NRF905 range

[Fred Lamer]

Hi everyone, I am using two NRF24L01+ for a project and recently bought the NRF24L01+LNA+PA device from ebay. It states that the maximum range should be about 1km but users say they reached only 250 km. I need a really long range device for my project and I dont need a fast data rate. I would like to know what could be the range of the NRF905 in the lowest frequency available? Thanks, Fred

[Håkon Alseth]

Hi Fred,

Using 250 kBit on-air data rate + external RF PA, then ~250 meters sounds reasonable.

Obtaining a range of 1 km will be hard. With our sub-GHz radios, you can get about 500-600 meters in an open area (@433 MHz) w/ a finely tuned design/antenna.

Best regards Håkon

[Mustafa AYDIN]

Hi,

What about Alignment Range (AR) or sometimes as called frequency range? I mean Lower and Upper frequencies. There is an example table on the datasheet which can be used in this way but not sufficient. There is a definition of AR in this document: www.etsi.org/.../en_300793v010101v.pdf

Thanks already.

[Håkon Alseth]

Alignment range is the operating frequency that the RF IC is able to be setup in. For instance, on the nRF24L-series, it's from 2.400 - 2.525 GHz.

[BasicPoke]

Håkon, Is this inherently the range of any 433 MHz RF system? It does not depend on the nRF905 IC does it? I am not very versed in RF so I need help understanding this. Does Nordic make complete RF modules with antenna that can be incorporated into another design? Thanks.

[Håkon Alseth]

No, this is specific to our sub-GHz radios. The overall range will depend on your receiver sensitivity and the output power of the signal you're receiving. This is also called "RF link budget".

We provide the ICs only, and ofcourse how to integrate it into a design. We do not make modules for high-volume production.