Combining FPVLR cloverleaf and helical?

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Hey Guys, on March 12, I had an unrecoverable crash in the swamp and lost my Phantom 1.1.1 and all the FPV gear (sig). I have my replacement bird now and am slowly configuring my new FPV gear and have a question about antennas. In short, do cloverleafs ALWAYS have to be "paired" with another cloverleaf? I know the direction of turn on the lobes have to match.

The reason I'm asking is because I have a Black Pearl Diversity 32ch receiver/monitor and I already have a high gain panel antenna, which I know is directional. I really don't want to do away with that antenna, but would like to know if I can put an RHCP cloverleaf on the vTx of the bird and match it with an RHCP 4.25 turn helical on the BP with the panel. I know both the helical and the panel are both directional, but don't have a problem with that.

So what do you think? If I have a cloverleaf on the bird, is my panel antenna doomed? The helical is a must have, so it's not in question. I've read enough on these forums to know that, even though there are exceptions, you usually get what you pay for, so FPVLR is going to be the solution.

Thanks in advance for any information or advice you might be able to offer...
 
cloverleaf on the remote

Hey landmannnn, by "remote" do you mean receiver? I know two directionals isn't optimal, but I really want the helical and would rather not lose the panel, due to its high gain. Is it doable?
 
Sorry, a bit sloppy with my terminology, receiver. A couple of points, your receiver will be able to receive from either antenna, but not both at the same time, it will flip to the panel or the helical depending which has the better signal. Without the cloverleaf on the receiver you will need to perform some gymnastics if the phantom is overhead or behind you, less of an issue at any distance.
Yes it is doable.
 
That's OK man, er, ...I mean mannnn :D. Happens to me all the time, especially now that I'm in my sixties. Thanks for clearing that up that it is doable and just some hairbrained scheme. I rarely if ever, fly directly above or behind, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

Do you have any experience with FPVLR helicals? In the picture of the product on their website, the antenna base seems to have a 4" to 6" length of coax attached to it. Shouldn't the base be fixed directly to the BP antenna connection? Here's a pic of the unit...

425new-350x350.jpg

Thanks for your time...
 
Can anyone answer this question about the base of the helical attaching directly to the BP?
 
I use that same helical myself.
It attaches to your receiver and is slightly flexible, so you can bend it to point straight out behind the receiver, and then you just have to keep your receiver up and facing the direction of the quad.

However, It gets clumsy having to keep the whole thing aimed at the quad once the quad is in close to you, so I have either the matched clover leaf, or I do matched Spironets (one on bird one on receiver) or I do matched Blue-Beams depending on my mood at the time, and those seem to give me quite good signal without me having to pirouette around like a ballet dancer when I'm flying near to myself.

Personally I'd go either the panel or the helical, but not both, only one is going to be working at any given moment anyway, so you may as well use one or the other, and something a little better for close quarters as the second antenna.
 
I use that same helical myself.
It attaches to your receiver and is slightly flexible, so you can bend it to point straight out behind the receiver, and then you just have to keep your receiver up and facing the direction of the quad.

However, It gets clumsy having to keep the whole thing aimed at the quad once the quad is in close to you, so I have either the matched clover leaf, or I do matched Spironets (one on bird one on receiver) or I do matched Blue-Beams depending on my mood at the time, and those seem to give me quite good signal without me having to pirouette around like a ballet dancer when I'm flying near to myself.

Personally I'd go either the panel or the helical, but not both, only one is going to be working at any given moment anyway, so you may as well use one or the other, and something a little better for close quarters as the second antenna.
Thanks for that ,I misunderstood what he was asking :oops:
 
so I have either the matched clover leaf, or I do matched Spironets (one on bird one on receiver) or I do matched Blue-Beams

Ezookiel, I think the matched Blue Beams will finally win out, and I'll try the panel with them and hold off on the helical until I see how that combo works. Thanks for the advice...
 
No problem. That's taken to be my favourite combo, simply because the BlueBeams have plastic shielding, so I'm more confident I haven't had a loop on one of the others get knocked, bent, moved, or otherwise screwed with.
The one on the bird is marked "Air Screw" and the one on the receiver is Marked "Mad Mushroom"
So far I've had faultless signal out beyond 800m with it, including through some small amount of trees, but I think my record of 1 mile was set with one of the Skew Planar, or Cloverleaf, or whatever the ones with the 4 wire loops on top are called, that I got from FPVLR, and strangely, I think that day I had a Spironet alongside the Helical on the receiver.
 

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