The Helium Antenna Australia plays a massive role in successfully deploying the helium network coverage. Helium is designed to be a global pioneer in peer-to-peer IoT networks, also referred to as the people’s network. With using a helium miner, a device that mines HNT (the Helium cryptocurrency), anyone can contribute to this project contribute to the network coverage and earn rewards.
The Helium Antennas and miners play a huge role in successful deployment of the helium network coverage. However, before proceeding into which are the best Helium miners to buy, there are a few essential key points to take into consideration.
- For your miner to work, there are a few requirements like Hotspot, internet connection, Outdoor antenna, feeder cable, and other outdoor antenna mounting accessories. You’ll also need a software depending on the hotspot miner you purchase.
- The general cost of a helium miner ranges between 300 to 1000 dollars.
- You need a helium minor to be eligible for POC (Proof-of-Coverage) rewards. Make sure you buy the right helium minor that the project approves such as the Bobcat 300.
- If you are getting a custom antenna make sure you ground it to avoid lightening damage. If you do not know how to ground your antenna, you can seek help from professional Helium antenna installation services/
- Location is important. Essentially you need to be further away from other minors, preferably in a busy city area with your minor antenna being as high as possible.
- Finally, depending on the additions to the package and location, online stores may sell helium miners at different prices. Hence, the costs may vary. So do some market research.
5 Best Helium Antennas Australia
Helium antennas and miners have different specifications which may impact your purchase decision. Some may be more profitable, more resilient or easier to setup. Considering all these factors, the following are the five (5) best Helium Miners.
Syncrob.it Hotspot Miner
This hotspot miner is easy to configure and use, and the gateway provides an efficient hotspot. It has a full hotspot capability, giving you access to consensus and POC. It is very secure, requires little to no additional maintenance, and can have remote management. This is because it can self-diagnose and self-repair for most issues that arise. It is highly functional as it offers a swappable enclosure you can use indoors and outdoors.
Other features:
- Easy setup
- Outdoor and indoor cover options
- Uses low power (about 12W)
- Compatibility with LongFi technology which maximizes battery life and network range
- The gateways are easy to manage via the mobile application
General price range: $399 – $450
MNTD Helium Hotspot Miner
The MNTD Helium Hotspot Miner comes in two colour versions:
- MNTD Goldspot RAK v2: This has a golden casing and is a bit more expensive than the other model.
- MNTD Blackspot RAK v2: This has a black casing and is less expensive than the gold model.
Other than colour they are very much identical. Both miners consume about the same amount of power a 5W Led bulb consumes, which is pretty low in comparison to other minors and cost effective.
Other features:
- They have LongFi technology that helps them maximize their range and power consumption
- You can use a smartphone to setup the minor with no coding knowledge required.
- Mobile friendly to manage token rewards and hotspots easily.
General price range: $500 -$550
Bobcat Helium Miner
This is one of the more popular Helium minors. There are three versions of Bobcat Helium Miners that deserve recognition. The Bobber 200, the Bobcat Miner 300, and the Bobcat Miner 500.
- The Bobber 200 is a Light Hotspot (it does not need to store the blockchain internally) and has less experience with relay issues due to syncing issues. This makes mining HNT more difficult sometimes and requires hands on maintenance. Its Helium-compatible gateway witnesses, beacons, and transfers LoRaWAN data to mine HNT.
General price range: $339 – $400
- Bobcat Miner 300 is very reliable as a high-efficiency HNT Hotspot Miner. It is LongFi compatible and can be found on ultra-low power. It can easily connect to LoRaWAN end nodes detected within its range. It has a broad but slightly lower range than the Bobcat Miner 500. It is known to be very affordable and also very effective as it can trouble shoot errors and fix issues automatically.
General price range:$449 – $500
- The Bobcat Miner 500, an industrial-grade 5G-ready gateway, can mine HNT, IOT, and MOBILE tokens via cellular data offload ad POC. It has an extensive range, higher profit potential and it is understood to be a significant improvement on the previous Bobcat 300 version.
General price range: $1,000 – $1,200
Linxdot Helium Miner
This Helium miner provides IoT (Internet of Things) devices using Helium LongFi with wireless network coverage. It has an Ethernet connection and is very versatile.
Other features:
- It uses a smartphone app for easy setup and management
- Web-based Management and Diagnostics
- It has Low Power consumption (about 12W)
General price range: $299 – $350
Panorama B4be Helium
It has the most compact design and is easy to install. The Omnidirectional antenna has a 2dbi, but the broadband makes antenna placement very easy. It is a high-quality helium antenna and will work well for most HNT mining setups. It is very affordable and has wide frequency coverage.
Other features:
- It provides cost-effective coverage for 2G/3G/4G and 3.4-3.8GHz 5G devices
- It has an integrated cable supports swift antenna installation
- Ideal for environments with cellular modems/routers and Machine to Machine (M2M) wireless connectivity applications
General price range: $50 -$100
The Ultimate Best Based on Research
All miners have their Pros and Cons, but from research and reviews, the Bobcat Miner 300 is ahead of the others. Asides from its compatibility with Helium LongFi, it is a high-efficiency helium miner hotspot voted as the favourite hotspot in 2021 by the Helium Community. For this, it received first place in the Helium Noble Awards. The Bobcat Miner 300 stands out in the following areas:
- Storage Capacity and Data Security: It has a 64 GB eMMC flash for larger memory storage and data security. Most of the other helium miners have 32GB built-in flashes or use external memory cards.
- Better Life Cycle: Bobcat Miner 300 lasts up to 10 years, which is longer than most Helium HNT miners. It has more memory, and that aids its computing ability.
- Network Coverage: Other indoor Helium HNT miners usually come with 2dbi antennas with less network coverage. The Bobcat Miner 300 has a 4dbi antenna which provides broader coverage, almost twice as wide as others.
- Better POC: With wider network coverage comes better Proof-of-Coverage. This also means there is an increase in rewards and earnings.
- Reliability: The Bobcat Miner 300 has a high-performance Quad-Core application processor: Rockchip PX30. This industrial-grade processor is designed for sophisticated commercial applications. This makes it very reliable as it offers direct manufacturer support for debugging and other issues.
RAK Hotspot Miner Australia
POC (Proof-of-Coverage) helps RAK Hotspot Miners earn Helium cryptocurrency (HNT) when they connect their devices and validate wireless coverage delivery from peers. When the RAK Hotspot Miners are in range with other RAK Hotspot Miners, they earn more. However, they each need at least 300m separating them.
Depending on the environment, dense areas tend to have less space between them when compared with rural areas. Single RAK Hotspot Miners do not earn that much because they don’t have access to POC and can only participate in internet activities.
Conclusion
Helium holds many expectations, as it is ambitious, practical and less expensive than wireless and cellular data. However, tapping into this Blockchain project requires only the best Helium antenna Australia has to offer. While the editor’s choice is the Bobcat Miner 300, your budget and practicality should come first.
