How far can I broadcast LoRa packets WITHOUT a radio? - LoLRa

CNLohr · 223.5K views · 2024-03-25 · 37:58

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Overview

CNLohr explains how he made an ESP32 produce valid LoRa packets without a LoRa radio, using aliasing and clever signal tricks. It walks through the RF math and shows how far the signals reach.

On Hacker News

HN cites it as a striking example of radio hacking with commodity chips.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2024–2026

Topics

Embedded systems & DIY electronics Electronics & circuit design

What people said

airbreather · 2026-01 · Recommendation
check out this guy, doing something similar sending Lora packets without a radio - [VIDEO] "This video explores LoRaWAN communication using a microcontroller without a dedicated radio chip. CNLohr demonstrates techniques to transmit LoRa packets over surprisingly long distances, pushing the limits of inexpensive hardware. The project involves creative software and hardware interaction to generate signals at unexpected frequencies."
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yonatan8070 · 2025-07 · Reference
In fact, it's so robust that even when your antenna is a piece of wire hanging off a GPIO of a microcontroller with absolutely no dedicated radio hardware, you can still get several km of range. Truly crazy stuff. [VIDEO]
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donquichotte · 2024-09 · Reference
cnlohr is in his own league, this guy is bordering on genius. Dissatisfied with the state of the vendor SDK for CH32V003 microcontrollers (ultra-cheap RISC-V MCUs), he created his own [1], which is a pleasure to use. He also has a header-only RISC-V emulator that runs Linux (and Doom!) [2], and hacked an ESP32 to emit valid LORA frames with clever use of aliasing [3]. [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK] [3] [VIDEO]
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Sources

Video by CNLohr, played through YouTube.

HN Library · Source license

Data and selection notes

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