lisbon
• Details for London
• Details for Paris
• Details for Barcelona

https://youtu.be/hKbBtm6sqDg

The Helium Foundation is sponsoring this series to showcase how people are using Helium around the world. Yeah yeah yeah, I know, I'll still do stuff covering the use of IoT in the US, but there's a whole world out there and I want to help YOU see it!

Driving demand is critical to the long term success of Helium, and I'm psyched to help you figure out how to do it yourself by showing you how it's already being done.

At each place I visit, we'll do something different to help you learn about Helium and connect with your local community. It may be learning how to use a sensor, an aspect of running a LoRaWAN business, or any other thing useful to you as a user, service provider, DIYer, or just an interested bystander. We'll also be running a mapping contest called Here Be Dragons at a few locations, more on that below.

The current schedule looks like this. For details on each location, head down to the individual sections.

• Nov 3rd - arrive Lisbon, Portugal.
• Nov 7th AM cancelled) - Here Be Dragons Mapping Event, sponsored by RAK Wireless & Hotspotty
• Nov 6th PM- Lisbon, Proof of Physical Work event with Hivemapper
• Nov 8th - Lisbon, Portugal - (Helium Foundation Hackathon on a train)
• Nov 10th - London, open schedule
• Nov 11th London event at Durham Street Auditorium at the Royal Society for the Arts house. Here Be Dragons mapping event in the morning, presentations & panel in afternoon.
• Nov 13th Paris meetup, La Felicita in the morning
• Nov 14 - Paris, travel to Barcelona
• Nov 15-16th Smart Cities Barcelona
• Nov 16th Barcelona evening meetup with Marc Pous

Wherever possible I would LOVE to meet you at any one of these. If you'll be in any of those areas on or around those dates, please sign up so I can keep you abreast of when the community workshop and meet up will be. Everyone who signs up AND shows up to their location gets a Helium in The Wild t-shirt (while supplies last).

If you know anyone I should meet or should invite to present at any of these, connect us up, yo.

Stoked!

[formidable id="35"]

In the interest of making all this really easy for you to keep track of, here are a few more things to think about.

At each location we'll be running something a little different. Some will have the Here Be Dragons mapping contest, some will have presentations from experts, some will have a panel discussion so you can learn from a variety of people. All events will allow you to connect with locals who are into the same things you're into as well as allowing you to build and strengthen local network connections.

Here Be Dragons mapping contest is an event with RAK 10701 LoRaWAN mapping units. RAK is one of the sponsors of the Helium In The Wild tour, and we're psyched to see them supporting the community! During the contest you'll be competing to see who can map a variety of things, from most hotspots connected to specific hotspots to most miles traveled. Tiny prizes will be given to top performers, and at the end of the Helium In The Wild tour I'll mail all the mappers off to the various winners. The Hotspotty team along with Dave Akers at Helium Analytics has generously agreed to help support the back end of this so we can know who did what with a mapper. :)

LOCATIONS & EVENTS​

LISBON Activities​

On November 4th, at 11 AM, I'd love to meet you for coffee at Selva.

Pending hardware arrival (it got stuck in transit), on the 7th, in conjunction with Daniel & Max at Hotspotty and sponsored by RAK Wireless, we'll be running the first ever Here Be Dragons event. You can buy an NFT for the event (NOT required, just a fun way to support, all proceeds will go to supporting a future Helium x Solana Hackathon).

If you're coming, please register using the form above and show up. RAK Wireless has sponsored this event with 10 of their 10701 WisBlock Field Testers which Daniel has set up to integrate with Hotspotty for scoring.

After running Here Be Dragons I'll be exploring Solana Breakpoint and reporting back on how moving over to Solana will benefit Helium users in specific ways. If you're in Lisbon and have anything to do with IoT, Helium, and Solana, please reach out so we can connect!

I'll attend the Proof of Physical Work event and let you know more about the Hivemapper/Helium collab.

LONDON Activities​

The London event is turning into the headline event of the tour. I've booked a pretty special place for us to meet, the Durham Street Auditorium at the RSA House in Central London.

We've also got an adjacent meeting space, the "Long Gallery" so you'll have a place to mingle and connect with others. We'll have food there as well, so while I'll ask ya not to come off a 1 week fast and clean out the refreshments, there'll be something to nibble on.

The event kicks off at 9:30 AM the morning of the 11th, meeting in the Long Gallery to start the the London Here Be Dragons mapping contest using units supplied by RAK. You can buy an NFT for the event (NOT required, just a fun way to support, all proceeds will go to supporting a future Helium x Solana Hackathon).

After that, starting at 1 pm local time we'll be holding an series of talks focusing on running an IoT business with Helium. We'll have reps from the community, Helium Foundation, manufacturers, and even from outside the Helium eco-system! The event runs 1-5 pm in central London.

Event timeline:​

0930 - 1000 Here Be Dragons Registration (optional NFT for this is here)
1000 - 1300 Here Be Dragons mapping contest
1300 - 1315 What Hath Helium Done? - Nik Hawks/Gristle King
1315 - 1345 Building a Business With Helium, Neil Skoggers/Trackpac,
1345 - 1400 Using Analytics to Drive IoT Business Decisions, Dave Akers/HeliumAnalytics
1405 - 1435 Future of IoT Panel (Adrian Clint/Helium Foundation, Skye Blackledge/RAK Wireless, Adrian Li Mow Ching/Linxdot)
1440 - 1500 Building End to End Solutions, Rob Putt/Trackpac
1500 - 1600 How To Save The World With LoRaWAN, Bill Clee/Novacene
1600 - 1700 Mingle as needed. Wallflowers to depart. Extroverts shall sustain.

If you're coming to either (or both events), please register using the form above. RAK Wireless has sponsored this event with 10 of their 10701 WisBlock Field Testers which Daniel at Hotspotty has set up to integrate with Hotspotty for scoring.

PARIS Activities​

Morning meetup at La Felicita, 10 AM, to connect with the local Helium crew (including local YouTuber SMOKLM).

We'll spend the rest of that day and the next connecting with locals in Paris (and frankly, recovering from a blaster of a trip up 'til this point) and prepare for the final stage, Barcelona! We did have a trip down to Paul (aka Disk91 planned), but it ate up too much time; we'd be on the train for 8+ hours plus a 2 hour flight, all in the course of 24 hours. Far better to spend that time boots-on-the-ground in Paris!

BARCELONA Activities​

The theme in Barcelona revolves around exploring how governments, specifically cities, may use LoRaWAN and Helium. I'll be attending an expo called Smart Cities Barcelona to dive into how many municipalities are using the growing flood of data to build and manage better, smarter cities.

On the evening of November 16th we'll be meeting with the IoT Barcelona Meetup group at 6 pm. That group is run by Marc Pous, a Balena wizard and our local connect. We'll be at Itnig, which is a local statup hub; come join us if you're around!

Do you have the best antenna for your location? What kind of coverage is your Helium Hotspot providing? Is the location you've identified as good on Helium.Vision actually that good?

https://youtu.be/beHpEHt0wQU

The way to answer these questions definitively is to test your setup. No amount of simulation, prediction, or just thinking (or even hoping) will replace the stone-cold facts of an actual test.

I've covered a few ways to test various components, but this time we'll dig in to where the rubber meets the road:

QUESTION: How will a specific antenna at a specific proposed location actually perform?​

Let's start by defining what kind of data you'd need to answer that question.

First, you're going to want to know if your ANTENNA is actually working, and how well it's working.

Second, you'll want to know HOW MANY Hotspots your proposed location can be witnessed by. Since beacons & witnesses are two sides of the same coin, it's pretty reasonable to assume that "if they can hear you, you can hear them." Yes, that's an assumption. Yes, I'm familiar with the assumption ASS-U-ME problem. This particular assumption is very likely to be useful, though it may not be as accurate as we'd like.

Third, if you plan on actually using the Helium Network (which is where all the long term profits are), a test should show you what kind of coverage your proposed location will provide beyond just being witnessed by other Hotspots.

I'm using a GLAMOS Walker, along with its companion app/site, to do my testing.

Here's how it works in broad strokes, then we'll dig into the details.

1. Set up the GLAMOS.​

2. Take the GLAMOS to your proposed location, attach the antenna(s) you're going to use or test, and fire off a bunch of beacons.​

3. Head back over to the GLAMOS app to see your results.​

GLAMOS SET UP - PART 1​

The set up is straightforward. Slaven, the creator of the GLAMOS, gives world class support, so if you get stuck when you're going through the directions, check in on the Discord #glamos channel for help from him or the GLAMOS community.

The first thing to do is create an account over on the GLAMOS app, then follow the instructions below. I've included both Slaven's demo video as well as a written out version.

https://youtu.be/KNUkJyHfcTE

1. Go to the GLAMOS app, then create an account or sign in.
2. Go to Devices on the top menu, and Add Device

Now add in the Serial Number and DevEUI of your device. You should have received an email with these when you bought the GLAMOS, so you can just copy/paste 'em in. Or, like me, you can miss the email, turn the GLAMOS on and go to Settings --> Keys then manually type 'em in.

Trust me, you should use the copy/paste option. :)

Ok, so you might think now that all you've got to do is attach the antenna you want to test, head to your location, and mash that SEND - ONCE button.

Not so fast, turbo. You need to add in the gateways (aka Helium Hotspots) you want to test. That could be a large area, or it could just be the deployment net you're using. If you'd like to test all the gateways within a radius of a point, you'll need to set that up. Here's how:

Go to the Menu bar at the top of the app and click on Gateways, then click on the Add Gateway button.

Every Gateway has to know what Server it's going to use. In this case, we're using Helium, but the GLAMOS can also be used for other protocols & projects.

Now you've got a choice: Do you want to test a very specific part of the Network, say a few Helium Hotspots you've deployed to see if they can "see" each other, or do you want to do testing of all gateways over a wider area? I wanted to test a couple antennas over a wide area, so I chose "Add all gateways in range to server", like this:

Select a center point and a radius, then let 'er rip.

Back in the Gateways menu you'll now see your new Server, woohoo! Cool, so now your GLAMOS knows what to do. Next up is telling it who to do it with. You'll need to get it connected to your Console account on the Helium Network. Yep, the data credits to run this thing will come from your account. Relax, it's pennies.

PART 2: PROVISION GLAMOS ON HELIUM CONSOLE​

Slaven, the creator of the GLAMOS, has made a little vid for ya on how to navigate this.

https://youtu.be/pwa3mXbS3x8

Just in case you need that decoder script link from the video, here it is. The one I started with is below, but that's being updated all the time. Use the link for the latest version.

function Decoder(bytes, port) { 
  // Decode an uplink message from a buffer (array) of bytes to an object of fields. 
  //Decoder for GLAMOS Walker device. 
  
  var decoded = {}; 
  
  decoded.latitude = ((bytes[0]<<16)>>>0) + ((bytes[1]<<8)>>>0) + bytes[2]; 
  decoded.latitude  = (decoded.latitude / 16777215.0 * 180) - 90; 
  decoded.latitude = +decoded.latitude .toFixed(7); 
  
  decoded.longitude = ((bytes[3]<<16)>>>0) + ((bytes[4]<<8)>>>0) + bytes[5]; 
  decoded.longitude = (decoded.longitude / 16777215.0 * 360) - 180;
  decoded.longitude = +decoded.longitude .toFixed(7); 
  
  var altValue = ((bytes[6]<<8)>>>0) + bytes[7]; 
  var sign = bytes[6] & (1 << 7); 
  if(sign) 
  { 
    decoded.altitude = 0xFFFF0000 | altValue; 
  } 
  else 
  { 
    decoded.altitude = altValue; 
  } 
  
  decoded.ant  = bytes[8]; 
  
  decoded.accuracy = 3; 
  
  decoded.position_num = bytes[9]; 
  
  
  return decoded; 
}

Ok, so now your GLAMOS Walker is set up, it's connected to the Helium Network and you're ready to start testing. Nice work!

TESTING ANTENNAS WITH THE GLAMOS​

If you have antennas with N-type fittings (many of them do), you'll need an adaptor to go from the GLAMOS to the antenna. Current GLAMOS have a little connector-adaptor kit. I bought mine a while ago, so mine didn't. I mean, you know me: I would've made cables anyway.

You can order custom cables from McGill Microwave. I'd recommend 4-5' of LMR 240, and get SMA-Male and N-Male connectors. Obvi you can use the GLAMOS to test antenna cables as well, so if you want to get wild order different lengths and types, but for now we'll keep it simple.

Cables are generally a good idea because standing too close to the antenna when you test it can skew the results. I made one that was 4' long so I can sit at the base of my testing rig and work the GLAMOS away from the antenna.

I start by checking to make sure the antenna is actually working and all my connections are good. For this, I use a little VNA I got off Banggood, though you can get 'em off Amazon as well. Here's a VSWR reading of 1.267 off the HNTenna, excellent as usual. For the purposes of this test we just want to make sure the VSWR is lower than 2. All of the antennas in this test were between 1.175 and 1.367. So far, so good.

Now to test with the GLAMOS! I followed Slaven's advice and set up the GLAMOS to send 10 messages each time. I did that 2 times for each antenna, so I had decent numbers to work with.

You can find this setting in the GLAMOS under SEND - MULTI --> SAME SF(loop) -- REPEAT (set that to 10x).

The readings off a single packet don't give you enough data to make a good decision. Data credits are cheap as chips, so burn 'em up. In this case I tested 5 antennas 20 times each, and with a few misfires I managed to spend 277 DC. Whoop de doo. You get 10,000 DC for $1 US.

I spent the next hour just mounting, connecting, testing, disconnecting, mounting, reconnecting, testing, disconnecting...

Once you're done testing, head back to a computer and pull up the GLAMOS app so you can dig into the data. You can look at the data on the GLAMOS in the field if you want, but I like big screens. On your desktop in the app, go to Analytics, select the Device, Date, Time, and Type of test, then filter and fidget and sort to your heart's delight.

The results from this test of 5 antennas were pretty cool, at least for me. I tested the HNTenna, a Laird 6 dBi, 2 eBay cheapies, and the giant 13 dBi sector antenna I used before I knew what I was doing. Here are the results.

The obvious takeaway is wrong, just FYI. I threw that 13 dBi in there just to see what would happen, knowing it would have skewed results. Remember, every 3 dB is a doubling in power, so a 13 dBi is pushing out a focused signal more than octuple (what a word!) the power of a little 3 dBi. That means it'll "win" hands down in every measure of signal strength.

I was pleased to see the HNTenna did well, and I was surprised how good at least one of the eBay cheapies was. I would've expected the Laird to do a bit better, though it definitely had the most messages received. For reference, and so you don't go out and immediately replace your antenna with a ridiculously overpowered sector, I had that Mega Sector up for a MONTH with earnings in the bottom 10% of all Helium Hotspots before I managed to tweak the settings and dial down the power significantly so it'd fall within acceptable levels. Once I did that it performed well, although now that I have the HNTenna on it it's doing just as well or better at about a third of the price and a hundreth of the install hassle.

The GLAMOS app really lets you dig around in the data, listing out how each antenna for all the gateways that witnessed it. Here's the Laird, for example:

Check out that far right column where it tells you whether or not the signal would have fallen within the current (PoCv10) RSSI/SNR ratio. That will change with the update to PoCv11. Super useful!

You can use the GLAMOS to test more than antennas; you can test locations, whether indoor or outdoor will perform better, and by how much, and how a long cable might effect your actual reach. We haven't even gotten into using it for testing sensors yet, I'll leave that for another post.

So, what antenna should you buy? I'd start by picking up a GLAMOS testing unit before I went and bought any more antennas. Learn how to use it, then test your antennas, test your locations, and deploy a smarter, better, more efficient (and more profitable) Helium Network.

So...How Does This Help Me With Providing Coverage and Earning Profit?​

Helium is a blockchain network that rewards users who provide WUPU (Wide, Unique, Proveable, and Useful) coverage. The better your WUPU coverage, the more you'll earn. Now, WUPU isn't a Helium metric, it's something I teach people about to help them understand at broad strokes how to assess a potential deployment.

If you want to have a high earning hotspot, testing the Wide and Proveable aspects of coverage is essential. Now, whether or not your coverage is Unique or Useful is something you'll need to assess in different ways. I'd start with my post on HIP 17 and scaling, then check out how to use the Network.

Rock on in your Helium glory, and best of luck to you in your deployments!

Archived Comments​

Randy Armitage - 12/8/2021​

Hey Nik I went to #mappers on the Helium Discord looking for info on how to use my Glamos to support the mapping project. Scrolled to the bottom of the pinned messages, which led to this article. While informative, the content doesn't seem to cover much of what the title hints at. Am I missing something or is the process of testing antennas very similar to generating coverage data? Thanx ?

Nik - 12/8/2021​

Hi Randy, in general, good coverage is a proxy for good earnings. It's not precise, as earnings will depend on local density and scaling, but if you want to earn HNT on Helium one of the essential aspects is knowing what coverage your location/antenna combo will provide.

Nathan - 12/16/2021​

Hey! Great article! Love all the data and very thankful for your amazing blog here! I just recently received my glamos walker (super exciting) and I am seemingly having the same issue as randy. I got it in order to contribute to the helium mapping project and after having set it up, find myself confused on whether I am actually contributing. Testing my own antennas is nice (which I'll try sometime in the future) but I can't seem to figure out A) If I'm actually providing coverage data for the network B) How to setup the glamos to automatically contribute once turned on. Any insight or hints in the right direction would be great.

Nik - 12/16/2021​

Hi Nathan, I don't think there's an auto-fire Mapper style setting on the GLAMOS. It's designed built to test a bunch of different specific spots to make sure a sensor at that spot can reach a gateway, not to continuously beacon in order to provide coverage. I'll change the name of the post, as it seems to be misleading people.

Ben - 12/25/2021​

Hey Nik, question about this assumption made in the article — “Second, you’ll want to know HOW MANY Hotspots your proposed location can be witnessed by. Since beacons & witnesses are two sides of the same coin, it’s pretty reasonable to assume that “if they can hear you, you can hear them.” I’ve just gotten and set up my miner recently, inside, stock antenna, 650 ft above the ground in a high rise overlooking the suburbs (for background). I’m actually finding that this assumption doesn’t seem to be true, in that I’m getting people witnessing my beacons for 55km+ but I don’t seem to be able to connect with anyone beyond a kilometer of me. Any ideas or thoughts? I’ve read about the principle of antenna reciprocity, and the only think I can think of is maybe the window that’s in front of the antenna is blocking really weak signals and making them impossible to distinguish from noise.

Nik - 12/26/2021​

Hi Ben, it's not technically correct, it's just a useful model to use. It's likely that many hotspots around you are not as well placed. Think about this as well; you always get to know what hotspots witnessed your beacon, but you don't always win the lottery to witness the beacons of other hotspots.

Tom - 1/12/2022​

Hey Nik, off topic here but I heard you on the Hotspot Podcast and you did a great job. My question is, you me mentioned T-Mo approaching a large hotspot fleet owner with a threat to cut them off. I could not find anything on this(articles, etc.). Is there a link you could share? Thanks as always and congrats on your Helium community Noble award. (you got my vote!) Tom

Nik - 1/12/2022​

Hi Tom, thanks! Nothing I can share on that beyond the podcast convo; the fleet owner is pretty private.

Tom - 1/12/2022​

Fully understand. Thanks.

I got into Helium accidentally. I was looking for a way to find and communicate with other paragliders out back of beyond. I had participated in a Search and Rescue for a well known paraglider out in remote Nevada at the end of summer 2020.

The missing paraglider pilot (James Johnston, aka Kiwi) had GPS and a cell phone, and it still took hundreds of people, including hunters, hikers, bike riders, ATV mounted search parties, planes, helicopters, drones, and satellite imagery 30 days to find him. Here's a 20 minute presentation on just the crowd-source satellite imagery side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UgtrcyWreE

I flew up with my friend David Hunt in his small plane to help with the aerial search. We left early in the morning on the third day after Kiwi was reported missing and it became clear that the more people searching, the better.

We got bumped around in turbulent Nevada desert air for a few days before flying back to San Diego without having found the missing pilot. For almost the entire journey, David and I talked about better options for being found. Should we have a backup GPS, or was there another device or technology that could be useful? We found Recco Reflectors, which are useful if a local SAR crew has a helicopter with the technology, but...not many crews in the US have that.

Then another paraglider pilot and buddy of mine, Zach Armstrong, stumbled across this thing called LoRa. LoRa stands for LOng RAnge, and is the radio protocol used by Helium. As we searched around the internet for more on LoRa, we found two cool options. One was Meshtastic, a system designed by a paraglider that used LoRa to form mesh groups of communications nets. You and your buddies can all talk to each other across long distances using devices you build.

We built a couple devices and tested 'em out, thinking of them as a good option, but to be honest, pretty fiddly.

I found a way to 3D print cases locally, made a couple more devices and handed out my extras to local pilots to test while we flew in the mountains. They weren't easy to use unless you really like to tinker. Not everyone does.

Then I stumbled on Helium. It came up when you looked for "LoRa" back in August 2020 on the Googs. I'd been involved with crypto before, so I wasn't afraid of it and didn't think it was a scam. I saw a Helium "Hotspot" down the street from my house earning a tremendous amount of HNT, or Helium Network Tokens. That caught my attention. I got onto the Helium Discord back when you could read through every thread from the start in about a week and a half, and did just that.

Serendipitously, Helium opened up a DIY program at about the same time, where you could buy the parts to make your own Helium Hotspot and onboard it onto the Network. Along with my buddy TJ Ferrara, we applied for and received "alpha codes", then dug into how to actually use the things.

Here's TJ getting our first one online.

Here's TJ up on my roof, putting the finishing cable management touches on that first miner. We were so pumped to have one up and running!

Of course, I had to constantly tinker with it (it was all new and exciting), and the pole was too much for me to manage safely by myself, so I hooked my wife Lee up to the pole with a climbing harness and rope, and she patiently belayed the pole as I tilted it up and down to dial in the hotspot and antenna at the top. She's seen my many phases of crazy, and she gamely went along with this one.

Ok, so that got us into Helium, but how does that relate to paragliding?

Well, with our first hotspot done, I set my sights on getting an antenna way out in the mountains near my favorite paragliding spot. It'd provide us a way to test Helium Network coverage and see if we could use trackers to, well, track paragliders.

We started with Helium Tabs, but those left something to be desired. Form factor = cool, Performance = Not so much. I put one on my new bike and it managed to stop tracking within about a day.

I started ordering parts to build a giant off grid setup. I was so excited about the whole thing I'd send blow-by-blow videos to my Dad.

https://youtu.be/whRloJZ\_9RE

Guided by Paul over at Tourmaline Wireless, who drilled the holes and walked me through the layout, I got the first hotspot put together and ready to hike in. Here's Paul sussing out the best interior setup in his shop.

I got permission to place the thing on a mountain the backcountry of San Diego, then TJ & I hiked in 60+ lb backpacks filled with gear and set the thing up. Fun, and unfun. It was a giant antenna that I didn't need, plus more solar panel and battery than was necessary, but it was my first one. I ended up having to dial the antenna gain down with software, a project that introduced to some really cool and competent people (looking at you, @jerm on Discord), and it taught me a lot about what you actually want in an antenna vs what looks cool.

With the off grid hotspot in place and providing coverage from the Mexican border up to north of Los Angeles, I figured we could start testing tracking, but I needed more rugged tracking devices. I turned to Lonestar Tracking and bought a few Digital Matter Oysters from them along with a tracking subscription plan.

I handed out the devices to local paragliders, and we tested them. They worked (I've written about these tests over here.)

So that brings us now, October 2021, a year after the Kiwi SAR, to the Red Rocks Fly In and the XRed Rocks. The Fly In is an annual gathering of paragliding and hang gliding pilots, over 300 of us! It happens up in Monroe, Utah, and is a week of sharing the skies with other free flight enthusiasts. This year, there's something new: The X Red Rocks.

X Red Rocks (XRR) is a paragliding "hike and fly" race organized by one of my free flight heroes, Gavin McClurg. Gavin has participated in the super gnarly hike and fly race called the The Red Bull X Alps, held in (you guessed it) the Alps. He wanted to share that joy (and the joy of type 2 and 3 fun) with the rest of us back here in the US, so he put together the XRR.

In fact, it was Gavin's movie, The Rocky Mountains Traverse, that got me into paragliding back in 2016.

Unlike the month long journey that Gavin went on, the XRR is a 3 day event where, each day you hike up into the mountains to a launch with your paraglider, unpack, unfold, and launch off the mountain, fly as far as you can and land, then pack up, hike up, unpack, unfold, and launch again until you've finished whatever the day's task is.

Of course, I registered for it. :)

I wanted to participate, but I also wanted to combine business and pleasure, and to give back to both my free flight (paraglider and hang glider) community as well as showcase what Helium could do.

The way this event is set up is basically the reason I got into Helium; flying in remote to semi-remote areas without perfect cell coverage.

I wanted a way for my paragliding community to have a third option, maybe a last chance, after GPS & cell phones, to be tracked in case we got lost. I know that LoRa isn't a magic pill, and that it won't replace a Garmin inReach Mini with a global constellation of satellites, or telcos with their giant cell tower sites everywhere.

Still, it's a way for regular people, just like you and me, to deploy a wireless network that provides actual use. That is (pardon my language) fucking radical. I love radical things.

So, with this in mind, I rallied the troops. I called Tommy at Lonestar, Matthew at Digital Matter, talked with the Helium crew about what I wanted to do and why, and all of them very generously volunteered to donate time, materials, and expertise to the project.

I'll be bringing up 2 of my off grid hotspots, Helium is sending me a few of the off grid setups that Paul built for them as well as a bunch of trackers, Lonestar is covering tracking, and Digital Matter is providing enough trackers to cover all the rest of the pilots. If YOU want to be involved in some way, reach out!

I'll be driving up Friday the 24th of September and will spend the weekend setting up Helium Hotspots in the mountains around Monroe. On Tuesday the 28th I'll be giving a presentation on Helium to my paragliding community up in Richfield, UT (8 pm, swing on by!) and on Thursday the XRR kicks off. Ryan from Lonestar and Travis from Helium are coming up to help everything run smoothly and to answer questions, and hopefully to help convince free flight clubs that wherever we have a launch, we should probably add a Helium compatible hotspot to it.

I would love for you to follow along on the journey as we hike, fly, race, and use the Helium Network to demonstrate what a small, committed group of people can actually do. If you're in Utah and want to come help out with setup, troubleshooting, lending us a Helium Hotspot, or just participating in a joyous effort, please reach out or just post to comments.

Come along for the ride!

Archived Comments​

Richard Ogden - 9/24/2021​

Life is for living ! Well done fella.

Derek Clair - 9/24/2021​

I am in Riverton (Salt Lake), and would actually be very interested in hearing/talking all the Helium things; willing to make the drive too if you’ll have me. What is the venue? Or an address, I’m there!

Nik - 9/24/2021​

Hi Derek, 8:00 PM. Tuesday, Monroe City Park (Across from Bullies) Main St. Monroe.

FRED GARNER - 9/25/2021​

Hi Guys I am in I have been trying to do just what you are going with Helium I am an aircraft and anything that flies on the airstreams I have track aircraft use ADS-b Sillite Radar in and out of airports and I and also a stock that misses with Crypto and that is how I got into Helium hots I am interested in helping people that are doing what they love and I want to help them stay safe would love to help that is all I do is track planes and would to help there is more to this whole thing. use my email I would love to talk. You every here of Mike Patty, Steve Fosit he died doing what he loved and they never found Him. I will do what I can do I have 3 gigs of bandwidth Please get back to me. FRED GARNER

Darin Johnson - 9/27/2021​

I'm kinda like you. I found Helium by accident. I was watching videos on mining cryptocurrency, and one came up along the lines of "plug this box in and make money." Another one said before you get into mining something, do your research. What's the usage, is it covered by something already established, etc? So I watch more videos, and while some are talking about "optimum antenna placement" and the like, NONE are talking about what Helium can DO!!! So I keep looking around and when I finally found it, IT BLEW MY (language) FUCKING MIND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apple's AirTag just came out a few months ago and it's claim to fame is that other user's phones can help you locate your lost things. Imagine if Google, or Tile, or another company came out with a platform agnostic tracker that uses the Helium Network. All Helium needs is a little push, the right company making something that shows off the power of the network and it will absolutely EXPLODE!!!! I want to be there, I want to be part of this!!!!!!!

G - 10/6/2021​

Hi Nik, Can you please give a reasonable explanation to the best of your knowledge how is this possible. And if so can your expertise replicate it? Thanks! G https://explorer.helium.com/hotspots/11ZMRjPTazmb9Gf2s4qpZCW5yEd9Bb1gbSUhGGiobxjDAfxTjve

Nik - 10/6/2021​

Probably cheating. I can't/won't replicate cheating. :)

Hotspotty started as a way for Daniel Andrade (@spillere on Discord) to manage the growing fleet of Helium Hotspots he was rolling out together with Maxime Goossens and Alexis Argent.

In the beginning we had a tiny script that would send our daily rewards to a Telegram group.

It's, uh, grown from that. :)

Let's start with a little background on the Hotspotty team. Daniel is a Brazilian born itinerant consultant trained as an electrical engineer with an interest in web design & coding. He has contributed heavily to the Helium community.

Maxime is their engineering wizard, combining a drive to solve complex problems with an ability to show you, very quickly, the useful parts of the data.

Alexis has a strong interest in open source communications and blockchain technology. He's founded 2 companies in VoIP and Wireless distribution.

They recently walked me through the latest incarnation of Hotspotty in the accompanying video (vid link at the bottom).

What is Hotspotty, and how can you use it to help you within the Helium ecosystem?​

Hotspotty is designed to be an all-encompassing tool for Helium users, from owners of single hotspots out to groups running a fleet of thousands. What does all-encompassing...encompass? Let's go through the high points.

Understand the Network​

First, Hotspotty helps you visualize the complex math, equations, and rules that govern the growth of a healthy Helium network. If you've ever been confounded trying to wrap your head around HIP 17 with its density target, or number of siblings, or density max rules, Hotspotty makes the whole simple to understand from the perspective of any hotspot on the planet.

Now you can see what the edge of any hex looks like (NOT a straight line), and also very quickly see where the "problem" hexes are so you can work to clear them. If you want to dive a bit deeper into HIP 17, I've got a post written up on it over here.

Collaborate with your team​

Now, let's say you work with other people to manage your Network. You might have Installers, or Hosts, or a Fleet Manager, or even a Region Manager. You can separate out all those roles into Contacts or Members, assign them labels, and give them appropriate access.

Contacts may not be internal members; they could be an installer you just want to use occasionally, or a host who doesn't need to see your whole network but does need to get paid out monthly (or however you do it, this is NOT tax advice!)

Hotspotty allows you to also have Workspace Members who DO get access to the inside track. You can add these to your Members list, invite 'em in, and let them collaborate with you.

Optimize your deployment​

Ok, so once you've started building your team, how do you optimize your Helium Network deployments? By diving into the Map section of the Hotspotty app and taking a look at the various tools available. As of Sep 18th, 2021, most of the tools focus on *avoiding* bad places rather than finding the best places, but that second part is coming, and soon.

What is a "bad" place in the land of Helium? I'd define it generally in three ways:

• Density - Local and Regional
• Topography - Signals blocked by earth
• Volume - Enough Hotspots to reliably connect & initiate the earning sequence

I've talked a bunch about optimizing your hotspot placement (see my Rough Guide for a deep dive), but it can be complicated to run all the numbers hotspot by hotspot.

Seeing a "bad" place on Hotspotty is as easy as opening the app, clicking on the Map section, then clicking on the Hexes tab, and if you want to see specific resolutions, clicking on the Filter button.

There's another cool feature you can use just for quick checks, and that's seeing where hotspots are too close together to have a *valid* witness (the "300 meter" rule.) Here's what it looks like when you turn on the layer in the settings cog, at the top right.

See all those line between hotspots? Every one of those indicates that those hotspots are too close to each other to be a valid witness. Neat, eh?

Collaborate with the Helium community​

Now comes one of the coolest parts of Hotspotty, though it'll take all of us working together to make useful: Collaboration. Of course, you can collaborate with your internal team, and that's cool, but as Max from Hotspotty says after looking through reams of data:

What we discovered is actually quite interesting; most of the optimization is beyond your control.  Your earnings are defined by your environment.

-Max @ Hotspotty

Managing the Environment - Contacting Hotspot Owners​

How do you manage your environment? By talking to other people! Hotspotty allows you to do this in a reasonably anonymous way. You can send a message to any hotspot, and if that hotspot owner ever looks at Hotspotty, they'll see someone has messaged them. They can choose to ignore it, or they can "claim" the wallet associated the hotspot the received the message and start a conversation with you.

What does it look like? Let's walk through the 4 step process.

Step 1: Identify the problem. In this case, I filtered America's Finest City (San Diego) by res 7's, then just randomly selected one to see if there was an easy fix. I mean, Hotspotty is telling me we only have to move 1 of 'em!

Step 2: Dig in and look for easy wins. In this case, there's a hotspot that right on the edge of the res 7 AND is also super-crowding another hotspot. Easy fix!

Step 3: Identify the exact Hotspot.

Step 4: Initiate contact. Be cool, offer help. Do NOT be a jackwagon! Only showing them how THEY can move to benefit YOU is NOT helping the community. :)

Managing the environment: Spawning a Discord Channel​

Another rad way to invite your local crew to participate is by "spawning" a Discord channel based on a specific hex. You choose your problem hex, spawn the Discord (which will open up a new channel in the Hotspotty Discord), then rally folks into it. I've done the "rally" side by working in the much larger regional channels over on the Helium official discord and saying, "Hey, if you're in [San Diego] and want to improve our reward scale, jump on into the discussion and let's crank up earnings together, [here]!"

As an example, here's the San Diego res 4 Discord channel.

Manage payouts​

Finally, you can manage payouts. The Hotspotty v1 is still alive and well for this. On v2 (which is what I've covered in this post) as of today, you can just get the correct numbers for what you need to pay out, but can't automagically make it so your wallet pays another wallet on some certain date/time, but that's coming.

Ready to dive in? Cruise over to Hotspotty and sign up to get started. Enjoy, and let's make the Helium Network radical together!

VISIT THE HOTSPOTTY WEBSITE

The full interview is over on the Toobz, or you can watch it right here.

https://youtu.be/7v19oWawO1Q

Until next time, rock on!

If you’re looking for work in the Helium ecosystem, please check out this rad project I’m a part of called Helium Jobs. You can post and find jobs there, help support the ecosystem by making it easier to connect professionally, and let the world know that YOU exist and want to help contribute within the Network. Rock on!

Archived Comments​

AndyCA - 9/20/2021​

Thank you. Such a useful tool.

Well, the race is officially on. With at least two unofficial halvings coming in the near future, it's pretty darn important right now to:

A) Get your Helium hotspot up and earning and

B) Secure the best spot you possibly can.

In the case below, this hotspot is on private property with an incredible view of both my favorite place to fly a paraglider in San Diego AND an excellent view of the southern half of San Diego county.

Wait, what? More halvings? Yep, you've got 2 coming. One from network growth (network size will probably double by the end of the year) close to 300k.

Doubling the network equals (for the AVERAGE hotspot) half the rewards. Now, that's the average hotspot, but it's best to be conservative with these calculations.

What's the second halving? 5G. IF 5G rolls anywhere near as fast as they rolled out the current hotspots, it'll chew through the "up to 35%" of HNT set aside for network data transfer.

Remember, 5G is the opposite of LoRa. LoRa is small packets/large distance. 5G is large data, small distance. 5G chews through data like I used to eat gallons of ice cream; it disappears.

The catch (and really the current "doubling") is that if the "up to 35% of" HNT for data transfer doesn't get used, it gets redistributed to PoC rewards. That's us, running regular hotspots, collecting HNT for challenging, beaconing, and witnessing. Mostly, for witnessing, but that's another story.

Since our current PoC (Proof of Coverage, more on that here) rewards account for 26% of all HNT (let's call that about a third) and the data across the network isn't anywhere near capacity of "up to 35%" (we'll call that another third) we're basically getting two thirds of all HNT distributed, which is double what we're technically earning.

So, when that data gets used up by 5G hotspots, our rewards will be halved again from today. That's the bad news.

The good news is that wherever there's challenge, there's opportunity. For you hard chargers who are willing to hustle for the love of crypto and fun new enterprises and high-risk/high-return livin', giant opportunities still abound. Let's talk about a few of 'em.

First, there's the stuff you do yourself. You can use Helium.Vision or Hotspotty or Kudzu to go deep or HotspotRF (or even Google Earth) to keep it simple. Find the high points and places where your hotspot can be placed for maximum earnings. Maybe you get fancy on Google Earth and run an altitude layer to make sure you're only looking at islands in the sky, or you re-watch the demo I did on Helium.Vision and make sure you know how to use all aspects of that super powerful tool.

A hotspot with a high volume / low density view is optimal, but even a high volume / high density view like the one below can be a high earner.

You find the spot, you figure out who owns the rights to it, you contact them, negotiate an agreement, install your hotspot, and, as my English uncle says, "Robert's your father's brother." Us Yanks are little more direct and just say "Bob's your uncle."

Hot tip? Look for land brokers. They represent empty lots of land that could use a little income. That tip came from one of my most successful clients who is also an absolute wizard marketer. He has built a marketing & sales system for Helium placements that gets a 50% callback rate on leads (unheard of!) and he cherry picks the best spots. Without giving away his location, out of the top 10 Helium hotspots in his area (a place with over a thousand hotspots), he's runs 3 of 'em. He sells that system, if you're interested in that just reach out.

Finding your own placements is one of those "most work equals most rewards" deals, but if you've got a lot of hotspots, that's a lot of work.

That brings us to your second option, a recent start-up called Sitenna.com. They connect you (the antenna/hotspot owner) with land owners. You don't look for spots, you just supply the hardware, pay the rent, and collect HNT. Obviously it's slightly more complicated, but that's the gist.

If "pay to play" is your game, Sitenna is looking to be a very promising option. Tell 'em Gristleking sent ya, it'll be good for a laugh. They're a couple of recent Y-combinator types on a trajectory to crush; we Helium peeps might as well go along for the ride.

Third, you can make your own placements. This is by far the hardest, as well as in the long run *probably* the most profitable. You go out and find a business that could actually benefit from LoRa. It'll need to meet very specific requirements: They'll want to cover a large area, they don't need a ton of data, there's a clear profit motive, and they're willing to see the world in a new way.

Whether that's a cattle rancher in Montana, a scooter operator in Cancun, a boat tour operator in Cabo San Lucas, or FedEx, well, there's a whole giant world of opportunity out there for ya, but it does wear overalls and look a lot like work.

Here's me and a buddy at the beginning of my very first off grid placement (when I thought antennas mattered), about to do a 12 mile round trip hike in the mountains carrying 60 lbs each on the way out and running out of water on the way back. That was straight work, yo.

If you're looking for help to optimize YOUR hotspot placements, whether it's the one on Mom's house or the fleet you're rolling out in a far off land, consider hiring an expert for help.

In the meantime...get 'em!

This was written in late 2020/early 2020 for folks curious about optimizing a Helium Hotspot placement. Some statements are out of date, though the meat of it all is generally correct.

Most start with their antenna, which is (almost completely) the wrong approach for maximizing earnings. The only way you could make a less efficient improvement at the start is to focus on what cables to buy.

There are four fundamental aspects of an optimal Helium hotspot placement; antennas and cables are at the bottom of the list for importance.

Before we get there (relax, it's only a few paragraphs away), let's get a few important points out of the way:

First, while I think everyone reading this should buy at least one hotspot and place it as optimally as you can, over the long run you'll earn far more by figuring out a way to actually use the network and not just provide coverage.

Second, if you follow and read through every link in this article you'll be ready to make excellent decisions about the best possible hotspot placement. The whole thing (Helium, antennas, optimum hotspot placement) will take about an hour to digest and understand.

Third, if you don't want or have the time to figure out Helium on your own, for a long time I offered both courses and consulting.

ASSUMPTIONS

1. You know that Helium is a network of Hotspots that transmit and receive radio signals, then pass those signals onto the internet. In general, the more signals a given hotspot receives, the more HNT it earns. When this was written, Helium was on its own chain. It's now on Solana. Hotspots record transactions on a blockchain and reward owners for providing coverage with HNT, a cryptocurrency token.
2. You have, or have ordered, or are thinking about ordering, a Helium hotspot.
3. You haven’t read every last post and thread on the internet about maximizing a hotspot placement. :)

There are only a few things that really matter when it comes to your hotspot placement. Some of them will change over time, some of them are fundamental. All are driven by just one goal over the long term:

ADD VALUE TO THE NETWORK​

FUNDAMENTALS FOR OPTIMUM PLACEMENT

In order of importance:

• HOTSPOT DENSITY
• ANTENNA "VIEW"
• APPROPRIATE ANTENNA
• MINIMIZED & HIGH QUALITY CONNECTION LENGTH/CABLES

HOTSPOT DENSITY: Optimum density is determined using Uber's H3 map. At the low end, hotspots won't earn from other hotspots less than 300 meters away. At the high end, hotspots can "witness" other hotspots 50 km out.

Back to the Uber map. The map uses (mostly) hexagons to form grids of different sizes. Each size is called a “resolution” or “res” for short. Each hex size has an appropriate density for its resolution.

Here is a dated interactive map (it stopped being updated in late fall of 2020) of density and hotspot placements. It's color coded and fairly intuitive. Green means good density, red indicates too dense. Here's a quick screenshot:

At each "res" there is an optimal number of hotspots per hexagon. That number can change. It is determined by a base rate of hotspots per hex plus the number of hotspots in surrounding hexes. Go ahead, read that sentence again a few times. The details are in HIP 17, look for "Proposed Chain Variables."

Yes, it’s a bit complicated. It was made this way in order to programmatically account for density differences between cities, suburbs, and rural areas.

Here's a screenshot map of San Francisco (pulled from the HIP 17 Visualizer) to give another perspective.

Notice the green hotspots don't have other hotspot as close to them as the orange and red ones. Red is the worst; they're basically on top of each other and providing duplicate (or triplicate or worse) coverage, which isn't useful to the network.

If you want to know if your location will be good, you'll need to study HIP17.

If you read HIP17 until you understand it, you'll be in the 1% of Helium Hotspot owners who don't really have questions about optimum density.

It looks complicated at first, but it's actually straightforward. If you've ever read about Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, you'll have an understanding of hotspot density: Not too dense, not dense enough, but just right.

If you need to visualize things, use HeliumVision or Hotspotty. Use the options for hex overlays in HeliumVision or just zoom in and out on your Hotspot with Hotspotty. If you need help with HeliumVision, consider taking my HeliumVision Master Class.

If you don't have the time or just want to skip that part, you can hire me and I'll help you pick the best option for your area and circumstance.

BOTTOM LINE: You need to have optimum density for maximum earnings.

ANTENNA VIEW: Before you go ordering the latest and greatest super-hot antenna (more on that later), make sure your antenna has a view. A "view" has three important aspects.

• Outside. Walls and even windows will block radio waves.
• High above other obstacles.
• Clear view to as much as possible.

The view of your antenna is far more important than upgrading your antenna. A higher elevation "stock" antenna (the one that comes with your hotspot) will outperform a super fancy antenna that's low down EVERY TIME. You can see the line of sight of your antenna to specific spots using RF Line of Sight or Helium.Vision.

Get as high as reasonably possible. How high? From the American Radio Relay League's document on antenna placement:

“To a distant receiving station, a transmitting antenna at 120 feet will provide the effect of approximately 8 to 10 times more transmitting power than the same antenna at 35 feet.”

You may be thinking, "I'll never get my antenna 120' high." That's OK, do the best you can, but know that until you get it high, you'll be missing out on earnings.

A good rule of thumb to start approaching 90% of optimum earnings is at least 20' above your roof and surrounding roofs.

Here's an example of a good elevation placement:

That antenna is on top of a 23' pole on top of a 15' high roof in suburban San Diego.

Anecdotal reports show that even a *1 meter* elevation difference can noticeably affect earnings.

Get as clear a view of as much “civilization” as possible. Remember, the network is only as valuable as the USEFUL area it can cover. A hotspot on top of a mountain with clear views of nothing but nature for 30 miles is not covering (to the network, anyway) USEFUL territory.

A hotspot on a suburban roof surrounded by a few million people and lots of data opportunities will provide far more useful coverage.

Correct elevation is vital for maximum coverage. LoRa is more or less a line-of-sight radio technology. While the radio waves will go through a few things (a wall or two, a window, or a leafy tree), for the most part you want to be able to have a direct line of sight to both your coverage area AND other hotspots.

APPROPRIATE ANTENNA: The antenna is what most people focus on, thinking that if they just have the "best" antenna they'll make the most HNT.

The antenna shipped with any purchased hotspot is already pretty good. However, as many Heliites are both tinkerers and driven by earnings, many will “upgrade” their antenna in order to reach more hotspots.

Antennas do 2 things: They transmit (tx) and they receive (rx). Most folks get wrapped up in how well an antenna transmits, but in the long term that doesn’t matter that much, as the value of Helium is in how well an antenna can RECEIVE.

Remember, the Helium network offers value by being able to receive transmission FROM sensors TO hotspots, then push that information onto the blockchain via an internet connection.

While there is and has been a place for being able to transmit powerfully, that value will diminish rapidly over the coming year.

What the heck is "dBi"? It refers to the focus and shaping of the energy an antenna transmits and receives.

Here's a quick dbi gain visualizer:

I can hear you now: "Ok dude, but what antenna should I buy?"

You can read this in-depth article on how to match your placement with an antenna, but you've basically got 3 options.

First, and recommended: Don't buy anything, just use the antenna your hotspot came with. Get your density and view squared away first.

Second, if you've got a great placement with the right elevation, buy either an HNTenna or anything in the 3-6 dBi range from McGill.

Third, if you feel like you need something higher gain and you understand the trade offs of a higher gain antenna, get a higher gain antenna from McGill.

"But, but, what about the [insert fancy antenna] I read about on the Discord chat? Shouldn't I get the most powerful antenna possible? I want more money!"

No. Re-read the above piece on having a "too powerful" antenna.

The one pictured above is a high gain sector (directional) antenna on top of a mountain. Despite having an enormous "view", it does worse than many placements that are much closer to other hotspots. I replaced it with a 3 dBi omni, no difference in earnings. Density matters more than antenna.

Even "hot" antennas that are tuned to fit within Helium guidelines (decreased transmit and receive power) won't radically outperform other antennas.

One Hotspot owner I know ran a Nearson 9 vs a Rak 8 dBi in early 2021 and kept track of earnings between the two. The RAK beat the pants off the Nearson.

MINIMIZED CONNECTIONS: Ok, now we're coming to stuff that doesn't really matter but you'll ask about and geek out on anyway. How should you connect your hotspot to your antenna?

This is RF 101 (Radio Frequency): You want a thick, clean, short (ideally 5' or less) cable that goes from your hotspot to your antenna. I recommend and use LMR400 from USACoax.

If you're running a cellular backhaul you'll probably be fine with another LMR variant for the cell antennas (each setup is unique) but you will want to place those cell antennas external to the enclosure.

Get your hotspot up high near your antenna to keep cable runs to the antenna short. Run power and ethernet to the high hotspot, then have a short antenna cable to the antenna. Do not (if you want max earnings) place your hotspot in your attic then run 20' of thin crappy coax cable to your antenna. That will create more radio power loss than you want.

If you MUST have long cable runs, spend the money on good cable. If you do that, you may (but probably won't) get the same results as Docile Bone Pony, which uses 60' of LMR 400 and is on top of a 16 story building in the middle of a large city.

So. That's most of what you need to know about a optimum hotspot placement.

ADDENDA​

What else should you know about when it comes to Helium hotspot earnings?

How much HNT you get per witness/beacon transaction will change as the network develops more fully. With a limited amount of HNT made available (2.5 million per month until August 2023, when it drops to 1.25 million/month) to reward transactions AND many more hotspots coming online in the next few months, earnings will steadily dilute.

Yeah, but how much can I earn? Check here for a very rough estimate. This can change significantly, so it's just a starting point.

No matter what, with the growth of the network your HNT earnings will CONTINUE TO DROP.

This MAY be offset by an increase in HNT price. It may not.

How can I earn even more? The long play with Helium is to figure out how to actually use the service. What kind of data can you collect, what kind of sensors should you use, how can you offer that as a service?

If you want help with that or with optimizing your hotspot placements, I'm available for hire.

How much power and data do hotspots use? Hotspots use about as much power as an internet router, and as much data as heavy Netflix user who watches 2 or 3 movies most nights (100-150 GB/month). This will continue to increase until Light Hotspots come online sometime in early 2022.

If you live in the First World and have a broadband internet connection, having a Helium Hotspot will be basically unnoticeable to you from an energy cost/data use perspective.

I'm ready to buy a hotspot, where should I order? I'd recommend ordering a hotspot from ParleyLabs.

Is there a difference in hotspots/miners/radios? Not really. It's not like you can get a more powerful miner that'll earn you more. The biggest difference is when they'll arrive, which is a function of how fast they can be manufactured.

Is it really worth it to put up a Helium hotspot? I sure think so. Will it be for you? If you have an optimal placement and follow all the advice above, probably. This isn't investment advice. You could lose all the money you put in.

How much can I make? If you do a good job, between .5 - 1 HNT/day as of March of 2022. More on that here. Or just go to Sitebot and start poking around to see what the current maximums are.

How do I turn HNT into cash? Open up an account on any reputable exchange.

Is this a safe investment? No. This is cryptocurrency competing with giant telcos (Telecommunications Companies). It may be a boomer (like when Uber competed with cabs or Airbnb competed with hotels) or it may be a flop (like every other startup company that tried to take on the big dogs.)

You should not re-finance your house to put up hotspots. You should be able to lose all the money you put into hotspots without putting yourself, your family, or anyone you know at financial risk. Sheesh.

Should I just hire you to do all the work for me? Maybe. If you don't like to read or geek out, or you just want to try Helium without spending a few months researching it, I'll walk you through the process of setting up the best possible placement for your situation. You can take my courses (look on the top of the page under Courses) or go here to get started.

RESOURCES​

Software​

• Helium Vision - Paid service w/free trial for assessing locations. Definitely try this out!
• Hotspotty - Excellent way to visualize density issues AND to manage your fleet
• HotspotRF - use code gristleking for 20% off your first month.

Mapping​

• Helium coverage map - This shows you where hotspots are currently.
• GLAMOS mapper - Use this to test a location or an antenna.
• Original hexmap created to help people visualize optimal density.
• Coverage Mapping - This shows where coverage has been proven through the use of Helium mappers.
• Google Earth Pro - For looking at elevation changes around you and picking optimal spots.
• CloudRF - For figuring out what your antenna "should" cover.
• RF Line of Sight - Helps figuring out if you have a clear line of sight to other hotspots.

Hardware​

• Purchase a hotspot at Parley Labs. I know the owner and have done business with him.
• Purchase a hotspot at HeliumDeploy. This is another source, both this and Parley Labs are trustworthy.
• McGill Antennas, Cables, Lightning Arrestors. Lots of great antenna options, they know about and cater to the Helium community.
• HNTenna - High end multi polarized antenna. Best for urban deployments.

Media & Learning Resources​

• The Hotspot - Podcast covering the latest in Helium.
• Gristle King YouTube Channel
• State of the Network - Weekly livestream recording

Archived Comments​

Cam - 2/14/2021​

Looking to get in touch about hiring you for a helium miner project im working on. please shoot me an email.

Thuong Nguyen - 2/19/2021​

Thank you for this resource. I live in Lake Forest. I am interested in your services. May I please get a quote?

Nik - 2/19/2021​

Cam, done. :) You can also fill out my form here.

Nik - 2/19/2021​

Hi Thuong, sure, fill out the Helium Consulting form here.

A Rough Guide to Hotspot Placements by Nik – Parley Labs - 2/24/2021​

[…] post was originally written here by Nik. With his permission we are reposting here because the information is just too good! You can reach […]

Buster - 2/27/2021​

Great job here NIK! Quick question....with regard to the Helium.Place....Of the 3 locations I had planned, 2 have 1 miner in the hexagon, and 1 had non (2 just barely outside it) Is it better to have them inside the hexagon or outside?

Nik - 2/27/2021​

Do you mean the other hotspots are in the red hexagon? Definitely don't place 'em there. :). If you mean that you're seeing other miners in the larger hexagon grid (outlines, no color) that Helium.Place generates when you click any location, you're probably fine. Just as a rule of thumb, in almost every case under say, 5 km distances, it's better to have hotspots further apart rather than close together. Remember that the overall goal is to add value to the network, and that translates as providing broader, unique coverage.

Nana - 2/27/2021​

Great piece. I just placed an order for an indoor miner and stumbled on your write up. When I checked my address, I would be the only one in the red hexagon but it still says it's too close to witness, even though others are at least 5kms away. Does this mean I shouldn't place the miner in my house?

Nik - 2/27/2021​

Hi Nana, Hmm, I'm not clear on what you mean. When you click on any location in Helium.place, it'll always put your spot in the center of a red hexagon. The hexagon is meant to show you if you're too close to any other hotspots. If you see any other hotspots within that red hexagon, you won't be able to witness them, nor they you. Sounds like you'll be fine; if the closest miners are at least 5 km away you're going to want to make sure to get your antenna up high. Best of luck with it!

Sanyi - 2/28/2021​

Hello! Do you think it will be good that way? 3 pieces will be placed in the village where I live. Distance from each other: 1.2km - 1.3km - 1km Thank you for your response!

Nik - 2/28/2021​

Hi Sanyi, If those are in a rough triangle and have clear line of sight to each other, that'll probably work well. Let me know how it goes, sounds pretty good. 4 would be better... :)

Sanyi - 2/28/2021​

Thanks for the quick reply! I'll write how it goes. One more question!:) Do you think there is a difference: Outdoor Hotspot vs. Indoor Hotspot? thx

Marko - 2/28/2021​

You say "you’ll earn far more by figuring out a way to actually use the network and not just provide coverage"... can you provide some examples of what you mean by this? Are you suggesting users start up some business based on using IoT devices? That's quite the step from plugging in a hotspot and letting it sit there.

Buster - 3/1/2021​

Ok, so rule #1 - never put a router in a hexagon with another router....good stuff, thank you for this info.

Buster - 3/1/2021​

Hello......also, should a location allow you to put the device in their spot, but are uneasy about connecting it to their network because they are paranoid about security, would an alternative be a cell signal hotspot to connect the miner to?

Nik - 3/1/2021​

Buster, totally dependent on what resolution of hex. At resolution 8 you can have up to 4 HS without penalty. This is one of the most confusing issues for most HS placements, but a thorough reading of HIP 17 will clear it up.

Nik - 3/1/2021​

Marko, yes, that's the best long term play (as I understand it.) The easy money days of plugging in a hotspot and watching it earn a ton just for providing coverage are rapidly waning (March 2021). This doesn't mean we can't still make money with Helium, but it does mean we'll have to work a lot harder for it.

Nik - 3/1/2021​

Other than one can be put outside and be weatherproof and the other needs to be protected from the elements, no. Equipment is generally the last thing to optimize and gives you the least bang for your buck. If you have a stock hotspot in a bomber location you'll outperform a completely tricked out mega-antenna setup every time.

Nik - 3/1/2021​

Sure, you could use cell backhaul to connect your hotspot. Realistically, the point of entry for an attacker is just as likely to be a wifi printer as your hotspot, and the printer would probably be easier. You could set up a separate WiFi network on your router just for your HS.

Isaac Keller - 3/2/2021​

Hey Nik, awesome article. This has me really pumped up! Quick question. There are no other hotspots within 10 miles of me. However, I own 2 properties and have 2 family members, that when you map out our locations roughly forms a rectangle that is 4 miles by 2 miles. Are we simply too far apart? Or if we get our antennas up high enough will we be able to communicate with each other? Thanks so much for any advice you’re willing to offer!

Nik - 3/4/2021​

Get 'em high enough and you'll be fine. LoRa stands for Long Range; 4 miles is no problem if you've got line of sight.

Billy - 3/8/2021​

Hi Nik, thanks for the article, i am about to order 5 devices, my city doesn't have any hotspots, would it be ok to set them up 5-7km away from each other? i have family and friends places that are approximately 4-7 Km away from each other, and can put the hotspots higher than any other buildings, need you advice, thanks in advance

Nik - 3/8/2021​

Billy, that should be fine. Keep me posted, psyched to see how it turns out!

Billy - 3/8/2021​

Thanks for the quick replay ,so i calculated the exact distance , its as follows, A----B is 1.6Km B---C 2.7 km C----D 7.1 Kmm D---E 5.3 Km E---F 6.5Km the are aliened like a straight line or more like a zig zag what are your thoughts, Gratitude .

Billy - 3/9/2021​

so the exact distance between each points is as follows, from A to B is 1.2km B-C 2.3 Km C-D 7 Km D-E 5,6 Km E-F 4,5 Km would this be fine? thanks in advance

Nik - 3/9/2021​

Hi Billy, those all sound well within LoRa capabilities. Nice job measuring it out, now you have to make sure you have as clear a line-of-sight as possible between the hotspots.

Billy - 3/11/2021​

Thanks for the replay Nik, i have 2 other questions , the distance varies between 1,5 km to 7 km max between points, some points has 1.5 km between each other and some has 7km and some has 5,5 km would it be ok ? 1- would it be profitable in a 3rd world country? where people use only social media and basic gps apps 2- can i hide my signal from the helium map so no one can know my address ? these questions are so important for me to decide weather to do it or not. Thanks a lot for the help

Nik - 3/11/2021​

Billy, no problem. 1) It *should* be profitable anywhere as long as you have enough hotspots and are eventually passing data through them. 2) For now, you can't hide your location on the Helium map. That may change in the future although no guarantees, and there are minor workarounds for privacy-minded invididuals. If you'd like more help I'd be happy to set up a consulting session with you and walk you through a superb deployment.

Billy - 3/11/2021​

Thanks again, for the replay, the problem is that dealing with cryptocurrency is prohibited in my country (which sucks of course) that's why i was trying to figure out if it is possible to hide my location in case some haters or sick people try to do me harm , i mine Ethereum with 20 gpus and enjoying it and really loving HNT , i didnt understand what you mean by "there are minor workarounds for privacy-minded invididuals" how to setup a consulting session ? i left my email, give me a way to reach you please thank you

Nik - 3/11/2021​

Hi Billy, here's the consulting option: https://gristleking.com/life/helium-consulting

How Much HNT Will My Hotspot Earn? | One man's search - 3/18/2021​

[…] This should help you get a rough idea of how much you’ll make. For more on Heli­um Hotspot Opti­miza­tion you can read my guide over here. […]

alf0 - 3/20/2021​

Hey Nik, I've read it twice. Really nice guide. As I understand you are not fan of indoors. I'm trying to setup LoRA to my village with friends where currently there is no hs at all. Range will be max 2 km where some of them will be 400-500 meters to each other. We already bought indoor once. it is flat area and there is no high buildings around. Do you think it is gonna be problem if we keep them indoor ?

franco habre - 3/20/2021​

Hello, I know in general that it is advantageous to have a VPN established. Do you recommend having one while operating the helium hotspot at home?

Nik - 3/20/2021​

Hi Franco, Good question, I'm not sure of the answer. If you're already running one you're probably fine to just add your HS onto the network, but again, I'm not totally sure.

Nik - 3/20/2021​

Thanks Alf0! Depends on what building material is, where they are (wall or window), how high (second floor/first floor), how far away they are from each other. I'd spend the extra money & effort to get 'em outside and up high.

Ben - 3/24/2021​

Hi Nik, really appreciate the time and effort you've put into your Helium posts. Quick question - why do you recommend Parley Labs over the other manufacturers? cheers, Ben

Nik - 3/24/2021​

Bryan at Parley Labs is the only one of the manufacturers/distributors I've physically met and talked with. I've made multiple purchases from them, both before and after meeting Bryan, and have always gotten fast service, straight talk on what to expect both on tech & shipping dates, and very helpful advice. The other manufacturers aren't bad, they're just less known to me.

alf0 - 3/28/2021​

Hey Nik, Thanks for the reply. I'm confused about something. You said there is no need to change default antenna as a first step. But in the photos you put, they use different antenna in the top of the pole and connect it to the hotspot. If we are using default antenna, is that mean put the indoor one into ip66 case and locate the case itself at the top of the long pole in the roof? Or are we gonna take the default antenna on the device and put it top of the pole?

Alexandre Herculano - 3/28/2021​

I Nick first of all really good article! Congrats. I live in Portugal and the helium are staring now here, I ordered a 5x nebra indoor and I will put them in a small city with 5 different locations +300m away but no more than 2km what you think about that? The indoor antenna will work good? I Dont have anyone here with hotspot and I will put 5.

alf0 - 3/28/2021​

Hey Nik, Thanks for the reply. I'm confused about something. You said there is no need to change default antenna as a first step. But in the photos you put, they use different antenna in the top of the pole and connect it to the hotspot. If we are using default antenna, is that mean put the indoor one into ip66 case and locate the case itself at the top of the long pole in the roof? Or are we gonna take the default antenna on the device and put it top of the pole?

Nik - 3/28/2021​

Depends on your set up and constraints. Your two basic options are to run a long ethernet cable to an outdoor hotspot, then have a short antenna cable run to the antenna, OR have a short ethernet run to an indoor hotspot and then a long antenna cable run to the the outdoor antenna. If you put your hotspot outside, there's extra work and expense that goes into weatherproofing it, but your antenna cable will be shorter. If you put it inside you don't have to weatherproof it, but your antenna cable will be longer. The photos are of hotspots optimized specific to their location. I've always felt it's worth it to go through the extra effort of weatherproofing everything and having a short antenna cable run, but other hotspot owners have made it clear through their earnings that a short antenna cable isn't essential. Again, remember the order of importance for earnings: Placement/location, elevation, antenna, cables. If you're near (let's say within 2 miles of) a bunch of other hotspots, the stock antenna will probably be fine if you get the elevation up high and have good lines of sight. If you're further out you'll want to really start looking at different antennas and their radiation patterns in order to find the one that works for you.

Nik - 3/28/2021​

Hard to give you a definite "Yes that'll work" or "No that won't", BUT if you're putting 'em in a small city with locations between 300m - 2 km apart AND they all have clear line of sight to each other, you should be fine from a placement perspective. See the Cypress example at the bottom of the "How much will my hotspot earn" article. As far as indoor vs outdoor antenna, it's always better to get your antenna outside the building. If you need specific help with this deployment, check out my Consulting page.

alf0 - 3/28/2021​

Hello, It's nebra indoor plastic 2dbi tiny antenna. I haven't seen any example in youtube or google using it as a outdoor antenna. Is it gonna be fine to put it top of the pole? Thanks

Nik - 3/28/2021​

Sorry, I misunderstood. Check with Nebra to make sure. In this case you’re probably better served with an outdoor rated antenna.

Helium, Explained (ELI5) | One man's search - 3/28/2021​

[…] Will a Heli­um Hotspot be able to pen­e­trate low?e glass? Yes, but the sig­nal will be damp­ened. It’s always best to get your anten­na out­side and up high. More on that here. […]

Illhireyou - 3/29/2021​

I just spent way too much on a second miner after tremendous success with a shared miner with my friend. I should have a decent spot but am literally mining 100x less than my first spot even though I seem to have a better location. How much does it cost to hire you??

Nik - 3/29/2021​

Consulting services found here.

Anton - 3/31/2021​

Hey man! Thank you for this update its much needed! Why do you think that mining will become harder and dilluted? Isn the reason for better rewards wider data transfer? So the bigger the network the wider the data transfer, the wider the data transfer the bigger the rewards? Did I miss something? Thank you for your answer in advance!

Nik - 3/31/2021​

Rewards will dilute in large part due to the massive growth of the network. Over time we may see the data start to pay off, but it won't be anything like the first, oh, 12 months of rewards for HS on Helium.

Anton Prekpalaj - 3/31/2021​

So becouse of the exponential grow of the network the rawards will be lesser becouse of what? Data will be scarced or what? Can you elaborate a bit, becouse i thought "the bigger the network the bigger the rewards"?

Nik - 3/31/2021​

In the long term and depending on network growth, we may see higher data-related rewards, but... not for a while. With 100k hotspots online in the next few months, the same size witness/beacon rewards pie will be shared amongst a much larger group.

Nils - 3/31/2021​

I’m just saying... this guy is the real deal. Solid understanding of Helium and an interesting, honest chap as well. Nik will sort it.

Nik - 3/31/2021​

Thanks Nils, glad it's been helpful for ya. Stoked to see you light up your town. ;)

What's The Best Antenna For Your Helium Hotspot? | One man's search - 4/2/2021​

[…] stock anten­na that came with your hotspot. Also, find a bet­ter place­ment loca­tion. You did read about that, […]

How to take your Helium Hotspot off grid | One man's search - 4/4/2021​

[…] A Rough Guide to Heli­um Hotspot Place­ment — Before you get all hot and both­ered about going remote, see if this’ll help you find an eas­i­er, bet­ter location. […]

Bryan - 4/4/2021​

Hi, I’m considering the indoor device from Parley Labs but wondering what you think about the Bobcat device shown on the Helium website. It looks to have more storage and a better cord, so was wondering if the Parley Labs device would perform less optimally.

Richard Street - 4/5/2021​

Hi Thanks for the article. The best I have read. I wonder if you can help. I have 5 box's coming next month. I live in a small town my house is on a hill so I guess I am lucky there. We have no hotspots for 25miles. My questions are. 1. Would my best return be to put all my 5 box spread out in the town? or would I be better putting 3 in one town and 2 in another? 2. Do you get a much greater return in a higher populated area? 3. Is it best to spread out your box's as far as possible (as long as they can still see each other) or as long as they are 350 meters away from each other the result will be the same. Any help would be appreciated. Richard

Nik - 4/5/2021​

Hi Richard, exciting news about the hotspots you have coming! Read through the Earnings post to get an idea of how much or how little you might earn in areas with dense deployment vs sparse deployment. I can do a custom dive into this for you if you'd like. Very short version: *Probably* better to have 5 in your town, but that's without really knowing any of the details.

Nik - 4/5/2021​

Hi Bryan, both the Bobcat & the indoor Nebra from Parley should perform the same when it comes to earnings. As soon as I have either in my hands I'll do a quick review of 'em, but this is a case of placement and elevation being far more important than what model of hotspot you have.

Bryan - 4/5/2021​

Awesome, thank you Nik

Peter - 4/6/2021​

Hi Nik, great read! I've looked at the helium map you linked to see hot spots around me, there is 1 hot spot in the red are around me, 1 on the verge of the red and green zone and 1 perfectly in the green zone, there are then a few outside it bit not by much. Does this sound okay? I have ordered an indoor miner last month but I'm considering ordering an outdoor one to put on my roof(no large buildings or mountains around me) Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you

Nik - 4/7/2021​

Hi Peter, on Helium.place, the red zone is really the more useful of the two, as the potential green zone is far bigger than what is shown. As long as you're not sharing the red zone with another HS you're off to a good start.

Christopher - 4/7/2021​

Hey there! I live in a desert basin. Most everything around me is same elevation for ~7-15 miles depending on the direction, so I’m considering attaching an antenna to my roof. Do you have a recommended antenna mast? Thank you in advance, and thank you for all of your posts. I’m learning a lot. Waiting on my bobcats to arrive.

Nik - 4/7/2021​

Christopher, I've used 4130 .095 thickness 1 ¾" diameter pipe, often recommended by ham radio types and usually comes in 18-25' lengths. With your setup you won't need a fancy antenna, and the stock one should do fine depending on how close other hs are to you.

Peter - 4/8/2021​

Hi Nik, sorry I think I explained incorrectly - there is 1 hot spot in the red zone, it keeps changing the place that It is within a few meters but it's 250~ meters from where I'd be putting mine up, does this mean my rewards would be greatly diminished? Thanks again

Christopher - 4/8/2021​

There are 10 hs within 3-7 miles of me and ~100 hs in the major city 12 miles north (only one building in the way 3 miles out). So stock bobcat should be fine placed properly in my home? Is it also wise to put my second one in this helium.place green-ish area of my neighborhood at a family members house? They’re about 1200ft away (another is about 1500ft away). It’d be the closest hs to me. Otherwise I have a handful of other options throughout the northern area of my state.

Peter Thompson - 4/8/2021​

Hi Nik, I apologise as I probably didn't make myself clear. There is 1 hotspot in my red zone already, it's 200-250 meters away but definitely there Would this greatly diminish my earnings?

Oliver Parkinson - 4/8/2021​

Hi Nik, I am from the Uk and I am expecting to get my Nebra indoor miner this month. There are a few miners in my area but I am unsure of the range I am likely to achieve I have read the they can reach up to 10 miles depending on the topography of the area. I have put a range of 10km into helium vision and looked at the line of sight there seems to be a direct line of sight with about 8 other miners in the area. Does this sound feasible to you if there is a direct line of sight? I am thinking of placing my miner in the top room of the house next to the window which should be opened and connected to the internet router through an ethernet cable. I have read the article but it is a lot to take in so I bet I will read it a few more times. Can you offer anymore tips specifically to my circumstance? Thank you very much, Oliver

Nik - 4/8/2021​

Hi Oliver, putting it inside your house will decrease the range you can reliably connect with others. Outdoors within 10 km is reasonable, indoors it’s a little more of a crapshoot, although direct line of sight is a very good thing. Best of luck with it!

Nik - 4/8/2021​

Hi Peter, check the hex map to see if you'll be sharing a Res 8. If so, your earnings will be clipped due to overdensity. Even if you don't share a res 8 hex, you and that other HS won't be able to witness each other. If you can both provide unique coverage that doesn't overlap each other you'll make slightly more, or if you can provide significantly better coverage you'll earn more, but in general you shouldn't put another hotspot within that red zone.

Nik - 4/8/2021​

Hi Christopher, a 12 mile shot is out at the edge of a stock antenna. Focus on the 10 that are closer to you. Double check the hex res 8 on Helium.place to see if you'll be sharing a res 8.

John - 4/8/2021​

Hi Nik - I am new to Helium, and have been doing research, and thankful to have found you! So I just moved into a goldmine of all hotspots locations in NY. I now live on the top floor of the building and own a part of the rooftop where I plan to install my antenna. On the rooftop, there is definitely 360 coverage and you can see the manhattan skyline from where I am. I may have to extend the height for another 10 meters more to be safe. There are tons of hostpots all around me, but noone in my building has one except me. My question really is this - would you recommend me installing multiple hotspots on the same rooftop? Will I earn more if I do this or will it be shared between all the hostpots? I was thinking of maybe ordering 2 or 3 more, but not sure if it's worth spending for more hotspots if the earnings are the same. Super excited to get started. Thanks in advance.

Nik - 4/8/2021​

Hi John, Pumped to see how excited you are, Helium is a pretty energizing thing to find! Installing multiple HS in the same location will not earn you more, it'll actually earn less because you'll clip your own earnings but won't make enough with the multiple hotspots to offset the difference. You'll earn more by finding other locations, preferably outside of NYC since it's saturated, and then work on optimal deployment strategies for those. One thing to think about is that since NYC is so saturated, it's likely that at some point in the next year (or less) Helium will further adjust the density chain vars on HIP17 to disincentivize those super-dense areas. I did get your other comment but deleted it just so you don't have a double-post. ;) ~Nik

The Top 5 Mistakes to avoid with your Helium Hotspot | One man's search - 4/8/2021​

[…] Putting your hotspot in the same res 8 hex as anoth­er hotspot WITHOUT pro­vid­ing sig­nif­i­cant­ly bet­ter cov­er­age is a recipe for low earn­ings and wast­ed effort. I’ve gone into this in depth over in the Rough Guide. […]

Peter Thompson - 4/8/2021​

Hi Nik, thanks again for your reply! There is no one sharing my hex 8, but also no one in the green area of that hex 8 that I'm in also So I won't get to witness his and vice versa, but with other hotspots in a few mile radius would this still be sufficient? I'm a kinesthetic learner so I've read everything on your site but struggling to absorb it completely, I'm going to give it a read again tomorrow morning and try and wrap my head around it more - thanks again a million

Nik - 4/8/2021​

Don't sweat the green areas on Helium.place, those are confusing. The big thing is to not be in the red zones. You can witness anyone outside of your 300m radius as long as you can make radio contact with 'em. That comes down to placement (outside) elevation (up high) and then antenna (depends.)

John - 4/13/2021​

Cool story, thanks, Nik! Soooo, I ordered my indoor Nebra miner on Saturday. The confirmation page offered this link. I soon began to panic which turned to suicidal! (not really, hehe) But I learned my location, here in the river valley surrounded by neighbors who like their trees, may not be ideal. Oh well, I may have to park it at my daughters house. I'll try it out and see what happens. Question about location and coverage: Suppose I have two miners with hi gain/directional antenna mounted so their coverage profile is perpendicular. Could that defeat the 'too close' problem? They would each have a different audience, so to speak. Another question, if I may. Did IoT devices expect to communicate just via WIFI before HNT? What motivates them to convert to LoRaWAN? Maybe that's for new devices, going forward. Hmmm.

Nik - 4/13/2021​

Thanks John! The "too close" issue will be first determined by where you "assert", or set, the location of your miner. This will be confirmed/verified through the RSSI/SNR validation curve set by Helium. Putting two miners to close to each other on the assertion side will be a problem, even if they cover different areas. I'm not sure what the plan was for IoT as far as rapid expansion before Helium. Probably just on a business use case scenario. What Helium has done so far is an amazingly good job of aligning incentives in such a way that we're going to see IoT coverage followed by use grow in the kinds of patterns Silicon Valley types like to see. At least, that's my prediction.

Danny Maloney - 4/14/2021​

Hi just wanted to say thank you for writing this Nik. Super informative and with all the mis-information that is now running rampant this truly cleared up a ton for me! I recently jumped the gun and was a dummy and purchased 12 dbi antennas for my units coming in June. I now will be returning them and getting 8 dbi ones! I unfortunately can’t get in there and tinker with it like you mentioned. Don’t want to chance me hurting the units! I’ll test for a couple weeks without the antennas first then see if the 8 dbi antennas help out! Again truly appreciate the great read!

Nik - 4/14/2021​

Right on Danny, glad it helped you out!

Doug - 4/17/2021​

Great stuff Nik! I just pre-ordered/purchased my first HNT miner. I live in a small ski resort town in Colorado. Some enterprising person has 4 miners set up on their side of town, set up in a square about 400m apart. My place is about 500ft in elevation higher and 3km away. I'm thinking I should orient towards his grid as best I can. The other choice would be to orient towards the downtown corridor of town, but there are no miners there, yet. of course this could all change in 4 months when I get my Nebra. What do you think?

Nik - 4/17/2021​

Hi Doug, you're probably best off with an omni antenna unless there's nothing but mountain behind you. Even then, the directionals can cost you coverage. I'd start with the stock and see how it goes. As of today (4/17) there are a few new antennas about to come on the market that might change the game, so stock for now is a good call. :)

Juan Vicente - 4/18/2021​

Hi Nik. I purchased my miner (a bit impulsively I admit) and now discovered that have 2 other miners in the red zone! One active, and one inactive. I went on a walk in the neighborhood and didn't see any exterior antenas. Does this mean that I can improve my earning odds increasing the hight of mine? I think my location is ideal. On a hill (over 150 feet) and across the river from a big city (2 miles) I'm all in now!

Nik - 4/18/2021​

Increasing the height is almost never a bad idea, but putting 2 miners in one res 8 hex usually is. Can you find another placement? Check out the Helium.Vision post I just put up, that may help with figuring out where you might be better off placing it.

Juan Vicente - 4/18/2021​

I wish I could find another placement, but I live in suburbia. I doubt that somebody will lend me their house. Pity. Seems that all res 8 hexes have a miner already.

Nik - 4/18/2021​

I get it, though it's not like they have to lend you their entire house. :) All you need is a connection to their router and you can *probably* pay their entire cable bill in exchange. No guarantees on that, but it might be a good place to start.

Juan Vicente - 4/19/2021​

Hi Nik, In searching for a better placement I have noticed that all three of the maps show active hotspots in the middle of the Hudson river! How is that possible? Thank you for your time and patience with me! https://explorer.helium.com/coverage https://helium.place/ https://app.helium.vision/ show active hotspots in the middle of the Hudson river!

Nik - 4/19/2021​

No prob. Those are most likely either gamers or folks who are falsely asserting their location to maintain privacy.

Mahaney - 4/20/2021​

Thank you, for this article very well written; and extremely helpful!!! I ordered a few hotspots which who knows when they'll actually arrive. There are currently none showing in my city, I imagine in short time that'll change. I plan to place the few I ordered approx 1.5 mi apart from one another. Can you advise if this is a good plan, or should they be closer/further away? Thanks in advance for your insight.

Nik - 4/20/2021​

Hi Maheny, check the Helium.Vision video I posted, that'll help with planning. I also do custom consulting on this, more info on that here.

Brien - 4/22/2021​

Nik, As an application developer, What is the cost to use the Hotspots for the transmission of collected data. I'm in agricultural area that I believe is ripe for the exploitation of this model for "Smart Agriculture" applications. Thanks for writing a great piece on this interesting technology. BH

Nik - 4/22/2021​

Brien, DC (data credit) cost is fixed at $0.00001 per 1 DC. Check how much data/data credit you might be using here.

Jasper - 4/22/2021​

Hi Nik, Really good stuff here. I also ordered my first indoor miner thats due to arrive in July 2021. My town only has 2 miners thus far and I live at least several miles away from them. This may be a silly question but when I use helium place to determine best placement I find that my own address is in RED zone. I tried some other places around me and getting the same result? Is this user error or have you gotten questions like these before? Thanks in advance for your feedback sir!

Nik - 4/22/2021​

Hi Jasper, your placement on Helium.Place will always be surrounded by red; that's where you want to make sure other hotspots are not. Does that make sense?

Kashif - 4/25/2021​

Hi Nik, how are you buddy? First of all, I found your post very helpful. I am really thankful to you, may GOD bless you!!! My question is, do you think this will be okay if I use 20 meters extension cable for placing the default antenna (of Nebra indoor miner) on a pole? I mean using an extension cable doesn't affect the performance of Nebra hotspot indoor miner. And can I do the same with an outdoor miner? I will be very thankful to you :) Best Regards.

Nik - 4/25/2021​

Hi Kashif, glad you found this helpful. Check over on my Antennas post, but a 20 meter extension cord for *power* won't be a problem. A 20m antenna cable is workable as long as it's low loss, say LMR400. You can use those indoor or outdoor.

woody - 4/25/2021​

Hi Nik, great info by the way. I live in the UK and intend to do either of the following with my internal nebra. 1. Place it next to a window with a patch lead through the frame to take the antenna outside. (very high quality cable, no more than 500mm) 2. Suspend it high in the roof eaves in the loft (concrete tiles) and use (if needed a good quality higher db aerial) I am taking advice from a radio specialist shop near me) What would you suggest please thanks

Nik - 4/25/2021​

Hi Woody, sounds like #1 will get it outside. Depends as well on the "view" each placement has. Sounds like the loft with concrete tiles will attenuate the signal more than you'd want. Let me know what the radio specialist shop comes back with, always keep to hear other opinions!

woody - 4/25/2021​

Thanks for quick reply. I will post info I get from radio guy. He had not heard of these miners, save someone asking for an upgrade and mentioning mining without going into details. I have promised to send him a brief description and some links for him to get his head around it. He says he has better quality cable than lm400. I think first off, I will use the stock aerial inside the window for a few days, then try same aerial with up to a metre of h/q cable attached to gutter line & running back through bedroom window to device. Not sure about putting a dirty great mast up because lightning grounding.

Greg - 4/27/2021​

Hi, I have a question ,cannot find it myself so i am living in small country Latvia town Riga and i see that in my town are 4 hot spot distance 5-6 kilometers away from me for example i live in street named Bukaisu iela and other HS are on Matisa iela and Lejas iela and Juglas iela would it be possible for me to reach them ? is it a good investment ?

Nik - 4/28/2021​

As long as you have a clear line of sight to the other locations, 5-6 km is an easy shot. Whether or not it's a good investment is up to you. Check what the other hotspots are earning to get an idea of what you might earn.

Greg - 4/28/2021​

in that case is 4 dbi antena will be strong enough or should i get stronger 5 or 8?

Greg - 4/28/2021​

ill checked and 2 of them earning approximately 50-60 HNT every 30 days which is fine for me ,my question is if you will be so kind just confirm for me if i can earn about the same those 2 hotspot are located in Latvia Riga and addresses are Mat?sa iela, R?ga and Br?v?bas iela, R?ga or the hot spot names Short Hazelnut Raccoon and Strong Holographic Mink . I live in the same town street name is Bukaisu iela i checked on website https://www.scadacore.com/tools/rf-path/rf-line-of-sight/ and its showing kind of green ,can yo have a look and thank you for your time .

Nik - 4/28/2021​

Hi Greg, I'd be happy to go through a Standard Consult with you and dive deeper into miner earnings, strategy, and placement. You can book that here.

Greg - 4/28/2021​

i will think about it ,just before i decide to do that can you at list tell me knowing my position and the distance from me to other 2 hot spot to earn as much they do 50-60 HNT how much i would have to invest excluding your price ?

Nik - 4/28/2021​

Typical costs for an outdoor setup run $800-1,200. You can get away with cheaper, it's all dependent on how high you want to go. After placement, height is everything.

Ed - 4/29/2021​

You mention mention docile bone pony’s setup on top of a 16 story building. Are they just using the stock antenna or something else. I live on the 10th floor of a building with a balcony. If antenna is on balcony, would it only receive signals away from building? Would my own building prevent signals reaching antenna from opposite direction? Thanks

Nik - 4/29/2021​

They're using an antenna bought off of eBay, I thought I put a link to it. Will go back and check. Your own building will certainly dampen the signals, but LoRa can punch through a wall or two.

kat - 5/4/2021​

I am very close to a hotspot that is at 600 m of my house. that hotspot is on the 1st floor, I am on the 3th floor and in between there are no houses but there is about 100 m of forest in between (with leaves). Is it worth to place a hotspot or will the trees prevent good coverage. both hotspots will have a 5dbi antenna.

Nik - 5/4/2021​

Kat, you should be fine at that distance. Keep me posted when you get it up!

bsap - 5/4/2021​

So there's one other active node not far from me, but that's it for my city. I need to look into this over the weekend, but in my situation is it possible to profit? Or is this something an area really has to have a few people participating in to see any returns?

Nik - 5/4/2021​

You'll want at least 4 for a shot at max profits, but going from 1 to 2 is the single biggest jump.

JR - 5/5/2021​

I live in the UK and have 3 indoor Nebra miners on the way. I have locations ready for setup. They will all be within a 2.5 mile radius but not in the sweet spot (just outside 300m). Would this drastically affect profits or should the radius suffice? I have also ordered 8dbi glass fiber antennas for two of them. Would this optimise profits or would it be better to keep the stock antennas (3dbi)? Really appreciate your advice and I found this article incredibly informative.

Jacob Coody - 5/5/2021​

So, how much do you know about the privacy of the hotspots? If I were a company wanting to utilize the network, how worried should I be that someone could hack my IoT devices?

Nik - 5/5/2021​

Hi Jacob, from a home network perspective they're considered about as safe as a wireless printer, so if you use one of those there's no reason to not use this. As far as hacking the device to get to the data, let's put it this way: If you could do that you'd be working for the NSA, not cracking IoT devices. :)

Nik - 5/5/2021​

JR, don't worry about that "sweet spot" on HeliumPlace, that's misleading. Even a 4dBi antenna can reach over 100 miles, although generally you can assume that a stock antenna with clear line of sight will routinely hit gateways 8-10km away. Try switching out the antennas to see what happens, usually the RAK 8 is overkill and has too narrow of a pattern, but they can also work really well. RF is weird. :)

Pete - 5/6/2021​

Hi Nik, Great info. I live in the Bonita area 91902. I went through my HAAT calculations and got a number of about -126 using a 6 meter pole on my one story house. There are two other home in Bonita that I calculated have about a -90. They are about 1.5 miles away in two different directions. I have a few questions if you don't mind answering. 1. I would expect I need a low dbi antenna considering my location. Is that about right? Any specific one you can recommend? 2. Is having a -126 HAAT considered bad or does the type of antenna compensate for that? Thanks, Pete

Nik - 5/6/2021​

Hi Pete, HAAT is a little deeper than most go with calcs, nice work! Check it with LoS on HeliumVision, that'll probably be way easier. :). Low dBi is usually fine, especially with a 6 meter pole. Rock on!

Helium Nieuws #3 - 8 mei 2021 - Helium Nederland Community - 5/8/2021​

[…] voor een uitgebreider antwoord deze ‘rough guide to helium hotspot placement‘ (in het Engels) van Nik Hawks, waarin hij voorbeelden geeft wat een optimale setup is voor […]

Trey - 5/8/2021​

I ordered a bobcat that should be here in 12 weeks or so (hopefully). I plan on mounting my bobcat in a nema4x enclosure on the side of my chimney and then running 10-20ft of cable from that up a pole to my antenna. Your article says 5’ is ideal. I guess my question is without testing it which is more ideal, the height of my antenna or the length of my cable?

Nik - 5/8/2021​

I don't quite understand the question, but in general the elevation of the antenna is far more important than the length of the antenna cable.

David - 5/9/2021​

Hey Nick, my home is within 300 meters of a neighboring hotspot. As you mentioned my earnings will really suffer by 50%? That sounds like my home wouldn't be a viable place to put it at this time, although there are about 10 hotspots within a few kilometers of my address.

Nik - 5/9/2021​

Not all your earnings, but the transmit rewards would definitely get cut.

Kate York - 5/9/2021​

Awesome article! Thank you for the clarity!

Nik - 5/9/2021​

No prob Kate, always cool to help people understand this whole complicated beast a little better.

mark - 5/10/2021​

What about security? Can the hotspot be hacked? Or router and home network a s a result of setting up a node?

Nik - 5/10/2021​

Hi Mark, a hotspot poses about the same threat surface as a wireless printer to your home network.

Helium Hotspot Miners Antennes - Wat is dBi? - Helium Nederland Community - 5/13/2021​

[…] voor een uitgebreider antwoord deze ‘rough guide to helium hotspot placement‘ (in het Engels) van Nik Hawks, waarin hij voorbeelden geeft wat een optimale setup is voor […]

stan - 5/13/2021​

Hi, how will be the signal if I am at the first floor in downtown part of the city and around me are only high buildings? Is it worth to invest in case like this?

Nik - 5/13/2021​

Hi Stan, depends on whether or not other hotspots are close by and have some kind of Line of Sight to yours. Definitely not the best case scenario.

Pantelis Ambatzis - 5/13/2021​

Can I serial double or multiple the units

Nik - 5/14/2021​

Nope, that won't provide any benefit to the network or your spots. Get 'em at least 300m apart.

Nick - 5/14/2021​

Hi Nik, I've purchased a RAK Hotspot and it'll be placed in the UK which is 868 Mhz. I have also purchased an 8 dbi antenna which is a RAK 8dBi Fiberglass Antenna Kit (For 915 MHz Gateways). Have I purchased the wrong antenna dbi for the UK and so must I swap it for an 868 Mhz antenna ? Thanks

Nik - 5/14/2021​

Should be fine, those are close enough to not be an issue.

JM - 5/14/2021​

What type of connectors should I get? I have a rak miner now and will be getting a nebra soon. I am trying to order the LMR400 cable. I an in NY, live on the first floor of a 2 story building, pretty good clear line of sight as it is residential and most of the houses are only 2-3 floors high. I will be putting a 5dbi antenna on top of the second floor, maybe a few feet higher if I am able to. Thanks in advanced.

Nik - 5/15/2021​

Always check with the manufacturers to see what connectors you need. Typically that'll be an N-male to RP-SMA male for most antennas and miners, but again: ALWAYS check your specs first.

Kashif - 5/17/2021​

Hi Nik, hope you are doing best :) I have a question: Do you think there will be any difference in HNT earning if I place a miner on my roof directly, or I just place antenna on my roof with 20 meter extension cable (LMR 400) and miner placed inside my home ground floor? Hope you got my question, sorry for my weak English :) Thanks in advance.

Nik - 5/17/2021​

Depends on the antenna. A low gain antenna will probably be pushing it at a 20 meter cable run. If you're using anything above 6 dB gain you'll be find.

Rodolfo Reyes - 5/19/2021​

Hi Nik, if i use the original antenna from my hotspot do i need to ground it? Or just connected directly.

Nik - 5/20/2021​

If it's plugged directly into the unit I wouldn't worry about it, but if you're using an antenna cable and getting the antenna up high, I'd ground it.

Chase - 5/26/2021​

Hi Nik, great beard combined with great info. I'm browsing the miners available and leaning toward the Bobcat + included 4dbi antenna, but depending on your feedback, I might land on another and upgrading the antenna. I live on the 2nd floor (14 ft from the ground) of a hollow, rectangular apartment building with a balcony that faces inward. The building has a public balcony on the 4th floor facing outward with room to diffract. However, unless there's a way to lock the cables, the miner's fate would be left to chance that the apartment staff overlook it AND no one steals it. Considering that there is already one other hotspot within 81m of my address and 6 others roughly between 500m - 1km away, would it be reasonable to expect significantly different results if it faced the inside of my building vs. the 4th floor facing outward?

Nik - 5/26/2021​

Thanks Chase! The Bobcat should be fine.

Adam - 5/27/2021​

Hey Nik - amazing article, very informative - thank you :-) I am in the UK and live in a town which is very hilly. I have looked and the best place to put my BOBCAT 300 miner will be in the loft. I am looking to run a cable for my antenna from the miner to the chimney where I intend to attached the antenna. The houses are very close knit so putting it on my chimney would be best. I was wondering if you could help me with a few questions to maximize the potential of the miner? 1. Which Antenna (UK) would you recommend and the dbi? 2. which cable is the best to connect the miner to the antenna externally? 2. I have a Bobcat 300 & will be getting a Kerlink Helium Compatible Wirnet. Will the antenna, cable etc work for both or would I need different ones? Thank you in advance.

Nik - 5/27/2021​

Hi Adam! 1) Any antenna should be fine. 2) I use LMR400, I believe McGill Microwave sells those in the UK but you'd have to double check. 3) Hard to say re compatibility. Kerlink lists both RP-SMA & SMA on their Wirnet listing. Bobcat uses RP-SMA, at least in the US.

Francois Lapierre - 5/27/2021​

Thanks for the Great article, very instructive ! When the antenna and the cable are hook up is the signal lost change the angle of coverage of the antenna, or just reduce the power ? I think its the second But just want to confirm my thought. Found a 6 dbi and will need around 30 ft of cable. I live in the suburb and plan to put a 10'-15' mast to my chimney (The oil furnace is remove so it will be my pipe to the Roof ;0) I am not in a dense Helium But hoppefully I cand reatch those close some in the Montréal city like some in my town... I will fallow your Post!

Nik - 5/27/2021​

Right on Francois. Yep, you're correct, the pattern doesn't change, the power just goes down. Keep me posted on your deployment!

Matthew - 5/30/2021​

Thank you Nik for this great information. I have 2 bobcats and 3 Syncrob.it ordered, the bobcats should be getting here first. I live in a typical suburb, 2 story houses and trees, in northwest Ohio. It’s flat here and no other miners close by (nothing within miles). I was going to go with the antenna that they come with, but they’re indoor antennas. I think a setup of an antenna mounted to my chimney would work best. For the 2 bobcats that arrive first, would you recommend just using the included antenna by a 2nd story window (no screen) with them placed in houses about 850m away from each other? Doing that would obviously give me an answer to see if I need to upgrade, but I’m just trying to plan ahead. Thank you again for all the great information.

Nik - 5/30/2021​

Matthew, yep, that's how I'd start if nothing else is nearby. Once you start seeing the area fill in, then you can work on getting your antenna outdoors and up higher so you can reach those other spots.

Anna Romanov - 5/31/2021​

Hello! Please please please help me: there was an option "set up location later" - NO THANKS, I'LL SET UP LOCATION LATER - i decided to go on that as first i wanted to sync and then decide where to place it. Now i cannot find a way to fix it and to set up the location. I'm sure you know everything - let me know please please please)))) My best, Anna

Nik - 5/31/2021​

Tap on your hotspot in the app, look for the gear icon in the top right corner, then set location. ;)

Jose - 5/31/2021​

Thank you Nik for this great article. On the reward aspect, As the network grows, is there any kind of seniority for the hotspots already in place?

Nik - 5/31/2021​

Nope, every hotspot is evaluated on its own with no regard for seniority.

C. Biggums - 6/1/2021​

Hi Nik, I checked my metro area and a 7km area. The 5 within 6-7km are earning less than 3 per month. Found others in town the same, then some around 23 per mo and then one out of the entire metro area was earning almost 100 per mo. Is placement most likely the difference? Is it possible they're connecting to every hs within a 10mi radius? Thanks.

Nik - 6/1/2021​

Yep, WUPU placement and antenna elevation.

When [Bobcat]? - One Man's Search - 6/2/2021​

[…] months ago, Ann at Bob­cat reached out to see if I’d like a hotspot for review. She’d read the Rough Guide To Hotspot Opti­miza­tion arti­cle and liked it. She thought it might be use­ful to get a Bob­cat hotspot into my hands ahead of the […]

Kerry Prudhomme - 6/11/2021​

Hi Nik, Thanks for the information in this article. I've ordered a few Bobcat miners and even after reading your article have questions on antenna placement. The following facts may impact my placement of the antenna. Flat elevation - No more than 50' change in elevation for 20 miles Lots of tall trees surround my house. My roof is 22' tall. I plan to install a 40' pole to mount the antenna. (From ground level) Should I consider the outdoor enclosure for the bobcat therefore reducing the length of antenna wire? Which antenna would be best for this situation?

Nik - 6/11/2021​

Any of the outdoor ones will be fine. Try and keep antenna cable runs as short as possible. Scroll to the bottom on this page.

Rocco Monteleone - 6/12/2021​

Hi Nik, AWESEOME post thank you. If I am the first to deploy 10 correctly positioned hotspots in a town that had none to begin with, will that earn good income ?

Nik - 6/12/2021​

Hi Rocco, thanks! Being the first in an area doesn't do anything extra for you. Having 10 correctly positioned hotspots is the main thing. Get 'em!

corey huguley - 6/15/2021​

I would like more information about your setup on outside helium miner. I I own 66 aces of land and I would like to use my land. I would like to create my own network. Also, currently its none located in my area.

Nik - 6/15/2021​

Sure, cruise over to the "Helium Off Grid" blog post. ;)

Chris reid - 6/17/2021​

Dude Nik you sir are a god ole brother, I didn't realize until I read this whole article and went to the bottom and recognized your face and realized I just read up on your whole adventure off grid and up the mountain, if I ever cross your path brother i"d like to buy you a beer or two if that's alright. And your right there's far more things that these hotspots can utilize, practically endless opportunity if you read up on it, sadly not enough people take up that opportunity, but hopefully with your words of wisdom people will!! I do have a question for ya that i have yet to find info on, one of my HS are in a ruralish area, closest one to it is roughly 4 miles then about 14 others ranging from 6-12 miles that I pick up, but i have a 280' commercial radio tower 1/4' mile from me, would this creat any kind of signal decrease or loss trying to "compete" across the waves or am I thinking all wrong? I know a few cell company's have antennas there, along with a few railroad companies, a water company and a few "not listed" antennas there aswell. Didn't know if something like that this close would cause any type of interference. Thanks again brother for all you do, keep it up, look forward to reading more, hopefully hear from ya soon.

Nik - 6/17/2021​

Hey Chris, thanks! Shouldn't be issues with interference at that range. Mostly the problem is that you're too far away from other hotspots. While they *can* communicate over long distances, they *like* to communicate right around the 600-1,200m mark.

Chris - 6/18/2021​

347.5 HNT per month WTH?! 36.076849452137076, -115.28299816633508 is my location and my neighbor (Polite Shadow Chimpanzee) is making over 300 HNT monthly! BUT it looks like many others in the area are only making about 10-30HNT monthly. The terrain is pretty flat, and I'm about 1/2 mile away from them, Using the RFhotspot estimation tool it predicts about 240 HNT monthly for me, which sounds too good to be true at HALF that amount. I have a Bobcat enroute from china (due here tuesday 22nd june) Do they make an enclosure to allow me to put it on a pole on the roof?? or should i stick it in the window and hope for the best? LAST question, Can I move my miner once it's been set up (like put in the window first then later raise on a pole outside after buying proper wire and possibly enclosure) I'll drop you some HNT if you can get back to me to help, thanks!

Teodora - 6/19/2021​

Hi Nick, I purchased a RAK miner and I am planning to place it on a roof. I'm also thinking about buying a RAK outdoor enclosure from store.rakwireless to be able to fix the miner as close as possible to the antenna as you advised. I have doubts about how extreme temperatures can damage the miner. In the area I live in temperature can vary in the range 5 to 105 F. The enclosure will be exposed to direct sunlight without any shade and that makes me nervous with summer approaching :). Do you have any advice as to do we need to provide additional protection to the enclosure to avoid overheating or freezing or it should be good to go as it is? Many thanks in advance :)

Nik - 6/19/2021​

Hi Chris, sounds like you'd benefit from a consulting session; I go into all of that in detail. In general, 300 HNT is totally achievable but depends heavily on location and antenna elevation. You can put any indoor miner in an enclosure, lots of enclosures are available for different setups. You can move your miner once you've set it up; you do that through the Helium app and it costs ~$10 to do each time.

Nik - 6/19/2021​

Check with RAK about the miner & enclosure; both should be fine. I've heard of hotspots in sealed enclosures live through the summer in Texas. I'd provide some kind of shade for the box if I could, as every little bit will help. I wouldn't worry about the cold; computers love being chilly. :)

Teodora - 6/19/2021​

Thank you so much! That was very helpful! :)

Bryan - 6/19/2021​

I’ve seen that building a hotspot is no longer allowed because people were taking advantage of the system. What were they doing? Just putting a bunch in one spot and say they were other places? Doesn’t seem very smart. Seems like the same IP address would give them away pretty quickly. Plus wouldn’t the signal be really strong and throw up res flags?

Rabih - 6/20/2021​

Hello Nik thank you for this very helpful informations. I live in a village in the mountain with high population but a lot of hills up and down. Does this matter for the hotspots? I mean if i put one on the top of a hill will the one down the hill connect to the one on top? Thank you a lot for your reply?

Pascal - 6/20/2021​

Hey Nik! Great post and thank you for sharing your knowledge. I just received my RAK HNT miner and I am trying to find where to place it. I have 2 other miners coming hopefully anytime soon (Nebra & SyncronB.it) I have two options: 1. I place the miner in my apartment in Manhattan. Based on helium.place I have 6 other hotspots (orange and red color coding) in my "invalid witness zone" and 15+ hotspots in my "sweetspot" (green area) - I checked some of their rewards and its not more than like 20-30 a month. 2. I can place the miner at my in-laws outside the city. Based on helium.place I would be the only hotspot. I only see two hotspots around me but 1.2-1.4 miles (2KM) away. Not sure if they would see each other. Would love to get your opinion. Thank you very much for your help.

Nik - 6/20/2021​

Hi Bryan, basically a slightly more sophisticated version of that. If you look way back in Discord for "Modesto" you'll see the discussion on it. In one case a gamer made 70k HNT in a day; it was a real problem.

Nik - 6/20/2021​

Hi Rabih, If they have a clear line of sight they'll be able to communicate. Does that make sense?

Nik - 6/20/2021​

Hi Pascal, Definitely don't put any more in Manhattan; that place is way overcrowded. Try looking for a third option, where you have at least 4 miners within a sweet spot of 6-1,200 meters away.

Pascal - 6/20/2021​

Thank you Nik. I really appreciate the quick reply. Unfortunately, I don't have a third option at the moment. I checked the addresses of all my in-laws (LOL) and no one has other miners in their sweet spot. At least for now. I will keep looking but I think I will place the miner at my in-laws. There are only two around me but not within the 1,2km range you recommend. Once I get my second miner I would place it near my first one in a sweet spot area. What do you think?

Nik - 6/20/2021​

That sounds OK; do you have any friends, co-workers, or know any business owners in better locations? Location is king in this game, so it's important to get that right.

Pascal - 6/20/2021​

I need to check but my entire life is in Manhattan - LOL. I checked the location of my friend in D.C.. He has 3 miners within the red zone but based helium.place they have all a 0.5 to 0.8 reward scale. There are 15+ miners in the sweet spot zoon. Does that sound better than placing it at my in-laws outside the city?

Nik - 6/20/2021​

Time for a road trip and making new friends. If you're going to move it, move it to a great spot, not just one step up from yours.

Alex - 6/21/2021​

Can you do an article on antenna transmission patterns? I have an antenna that is a dipole with the joint in the center, would be curious to see how this fares in the city.

Nik - 6/21/2021​

Sure, check this out.

John James - 6/21/2021​

Hey Nik - not sure if this is a good idea, but I would like your opinion on it. What if I set up 2 nebra miners in the same building (top floor). One from my apartment, and another one from a neighbor. Each will have it's own wifi connection, but here's the difference - one will have the stock 3 dbi antenna, and the other will have a 5dbi antenna. This way the 5dbi overshoots the 3 dbi preventing them from competing with each other. I live about 20 miles from NYC, and both of my miners are facing West. The 3dbi miner should be able to reach Manhattan, while the 5 dbi should reach New Jersey with plenty of miners for both to witness and challenge. Because I live on the top floor, I have no issues with line of sight, and should be able to reach as far as the antennas can reach. Do you think this will work? Thanks in advance.

Nik - 6/21/2021​

Hi John, Depends on what you mean by "will this work?" By having 2 miners in the same res 8 hex, you'll clip your earnings for each one by 50% in most cases. They'll still earn, but at less capacity than they otherwise would.

Kashif - 6/22/2021​

Hi Nik, Thank you very much for your continued support of us. I have a question, How much long extension cable I can attach with a stock antenna of bobcat miner? Do you think this will work fine with up to 15-20 meters extension cable? May God Bless You !!!

Nik - 6/22/2021​

Hi Kashif, there are two (well, 3) types of cables. First is the power cord; standard rules apply there. Second is the ethernet between your router and the hotspot -- max is 100m. 3rd is the antenna cable. That's the one we really want to keep as short as possible, but has a few variables to it. Check over here for more.

Jerome Nadeau - 6/27/2021​

Hi Nik, Here is my problem with finding businesses to accept having one on their property. They all want rental $$ for space and a lease. My question is, what is normal in your opinion to entice a property owner to accept. Most I run across want $400.00 a month plus a year commitment. Total cost at this site would be $500.00 per. $100.00 for internet access.

Nik - 6/27/2021​

That's more than I'd pay, for sure. Check out the Getting Your Hotspot On A Commercial Building post for more on this.

Ernestoxx - 6/28/2021​

can you make a post about the connectors for the LMR400 for each miner. For example i have a bobcat miner ordered. and i want to use it outdoors by putting a cover. so i will have an lmr400 instead of the one that comes with the Antenna. But what connectors should i put on the lmr?

Nik - 6/28/2021​

Will this help?

Todd Eide - 6/28/2021​

What if I life on a farm and i can run lora cable 1000-1200 feet in multiple directions and leave the actual box in my house connected to ethernet. Would this work?

Nik - 6/28/2021​

Nope. You don't want to have multiple hotspots on the same IP (looks like gaming to Helium), nor do you want long antenna cable runs.

JT - 7/1/2021​

Any advice for non-penetrating roof mounts for atennas on an normal residential roof? Haven't found a great solution that doesn't require drilling holes in the wall or throwing cinderblocks up on a roof which probably would work well for a commercial grade roof but probably not all that safe for a standard home

Nik - 7/1/2021​

Hey JT, you can skip a few of the cinderblocks if you're not going to add a 20' pole to the non-pen roof mount. You might also look into clamping options like chimney straps.

Tyler - 7/1/2021​

Hey NIK, I appreciate the thorough information you presented! I was wondering what your opinion was for those looking to start now? Knowing that the earning amount is going to take a sharp decline in August, and that I wouldn’t be getting my hotspot for 3-6 months.

Nik - 7/2/2021​

Tyler, it depends on your goals & expectations as well as the placements you have available. IF you have a great placement, it's worth watching eBay for miners in hand. Prices will continue to drop there, and you'll get it faster than one ordered from the factory. If you want to play the long game and have an actual use case, that would be the driver for a "purchase from mfr" decision.

Tyler - 7/2/2021​

Thank you for the reply! I honestly don’t have a great placement. I’m in a city with only a few, and the nearest one is a few miles away.

Kashif - 7/9/2021​

Hi Nik, how are you buddy? I come again with another question, hope you won't mind ;) Can you please, is there any option to hide the privacy of the helium miner location? I mean on the helium coverage map when I see my hotspot then this should not show the exact home location. Like it should show it's on the next street or so, although it's planted on my home. Hope you got my point. Because I don't want that my neighbours or relatives should not know what I am doing at the moment. Best Regards.

Devon - 7/9/2021​

Hi Kashif it seems your issue will be resolved with https://explorer-beta.helium.com/ which we will be transferring to shortly, currently it is in BETA getting ready for it's full release. This will only show amounts of hotspots in a given hex, rather than showing exactly where you are. Hope this helps you out with your question.

Nik - 7/9/2021​

Sure, I think it's reasonable to assert your location anywhere within 100m of where it actually is. I usually tell clients to assert it in the middle of the nearest intersection that's within that distance. In time, that strategy and tolerance may change, but for now that's the best option.

Kashif - 7/9/2021​

Hey Nik, you are awesome. You helped me a lot by saying I can assert my hotspot location around 100 meters away from the actual location to hide my privacy. Tell me if I have two locations for two hotspots, and the distance between these two locations is 200 meters. As you know we should place hotspots away at least 300 meters away from each other. So, in this case, if I assert my first location 100 meters away from the actual location and in this case both hotspots now show 300 meters distance, then will it fulfill the minimum 300 meters target to get proof of coverage. I am sorry if this is a silly question, but maybe someone also has the same question in their mind :) Best Regards.

Nik - 7/9/2021​

Hi Kashif, you *should* assert your miner where it is. Now, with that said, I think it's OK to assert it within about 100m just to retain privacy. As of July 2021, Helium doesn't have a great way to protect your privacy. Asserting a miner in a location it isn't actually in for reasons other than privacy is frowned upon (although I'm sure plenty of people do it). If you have 2 locations that are 200m apart, you really only have one location. At least, that's how I see it. Think about it this way: 2 miners that are actually close together but are asserted 300m apart aren't really providing the network any benefit. They're more of a gaming setup. You're better off finding a new and completely different location.

Helium Hotspots & EMF - One Man's Search - 7/12/2021​

[…] go back to the Heli­um Hotspot one last time and just think about where it’s placed. While I rec­om­mend always plac­ing it out­side (NOT for RF expo­sure rea­sons, but to pro­vide the best cov­er­age), some peo­ple can’ t […]

Nojeem Bakare - 7/23/2021​

What a great write-up!

Nik - 7/23/2021​

Thanks Nojeem!

Jim - 7/30/2021​

I live in a sparsely populated area 3k and next town is 25k but I am willing to move to Eugene OR to do this hot spot gig. and on a waiting list for equiptment. And will get your help. when time gets closer. Am I correct in my assumptions ?

Nik - 7/30/2021​

Hi Jim, that sounds reasonable. Keep an eye on average rewards to make sure it'll be worth it. Any time you can set up a miner that provides Wide, Unique, Proveable, and Useful coverage you're getting the fundamentals correct.

Trevor - 7/30/2021​

So glad to have found your site! Seems like getting the antenna up high, def in my location, is a theme here! So how does one do that? Any special requirements for a pole? Can it sway in the wind? If higher is more important than antenna ( usually). Id like to get 20’ past my roof- Is that too far to cable from my bobcat? Hope thats not too many ?’s. Thanks for a great blog Nik!!!

Nik - 7/30/2021​

Hi Trevor, check what height will do on Helium.Vision; sometimes just a few feet makes a difference, sometimes 100' makes no difference (radio shadow from hill). It *can* sway in the wind, but definitely better not to. Make that pole sturdy! I've used 20-25' of 4130 steel, .095" thick, 1 ¾" diameter. That's a good, albeit expensive, way to do it. More on antenna gain & cabling here. Rock on!

Darcy - 7/30/2021​

Great write up! You mentioned putting the miner on the pole close to the antenna (unless I misread?) but what if you live in a cold climate where temps go below the Operating Temperature (e.g. 0 C on a bobcat)? Any advice for keeping the miner safe while close to the antenna to minimize cable length?

Nik - 7/31/2021​

Hi Darcy, thanks! Hmm, you could insulate the box or just keep the miner inside and run longer antenna cable, keeping it low loss. More on that here.

Marco Martins - 7/31/2021​

Thank you so much for providing this useful content! Question: can I use the default antenna outside?

Nik - 8/1/2021​

Hi Marco, I don't think so; the stock antennas are probably only rated for indoor use. With that said, they'll probably work fine for a few days to a few months, depending on weather. :)

Marco Martins - 8/1/2021​

That's what I thought :D Mine is currently under light rain but I've put some plastic film protecting the connections while I do not order an outdoor one. BTW, just to confirm what you are saying, my 2.8dB stock antenna can have a witness that is 19.2Km away, because it has line of sight. I'm on a hilly zone, and I'm up the hill, I have as witness 80% of city HS. My goal is to put the antenna higher and I'll probably order a 3dB outdoor antenna or would you recommend 5dB?

Nik - 8/1/2021​

Yep, with Line of Sight you've got pretty long range. 20 km no prob. I'd go with an HNTenna (that's what I'm using on all my installs going forward.)

Jim - 8/1/2021​

Is there a place to see the miners or hot spots in OR. ? web-site with maps

Nik - 8/1/2021​

Hi Jim, they should show up on Explorer at the res 8 hex level. If you want to see exact assert locations you'll need to use a paid app. I recommend Helium.Vision.

Lorenz - 8/3/2021​

Hey Nik, Love your Blogs! One question left for me though, for now at least. I also have been trying to get information on that in the past weeks, but didn't really find anything valuable: What do I need to look out for, when trying to maximize the RF of my antenna? Is the multi-polarization really that much better for receiving signals? Any other parameters or values to look out for? Cheers Lorenz

Nik - 8/4/2021​

Hi Lorenz, try this post on Helium antenna choice, it should lay out what you're looking for. :)

Jim - 8/7/2021​

Helpfull suport, Is it better to be the first hot spot in a town of 25k or move to a bigger one with 4 or 5 already, ( Grants Pass) ? Thanks Jim

Nik - 8/7/2021​

No advantage to being a "lone wolf". You need at least 4 other hotspots to be able to earn maximally, though you probably want more, just to give your hotspot(s) more chances at witnessing beacons.

Harold - 8/8/2021​

Your posts have been fantastic and very informational, so thank you for that. Back in the late 60s and 70s, I built a lot of ham radios. I basically remember NOTHING from when I actually knew anything. Could you bifurcate the coax with a splitter and use multiple antennas for these hotspots or would that make it worse? Thanks again.

Nik - 8/8/2021​

Hi Harold, from everything I've read, there's no good way to do that; you just lose too much energy when you're splitting the signal in half. Better off getting one antenna high with clear lines of sight to lots of other hotspots.

Thomas - 8/15/2021​

Nik: We discussed this once before, and I wanted you to share it for everyone’s understanding: do the enclosures protect the miners from the elements of winter, rain and snow? Or should we add something to the enclosure for the miner’s protection? Please advise.

Nik - 8/15/2021​

Hi Thomas, yes, enclosures protect the miners from the elements. You can use a vented or sealed enclosure. Considerable discussion around which one is better. If you go sealed, make sure to include dessicant, and from what I've seen be careful of overheating, especially with the Bobcats. If you go vented keep in mind that dust is an enemy of electronics, so have some kind of mitigation for that.

Marco Martins - 8/15/2021​

And moisture!

Nik - 8/15/2021​

indeed, and moisture. :)

Marco Martins - 8/16/2021​

Putting the miners into this enclosures with them generating heat I wonder if they won't create condensation when humidity rises outside if we have a hole for ventilation. What's your experience Nik?

Nik - 8/16/2021​

I've got a couple that have been up for months (through the "winter" in San Diego, complete with rain, fog, clouds, etc) and they're still doing fine. My guess is you'll have to replace the electronics every 1-2 years anyway, just like you do with almost every electronic thing.

Thomas - 8/16/2021​

The Bobcat miner has an overheating issue? My roof is all sun. No shade. And it cooks like an oven during the summer months. My aim is for all my miners to be on rooftops near the antenna.

Nik - 8/16/2021​

Yep, that's what I've seen in the forums; Bobcats seem to be more sensitive to overheating than, say, the RAKs.

Thomas - 8/16/2021​

Wow. That’s not good. How would you suggest elevating the Bobcat during the summer?

Nik - 8/16/2021​

I'd keep it in a shaded and well ventilated spot if I had to put it outside. Bobcat has made a point recently of saying not to put the things outside in the heat.

Thomas - 8/16/2021​

The attached articles are very helpful. It does change my approach. I wanted all my miners to be airborne (20 feet) above the roof. I will need a longer cable instead— slight signal loss.

Easy Helium Outdoor Antenna Upgrade – Tea and Tech Time - 8/19/2021​

[…] What’s The Best Antenna For Your Helium Hotspot? A Rough Guide To Helium Hotspot Placement […]

Reggy - 8/22/2021​

HI, i bought (5) Bobcat hotspots not realizing that I can't have more than 1 in my home. I live in California, I have a spot for 3 of them around my city and work, but I was thinking about putting 2 in Canada, can I do that? I know they just have to be 300 meters apart, but is there any restriction to how far? They would all be connected to my app that I would set up and monitor them with so it shouldn't matter right? I just purchased today and can't find any info on this, and i'm sure I can cancel a few of them if I can't pull this off. If you have any info on my situation, it would be soo helpful!

Nik - 8/22/2021​

Hi Reggy, Keep reading through the site for more info on how to optimally deploy 'em. 5 is manageable. No restrictions on how far apart they are. Yes, they'll all be connected to the "wallet" in your Helium app, so you can monitor them from there. If you'd like to just skip to the front of the line when it comes to understanding what you've gotten yourself into, I offer consulting for Helium, more on that here.

Don - 8/24/2021​

Looking to possibly hire you, if affordable, for an opinion on my location.

Nik - 8/24/2021​

Right on, check over here for rates. Thanks Don!

Benji - 8/24/2021​

Awesome content Nik. I appreciate you sharing! My setup will be going on my roof with great visibility and elevation relative to the rest of my city. Is there a hotspot you would recommend? Does the hotspot need to be placed on the roof as well, close to the antenna? Thanks!

Nik - 8/24/2021​

Hi Benji, thanks, happy to share. The RAK V2 seems to work best if you're putting an "indoor" hotspot outdoors. Check out more on the Anatomy of a Hotspot post, here.

jjlomar - 9/5/2021​

Hola , se habla de 120 pies de altura , yo dispongo de un lugar con 350 pies de altura , la pregunta es , puede perjudicar tanta altura , gracias

Nik - 9/5/2021​

Depends on what you're running. Ethernet cable going 300' shouldn't be a problem, but going anymore than 60' on LMR400 (ANTENNA cable) can significantly reduce power transmitted. Check this post for more on EIRP and cable loss.

LaRoc2121 - 9/7/2021​

What if you're in line of sight of a cell tower

Nik - 9/8/2021​

Usually a good thing, though if you're too close you can be subject to interference.

Winning At Helium: The Right Way To Get Started - Gristle King - A Guide to Helium - 9/8/2021​

[…] whole train. The bet­ter the cov­er­age you pro­vide (pages and pages have been writ­ten on how to pro­vide excel­lent cov­er­age), the more HNT you earn. HNT is a cryp­tocur­ren­cy and can be trad­ed for many oth­er […]

Andrew - 9/16/2021​

Hey Nik, thanks for the awesome write ups. It helped me learn so much. I just had a few questions. I read one of your earlier comments that we would need to be replacing electronics every 1-2 years? So the miners would only last around that amount of time? Would the same go for the antennas? Also, I am currently deciding between the HNTenna 3dbi MP or the McGill 6dbi Tune Antenna or the Diamond Antenna 9.3dbi. I am wedged in around some mountains and the max elevation I can place the antenna would be around 27 feet. My stock 4dbi antenna is currently reaching witnesses as far as 20 km but that is only within the line of sight. I am missing out on a big cluster of witnesses due to a mountain that is about 80-90 feet taller than my elevation, blocking my line of sight. I am leaning towards the HNTenna 3dbi MP but I would have to keep my miner indoors and dbi loss would be around 1.5 dbi. So I am deciding the McGill 6dbi is my best option. Are there higher gain MP antennas you could recommend? I know they are the best for hilly situations and I have quite a bit of hills around my area. Thank you so much for all that you do!

Nik - 9/17/2021​

Hi Andrew, the most bang for your buck will be getting extra line of sight, though that sounds very difficult for you with the mountains. If you're stuck with an indoor placement, the 6 dBi will probably work better just to punch out through the walls. I don't think HNTenna has a higher gain antenna on the market yet.

How To Use Hotspotty To Crush - Gristle King - A Guide to Helium - 9/18/2021​

[…] talked a bunch about opti­miz­ing your hotspot place­ment (see my Rough Guide for a deep dive), but it can be com­pli­cat­ed to run all the num­bers hotspot by […]

Flavio - 9/19/2021​

with a 10 meter long lmr 400 cable I lose a lot of power?

Nik - 9/19/2021​

Depends on frequency. Loss at 915 will be ~1.5 dB at 10 meters

Arun Manjila Purushothaman - 10/3/2021​

Thanks a Ton, Nik! Glad your friend Nick from Helium Vision recommended you and read a lot of your blogs which are extremely useful. So far I am struggling to find a 'Subscribe forever' button but hope one day will click the 'Hire me' button for large-scale implementation. Great write-up, one which is more entertaining than a video! Thanks, Arun

Nik - 10/4/2021​

Right on Arun, glad you've found it all useful. Keep charging!

ali - 11/3/2021​

thank you, great insighting points.

William C Calderon - 11/14/2021​

Good stuff. Thank you very much. I wish I had an antenna expert to mount an 8 dBi antenna on my roof, and also guide me how to get out of my Bobcat 300 miner with RELAYED STATUS. Can you recommend a person in the Chicago Suburbs area? Thanks a million

Nik - 11/14/2021​

Hi William, Any local electrician or satellite dish installer will be able to mount your antenna. As far as getting out of relay, it's more a question of doing it right and then not relying on Helium Explorer to check your work, but rather Helium.Status.

Lessons Learned From A Year Of Helium Deployments - Gristle King - A Guide to Helium - 11/15/2021​

[…] 6 months into this, after writ­ing the first few arti­cles (the Rough Guide and the one on choos­ing an anten­na specif­i­cal­ly), I start­ed get­ting phone calls from […]

Richard - 12/17/2021​

Do you have any concern a large antennae like that on the top of your roof makes you a target by potentially broadcasting to the passerby you're miner?

Nik - 12/17/2021​

Sure, it's definitely an identifiable thing. Not sure what to do about that; I just leave mine up high and let 'er rip.

Francisco Costa - 12/28/2021​

Hello first I want to congratulate on such a good video. I recently got into helium mining and there is a couple things I cant seam to wrap my head around. I live in a small town and there is already around 8 helium miners set up, but fairly spread out. The ones in the central area are mining around 2HNT monthly, then there are 2 that are placed almost in the middle of nowhere and are mining 15+HNT monthly. This is really making me question where I should chose a urban area with plenty condos or just plain suburbs. Could use or opinion on this one!

Nik - 12/28/2021​

Thanks Francisco. I'd recommend using HeliumVision for assessing locations and making those kinds of decisions. I've built a Master Class for using HV; it's powerful but can be complicated. Rock on!

Dino Patel - 1/1/2022​

Hey Nic thanks for this. Super helpful! My question is more about devices. I’m in Africa and curious about how to know if you’re getting a legit device or not. Can I build my own? Or buy from anyone building raspberry Pis and just configure it to connect to HNT? Or does HNT only allow approved devices to connect to its network? There are a lot of resellers entering the market and trying to figure out how not to get scammed. Thanks!

Nik - 1/2/2022​

Helium only allows approved devices to mine HNT; you can't build your own. I'd start on Helium's page about approved hotspots/makers.

Alvaro - 1/11/2022​

Hi Nic, Thank you for all the information you are sharing with us. I have one question, in a few days I´ll receive a new device (Pisces P100) and I want to locate it as good as possible. I´m living in a 7th floor flat (from 8, 20m aprox. from the floor) with a balcony, where I´ll instale the antenna. My question is, in a balcony you don´t have 360º view (maybe 180º-220º), do you think it can be a big disadvantage? Thank you

Nik - 1/11/2022​

Not a huge disadvantage. Just get the antenna outside and you'll usually do much better than if it's inside.

Al Wormininski - 1/11/2022​

I must have read this article a hundred times and it's spot on with exception to recommending Parley Labs. After this last Nebra update I really hope you all take your business elsewhere. I didn't think Nebra could be beat for poor service but Parley holding my funds for 10 months and then offering a consolation prize is a slap in the face. I'm sure this will get deleted but this is still a comment for the Helium Network and a red flag posted for future miner purchasers. Good luck all!

Antenna Selection Guide For Your Helium Hotspot | SEKOSD Wireless - 1/15/2022​

[…] as high as reasonably possible. How high? as Nik Hawks quoted from the American Radio Relay League’s document on antenna placement: “To a distant […]

Lars - 1/27/2022​

Hi nik, Im in a area with very few hnt hotspots at the moment. Theres 1 at approx 3 hexagons away, others are even further away. Im have also on 2 sides big cities at 25km away. How important is it to connect yo those cities with plenty of hotspots in comparisation 2 close coverage in my own Town with only 2 other hotspots in the Town it self. As i understood, coverage is more important than distance, but its hard to change the mind thinking i could ezrn more by being able to connect to the big cities, instead of coverage where not a lot people use allready helium. Do to specify more. Im located in a hexagon without other miners, closest miner is at 1km approx to connect with, 1 big city in the north of me at 20km, 1 even bigger city in the South of me. Could you please give some advice on how to upgrade my situation. Im not connected yet, but im looking first to get all the boxes correct. Kind regards Lars

Darius - 2/15/2022​

Hi Nik, is the loss you experience when using long cables really that much of an issue? I don't have electricity in my Attic, so I am planning getting like 5m long cable(lmr 400) from my window to the top of my roof. Do you have a better solution? Thanks :)

Nik - 2/15/2022​

Hi Darius, you can just calculate it using any online calculator. In general, 5m of LMR400 is not a big deal.

jean-francois - 3/2/2022​

Hi, Where you buy and what is the model of this 23 feets pole. i would!!

Nik - 3/2/2022​

Local metal shop, 23' of .095 4130 steel IIRC.

Hayden B - 3/4/2022​

Do you have any cable recommendations for a flat cable to run through my window so I can get my antenna outside? I am aware of losses but I believe the benefit of having it outside outweighs losses in the cable. And I am in an apartment so my options otherwise are limited (i.e. non-existant). I've been researching but I haven't found any YouTuber who sounds remotely intelligent who has covered this and I struggle to trust any random source.

Nik - 3/4/2022​

Sure, try this one.

Jeffrey Addison - 3/8/2022​

I have watched many of your video and read this tutorial multiple times. I will be mounting both of my Nebras this weekend using a 30' pole on one of my peaks (27'). After the 2' loss for the bracket, I should reach about 55'. I will be using 3'of LMR400 and mount both Hotspots in an outdoor weatherproof box 52' in the air. The boxes will have 2 fans each with a thermostat and an IOT thermostat and humidity reader that will use the network for monitoring. My area is awesome and HotpotRF says I should be in the 12-14 HNT per month range. While there are more Hotspots being added in my area, it is rural and I hope to reach into the city with my 8.5 dbi antennas. My question is this... Should I have one fan blowing in and one fan blowing out, or both fans blowing out? They will have vent covers. I have seen arguments on both sides. Also, I will have silicon packs inside of the boxes to catch any humidity that will find its way inside. Thanks for your time and awesome teachings.

Nik - 3/9/2022​

Don't need both fans & dessicant packs; they dessicant packs will quickly saturate and be useless. 1 fan blowing is fine, either in or out.

Dave Steele - 3/24/2022​

Hello Mr Nik , I really appreciate the info here . I just started mining helium. My location is excellent in all resolutions except 1 the " too many devices" resolution 4 . If I move my placement 600 meters I will gain 1.00 on that too but will that be too much I read here and there the most is 300 meters. Thank you

Will - 3/29/2022​

First of all, love your site and your knowledge. Far superior than most sites out there. Question - with these metal poles so high up, what do you do to protect against lightning strikes?

Nik - 3/29/2022​

Hi Will, you can't really protect against a direct strike, but you can add a "lightning arrestor" that'll dissipate the static charge before it hits your expensive equipment. I cover that over here. Rock on!

Will - 3/30/2022​

I live in MN and am wanting to put my Bobcat 300 in an outdoor enclosure. I'm looking to get it 20-30' above my roof. I'm wondering what kind of enclosure to use based on weather. Our Summers can be hot (90s for 2-3 weeks) & more so very humid. Our winters get cold, below 0 Fahrenheit. Do I build an enclosure with a fan & vent to circulate air in/out OR should I keep it sealed to keep the humid & cold out?

Nik - 3/30/2022​

Hi Will, Great question! I'd add heat sinks to the Bobcat, put it in a sealed enclosure in the shade, use dessicant packs and monitor temp & humidity with an LHT65.

Will - 3/30/2022​

Thanks NIK! One more question. I'm in the northern suburbs of Minneapolis. Downtown is 10 miles away, with a pretty straight line of site once you get over the trees. I'm working on getting my miner up 25'. I saw a diagram somewhere that a 3Dbi antenna will reach out 20 miles with a straight line of sight, is that accurate? I'm going with your advice and just going to try the stock Bobcat antenna and see what my results are before plunking down big $$ for an antenna.

Nik - 3/30/2022​

Yep, clear line of sight & 20 miles with a 3 dBi is totally doable.

rio - 3/31/2022​

hello, very informative set of blogs. i recently got my miner (sensecap) and am following your suggestions. it earned some small amounts 24 hours back but nothing since. it has gone online only 2 days back and helium explorer says its still syncing. the sensecap dashboard says its 100% synced. i guess there is some delay on helium explorer but is there any effect on earnings? is there some delay in when the hotspot starts to earn?

Nik - 3/31/2022​

Yep, Helium Explorer can be delayed by a day or so. Use HeliumStatus.io to get up to date info.

Helium's People-Powered Network with Nik Hawk - The Bad Crypto Podcast - 4/13/2022​

[…] A rough guide to Helium placement:  https://gristleking.com/a-rough-guide-to-helium-hotspot-placement/ […]

Dave - 5/15/2022​

hello, https://explorer.helium.com/hotspots/hex/882c2026d7fffff in this hex is two person and both have 1.00 transmit scale, in my hex two person too but I have 0.50 why, is this normal? about distance in first hex they have distance 205meter and have 1.00 about my hex we have distance 260meter and I have 0.50 please tell me why

Nik - 5/15/2022​

Hi Dave, check this post to learn how scaling works.

Bill - 8/13/2022​

Hi Nik, I hope you don’t mind a couple more questions…. I have researched myself but am getting conflicting information… a while back you were very helpful to set up a miner with a friend in a potentially better location. We managed to get the miner running but in the 6 weeks or so it’s online it has not witnessed any hotspots at all although it is earning…. Though in 30 days 16 days did not earn… the surrounding area has plenty of good hex with mainly 1 transmit scale ( as have I ) I have clicked on hotspots and I found my hotspot had been witnessed by a few. Sorry for long message I suppose I would like to know how much impact my zero witnessing has on earnings and maybe a link to read more on optimal placement and also maybe you can send me information about the paid support you offer to see if it is a possible option for me. Thanks and apologies again for length of message ( I really mean it when I said that your information is the best I have come across) Cheers Bill

Nik - 8/13/2022​

Bill, it's hard to say why your hotspot isn't earning. The Network has been pretty spiky for the past few months as far as earnings, so you can have everything right and still not get the rewards you think you should. I wouldn't do the paid support for that; as long as your Hotspot is plugged in to power and connected to the internet you're doing everything you can do. Take a look at this in the meantime if you haven't seen it: https://gristleking.com/hip-17-why-are-you-getting-scaled/

Bill - 8/17/2022​

Thanks Nik, it’s more for my mate I’d like to see a bit more earnings. To be honest I’m more interested in the tech and the future possibilities. I have been really getting a lot from your YouTube videos. I’m also interested in the possibilities for using the technology and am keen to find out more about sensors. I watched a video last night with you and some others. Am I right in thinking the lady from Bobcat was talking about a way to chat to others in your area and would that be a way of helping people get their hotspots back online etc…. Do you think that if you are near too many relayed or inactive hotspots it will effect people in the area. Before i moved my hotspot from London in a hex with 9 hotspots 6 needed attention and I thought if you could communicate with them and help them it could help everyone. Is that what she was talking about… love your positive attitude keep it up

Sid - 8/29/2022​

Thanks Nik, very helpful. No doubt ill be in touch when my miner arrives as I'm 45kn from the next spot.

José - 3/11/2023​

Hy Nik, I just begun with a merryloT. Should I open the port 44158 now a days? Thanks! José

Nik - 3/11/2023​

Nope, leave it alone. We're past that particular requirement. Rock on!

José - 3/12/2023​

Thanks nick!

A Rough Guide to Wingbits - Gristle King - A Guide to DePIN - 11/9/2023​

[…] parts of the project remind me of the ear­ly days of Heli­um, back when I wrote the orig­i­nal Rough Guide for Heli­um. Wing­bits is a project that allows you to choose your hard­ware and that rewards you for […]

John - 11/15/2024​

Awesome, thanks for the info. One request: please change "Open up an account on Binance." to "Open up an account on a reputable exchange that Helium trades on." Binance does some shady things IMHO, and frankly the quality of exchanges continues to change over time, so recommending one that may work well in one geography may not play well in another geography, etc. Also, "Hotspots record all transactions on a blockchain..." might be tweaks to say "Hotspots record a record of all the HNT transactions on a blockchain..." as it reads one might misinterpret this to mean traffic is somehow getting written to the chain, and of course this isn't feasible. Appreciate the helpful links as well -- I'm in rural territory outside of Tokyo, but plan to throw up a hotspot even though it likely won't make money... just nice to share our 2GB fiber connections with the world when we can. Cheers: -J

Nik - 11/16/2024​

Got it, updated those. Thanks John! This was written in late 2020/early 2021, so it's about 3 and a half years out of date now. I'm surprised it's aged this well!

John - 11/18/2024​

I saw the original date -- and wondered if you would respond. I guess good information has a way of continuing to provide value. :-) Thanks for the tweaks. Cheers: -John

Edward Schmitt - 9/15/2025​

How do I hire you for help? I have three Helium outdoor miners up now. They are located in a location above my warehouse and about 40 feet above the ground level. I am getting about 1.5 tokens each day. I have a new location that has about 65 to 80 thousand people walking past my new location. My Helium unit is 65 feet above the ground level. My problem is that I seem to have problems getting this one setup. I even had my out internet installed just for my new unit. Do you think that it’s worth moving forward. The closest miner is about one mile away.