Antenna for the beacon

[Usman Rashid]

Hi,

Is it possible to add additional antenna on the beacon ( NRF51) in order to increase the range ?

If yes kindly let me know the list of available or recommended antenna for this purpose.

[endnode]

Do you mean specifically nRF51522 Beacon Kit (PCA20006)? Then the answer is NO, this kit has PCB antenna and cutting the lines and adding some coax connector and external antenna seems like not worth the job. If you mean another HW or nRF51 in general then indeed you can do various magic by proper antenna design/tuning and you can even add some active amplifier (if your compliance = certification and local law allows). There is even PA/LNA (Power Amplifier/Low Noise Amplifier) support on nRF52 and particular Soft Devices but not for nRF51.

[FormerMember]

If using the nRF51822, it is possible to connect a PA to the VDD_PA pin, it is 1.8 V when the radio is in TX mode, and 0 V otherwise. On the nRF51822, a LNA is not recommended: The range can be worsened because the LNA also amplifies noise, and this does not result in a better signal-to-nose ratio.