I have two XBee Pro 63 mW series 2 wire antenna sensors. If I put my hand over sensor 1 and send a message from sensor 1 to sensor 2, the RSSI value of the packet received at sensor 2 is 31. However, when I then send a packet from sensor 2 to sensor 1, the RSSI value at sensor 1 is 42. The latter measurement seems to make sense to me because sensor 1 has my hand over it, so it cannot receive the packet properly due to the obstruction. The former measurement, however, does not make sense as I think that the packet should be equally attenuated, i.e., if I block sensor 1 I would expect the 1->2 link and the 2->1 link to have equal RSSI values. This however is not the case.
Could someone enlighten me about what is going on here? I’m pretty sure the RSSI measurements in my code are correct and the range test of XCTU confirms these measurements. Perhaps this is expected behavior, but having an explanation as to why this is the case would be more than helpful. Thank you!