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These LoRaWAN devices will be deployed in Dubai, flat landscape except for buildings. They already have gateways all over the city. I seem to recall that they want a 3km range out of the 868MHz radios.

The previous project used the NRF24L01+ with Yagi antennas. That gave them about a 1-1/2 mile reach.

These LoRaWAN devices will be deployed in Dubai, flat landscape except for buildings. They already have gateways all over the city. I seem to recall that they want a 3km range out of the 868MHz radios.

The previous project used the NRF24L01+ with Yagi antennas. That gave them about a 1-1/2 mile reach.

Interesting, but I meant how long were your coaxes going to be?

3 km is pretty easy. That's less than 2 miles. So long as you have line of sight, it won't be a problem.

Let me back up a bit. I looked at the specs for the NRF24L01, and it's only 1 miliwatt output power. The RFM69HCW i'm using is 100 miliwatts. I know 100 miliwatts will easily make several miles, but I don't know about 1 miliwatt unless you use some really high gain antennas.

More power is always better. You can't do anything on the receive side other than using a good antenna, but more power on the transmit side will make up for other issues.

I just took a look at your Microchip RN2903. It is also only putting out 0 dbm. (1mw) I can see why you are having problems making those short hops. With such small output power, RF noise becomes a bigger problem, especially in a noisy electrical environment such as a big city.