Recently acquired my P3P which is the newest version, the bird is the W323B with the GL300C remote. Both are claimed to have crippled power outputs compared to the earlier versions with a reduction in range. So Little by little I have been testing out what my quad is capable of. So far I have yet to hit the limit. I will be updating this thread as I do more testing. Everything is completely stock.
Test #1 - Max distance 5,179 ft @ 110ft Alt - Full Signal
Test #2 - Max distance 9,061 ft @ 150ft Alt - Full Signal
Test #3 - Max distance 11,258 ft @ 200ft Alt - Full Signal
Test #4 - Max distance 12,544 ft @ 200ft Alt - Full Signal
Could have stayed at 110 ft easy the whole way but I had to go up high to avoid some big towers for high voltage lines.Dropped down to 60ft Alt around 10K feet as a test and I only dropped one bar on the video link. Still had near perfect signal and video. That really shocked me. Test site was a canal bank that goes on for miles. I had clear LOS to the phantom. I feel I could have gone a lot further than 12.5K feet but I am still new to this and was kind of nervous to take it any further. Came back with plenty of battery left. Maybe next time I will try for 3 miles and call it quits/good enough.
I have a DBS mods itelite panel but I have yet to install it. Maybe I don't need to. Then again I tried flying from my yard which has a stand of trees near me. Can't get more than 2500ft out without losing signal even at 400ft. Seems that even a few trees really causes an issue. Maybe the DBS mods panel will have better penetration thus making it worth it?
Hope this helps to shed some light on the controversy of the reduced range on the newer P3P's. Mine does not seem to suffer this issue. On a side note, I purposely flew into the wind coming out of the north so I would have a tailwind on the way back. Boy was that fun riding the wind at 50mph.
Test #1 - Max distance 5,179 ft @ 110ft Alt - Full Signal
Test #2 - Max distance 9,061 ft @ 150ft Alt - Full Signal
Test #3 - Max distance 11,258 ft @ 200ft Alt - Full Signal
Test #4 - Max distance 12,544 ft @ 200ft Alt - Full Signal
Could have stayed at 110 ft easy the whole way but I had to go up high to avoid some big towers for high voltage lines.Dropped down to 60ft Alt around 10K feet as a test and I only dropped one bar on the video link. Still had near perfect signal and video. That really shocked me. Test site was a canal bank that goes on for miles. I had clear LOS to the phantom. I feel I could have gone a lot further than 12.5K feet but I am still new to this and was kind of nervous to take it any further. Came back with plenty of battery left. Maybe next time I will try for 3 miles and call it quits/good enough.
I have a DBS mods itelite panel but I have yet to install it. Maybe I don't need to. Then again I tried flying from my yard which has a stand of trees near me. Can't get more than 2500ft out without losing signal even at 400ft. Seems that even a few trees really causes an issue. Maybe the DBS mods panel will have better penetration thus making it worth it?
Hope this helps to shed some light on the controversy of the reduced range on the newer P3P's. Mine does not seem to suffer this issue. On a side note, I purposely flew into the wind coming out of the north so I would have a tailwind on the way back. Boy was that fun riding the wind at 50mph.
