In this Section
PyCubed comes with an SMA Female connector installed for Radio #1.
SMA Male cables or antennas to properly mate with the onboard connector.
Illustrating the difference between SMA Male and SMA Female connectors.
For development work inside or outside the classroom, the most inexpensive antenna solution is simply soldering a piece of wire to the center conductor of the SMA connector on the bottom of the board. The piece of wire forms a monopole antenna.
For a quarter-wavelength monopole antenna:
Calculate the wavelength of your center frequency
$\lambda = \frac{C}{f}$
where c is the speed of light (about $3\times10^{8}$ m/s) and f is the frequency in Hz
Divide wavelength by 4: ($\lambda/4$ ) to determine the correct length of wire
Sparkfun illustration of a monopole antenna
For 433 MHz
f = 433 MHz = $433 \times 10^{6}$ Hz
$\lambda = \frac{3\times10^{8}}{433 \times 10^{6}} = 0.69284$ meters
$\lambda/4 = 0.69284/4 = 0.1732$ meters = $173.2$ mm wire
Commercial "whip" antennas are relatively inexpensive as well and will mount directly to the RF connector on the PyCubed board.
