How to increase range?

[0xCoto]

I had 2 questions:

1) How can I possibly increase the radius range of the transmission? (I.e. with external antennas, external power source etc.)

2) What is the difference between running this on a RPI 0, RPI 0 W, RPI 1, RPI 2 and RPI 3?

[clerie]

On RP2 I added an antenna with lenght of ~1.5m and reached a range of ~250m in City The performance may be better, when you use stronger power supplies

[0xCoto]

Wouldn't increasing the length require more power (i.e. externally powering the antenna)? If so, how is that possible? Would increasing the length even more achieve better range?

And did you use a copper wire or did you somehow implement a "professional" Antenna?

[iBug]

I'm afraid you won't find an applicable external power supply easily, but as for me, an antenna of 2.0m (6.6ft) gives a surprising range with 200+m, with obstruction.

[0xCoto]

@iBug What kind of wire did you use? Also did you straighten the wire or what? And what frequency did you try?

[iBug]

@0xCoto Should be 85.0 MHz. Yes I straightened the wire. The 200m can only be reached from a direction that's perpendicular to the wire. If you try to catch the signal from a parallel direction (i.e. the way the wire points to), the range will drop significantly to less than a half of the longest.

[Brandon4466]

@iBug @clerie What did you make the wire out of? Also, how did you connect it to the Pi?

Thanks for any information you can supply!