Antenna jungle - inventory - What's out there?

[IBV]

Hi there,

Forums are full of threads about antenna issues and tips.
Just thought to ask you ladies and gents what kind of antenna you're driving the P4 and what experience you got with it?
This thread is not meant to cover long range or penetration values but just for interest as there are a whole lotta types and solutions out there.
Currently, I use different antennas depending on the location and mission goal.
For quick and easy setup I use itelite dbs02 driven by 2 Sunhans 3W (gold) boosters. It works great.
When flying from the van I use same setup but with two 8dbi omnidirectional antennas with magnet foot (costing 19 dollar ) and when flying from my living room I got 12dbi omni-antennas (120cm) on the roof.
For long range critical missions I use two directional parabolic 24dbi antennas mounted on top of our 15m elevating platform (which is practical because I can turn the elevating platform to follow the bird..). The battery is then the limit but I want maximum safety and penetration. I got 2 long cables down to the truck cabine where I can fly fpv with the fantastic headplay display while same time a passenger can follow on a 24" screen. We use this for environmental inspection. Pictures will follow.

Curious what you guys got and how it works?

 

[0DRK3RT]

Ahhhhh... You by far have the wildest setup I've ever heard of. I'd love to see all of them in action. The living room flying takes the cake. Lmao. Love it!

 

[IBV]

Ahhhhh... You by far have the wildest setup I've ever heard of. I'd love to see all of them in action. The living room flying takes the cake. Lmao. Love it!

The next step would be battery mod. There is a thread or flying from inside the house. The most flexible for me is using the elevating platform for minimizing forest effect. Ya-I will upload pictures soon.

 

[Sim597]

I've got two of these, I've also got the DBS_02 and the maxx range antenna. These Hawking's are supposed to be the shyt, Jerimiah on the other thread said he has tried about everything and these Hawking's are the bomb. He paid about $100 a piece and if not careful you wil too (if you want these monsters) shop around and you can get the two of them for about $135 shipped.
The only thing different is mine are going on my roof, or a antenna mast, but think the roof is gonna be where they end up, mounted on my chimney, which should be about 30' off the ground.
I've been looking at some "Alfa" omni's as they're cheap, for my RZR 4x4. Also thought about mounting these Hawking's on the RZR for a couple days just to see how badass they are.
With Jerimiah up talking these so much I thought they were 5' or 60"s but alas they're only about 24" but they're stout suckers, you could hit a baseball with them!
I guess if guys put them on their Carvers and Hatteras's at a couple million a pop, they're good enough for me.

 

[Sim597]

i thought about a jlg (lift) too lol nice setup.
I also thought about a couple 24db directionals but on one of those $35 rotating antennas on Amazon, just take off the TV antenna and mount the 2.4ghz ones, then rotate as needed, bobs your uncle, the 24dbi directions are kinda big, may need two rotators, still be pretty cool, more work but might be a battery burner!

 

[IBV]

i thought about a jlg (lift) too lol nice setup.
I also thought about a couple 24db directionals but on one of those $35 rotating antennas on Amazon, just take off the TV antenna and mount the 2.4ghz ones, then rotate as needed, bobs your uncle, the 24dbi directions are kinda big, may need two rotators, still be pretty cool, more work but might be a battery burner!

The idea with the TV servo is great! I also thought If mounting the big antennas on the bicycle rack on the back of the van with a telescopic stand (like used for light poles ).
This hawking antenna seems to originate from the same factory as my tp-link. Even the glue looks same. The first test with these antennas took me 4,5 km and with trees in between.

 

[Dacon Productions]

Here is a challenge. Who will be the first to bounce the signal off a satellite?

 

[Sim597]

Here is a challenge. Who will be the first to bounce the signal off a satellite?

And NOT get a knock on the door by the FCC, possibly the NSA and NASA, maybe even throw in the FAA for good measure? Lol

 

[IBV]

Update on the antennas I use:

for from inside the house: Two 120cm long 12dbi omni antennas (4W boosters near antenna and one golden Sunhans 3W for FC)

for car:
2 easy to install magnet foot 9dbi omni antennas directly connected to Sunhans 3W (both amps) This is used for quick missions and up to 2km. (could go longer)

2 IAPT Ceres- 20 from yagi.pl. Large (30x30 cm each) 20dbi directional antennas. First test revealed incredible penetration. Where the dbs02 itelite gets stuck these antennas are going far beyond. Feels very safe in conjested areas or behind forest.

1 dbs02 itelite mod. This increases the signal quite a bit but not as the big ones. Also the boosters seem to give more difference when using the big antennas. It seems more energy can be transfereed from the big ones.

2 parabolic magent foot antennas 20dbi (easy mount type) from yagi.pl
These antennas I couldnt test yet. Update will follow.

Here some pictures. Check out the size difference of the antennas on the last picture. In between the black magnet foot 9dbi omni antennas. I like them really. They do a great job and are so easy to handle in the field.

 

[IBV]

In case somebody wants to get over the trees or the neighbours house...
Here we go...


We're getting one for the roof with omni antennas and a smaller one for the van with pan/tilt unit and directional antennas+ omni antennas for close, quick and flexible missions.

 

[IBV]

Another antenna system I found seems to cover both close and long range... That's real stuff!
Integrated Tracking Antenna

 

[Sim597]

Check this out! My newest secret weapon man!
So these are made in USA, 1.0Watt equals 8W of Chinese knockoffs. Has TX of about 24dB and receive of 17dB so, it's awesome plus, they have .25W and .5W versions.
Here's where it's awesome, you put the main part by antenna, and the DC injector goes inside, brings power to the top thru the cable. Look at the size, and it's only 1W! This is the real deal, hope it works, they're expensive!

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[Sim597]

In case somebody wants to get over the trees or the neighbours house...
Here we go...
View attachment 58573 View attachment 58574 View attachment 58575 View attachment 58576 View attachment 58577

We're getting one for the roof with omni antennas and a smaller one for the van with pan/tilt unit and directional antennas+ omni antennas for close, quick and flexible missions.

Still, pardon the pun, but that's a tall order for 100' trees.
Ppl don't get it until they visit, true 90'-100' trees are impressive. Still, would love to be able to make my roof another 30' then lower when done.


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[IBV]

Check this out! My newest secret weapon man!
So these are made in USA, 1.0Watt equals 8W of Chinese knockoffs. Has TX of about 24dB and receive of 17dB so, it's awesome plus, they have .25W and .5W versions.
Here's where it's awesome, you put the main part by antenna, and the DC injector goes inside, brings power to the top thru the cable. Look at the size, and it's only 1W! This is the real deal, hope it works, they're expensive!

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They seem to have good amps.I only wondered why noise figure is mentioned with 4db?

I saw some discussion going on regarding omni-antennas for short to medium and directional for long range.
I'll get one of these splitters and will test them Lcom is a serious company. They also got amplifiers with seperate TX, RX LEd indicators up to 25W...
Splitter: 2-Way 2.4 GHz Signal Splitter N-Female Connector - SC2402N

Wifi amplifiers:
WiFi Booster - 2.4 GHz | WiFi Extender | L-com.com

..and if money wouldn't play any role:
GNS Wireless 2.4GHz Amplifiers, wireless network amplifiers, outdoor amplifiers, 5Ghz amplifiers, high power amplifiers, signal amplifiers

It seems some of these amps got real AGC (autmatic gain control) to compensate cable loss...

or manually tuning:
Frequency Range 2.4 - 2.485GHz

 

[Sim597]

This amp has real AGC but the issue most of us have is the RX side, this company has a $10,000 amp, if money is no object, but I'd say 25W would stomp on enough ppl unless in middle of nowhere to alert the FCC.
I'm not sure about the noise figure you posted, I know that indeed it sees more noise then without, but it still comes thru without noise in the video, until you lose transmission from bird.

I'll say with what I've got, I'm good until I eventually put a tiny amp on the bird, BSM, bird side mod look like if we can up it to 2W output, and vampire off the main battery, this would make the bird louder. It's that or lift the antenna up above all ground clutter.
For 1W this thing rocks, I'm gonna test my $19 4W and see how it compares to the $80 Sunhans next, it's about twice as heavy if not more, needs AC adapter, I think, well that's all it came with, I'm sure it's DC by time it gets to the booster


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[Sim597]

It list the Teletronic amp, 1W outdoor version, indoor had no injector, for $349, eBay guy has them for $149, I got mine for a steal at $80 shipped.
Once I moved it to the antenna like it's designed, the noise index improved dramatically.


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[Sim597]

I really like that splitter idea, maybe I can run a 15dB 60" in another area and will help "catch" the signal, Jeremiah should see this


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[Sim597]

Man!! I really like that splitter you found, sends power just like what me and J have, that could really help, how's the testing going?


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[IBV]

Man!! I really like that splitter you found, sends power just like what me and J have, that could really help, how's the testing going?


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Hi there,
I'll get one of these quality amps. Dont know yet if Lcom or yours. Testing started, but rain stopped it..
First results confirm that the Rx side of the amplifiers only kick in when there is a certain treshold reached. The P4 itself is too weak to trigger
the Rx amplification but if another signal lifts it over the treshold it will amplify the P4 as well. The signal itself came crossfed from the other antenna in my case. There is also a difference in regards of the treshold (trigger level) between the amps. The Sunhans golden 3W is more sensitive than the 4W silver. On Tx there are no issues.
I wonder what would happen if I reverse the amp for the HD downlink side? There shouldn't be any problem with termination but maybe it needs even more signal strength on the "to radio" connector than on the "to antenna" side.
The Sunhans golden series I tested and they seem to be within specs. Not a bad thing.
I will use the RF generator and a second RF meter to verify and put all into an Excel sheet for validation. This gonna take some days.. and I gotta drive into an even more remote place than where I live.
One thing is fun that my 20months old daughter likes when the drone is closer. She thinks long range is boring!

 

[IBV]

Hi there,
I made some detailed measurments today. Will continue tomorrow.
In the meantime an update on amplifiers.

Jeremiah (thread "flying from inside the house..." ) got his 1W Teletronics amplifier. It's an interesting one.
In course of the evaluation I also came across L-comand RFLINX (and some more for 1500$+)
The L-com got a 21db gain on receiver side Rx! (website displays wrong.- I got confirmation of their support) The RX starts to amp at ca -95dbm!
Noise figures are ca 1.5 dbm lower than the Teletronics but don't know how relevant this is. Another + point is that it got seperate LED indicators for Tx and Rx.
Here the link to the 2 L-com amps:
3 Watt 2.4 GHz WiFi Amplifiers w/ Active Power Control
The above got 21db gain (website wrong)

3 Watt 2.4 GHz 802.11b Indoor Amplifier - HA2401DX-XL3000

Another interesting is the RFlinx:
2400 LT Series: AGC Amplifiers (802.11b / 802.11g): RF Linx: Wireless LAN Amplifiers, Antennas, and Accessories: RF Linx

It got all of L-coms advantages + USB progammable via the DC injector.
It got a power meter included. Both amps got automatic gain control like the Teletronics. The RFlinx is adjustable.

So hope it helps some that wonder about amps...
And please note: I only relay the specs. Hope to test one of those soon..