Which Circular Polarized Antenna is best?

Avidphoto · Jan 14, 2014

I've seen prices on Ebay from $12 to $150. How can you tell the difference from a good antenna to a bad one? I'm ready to make the purchase. They all look good to me. I have the Fatshark Attidudes for my Phantom 2.

djiatl · Jan 14, 2014

All of these are pretty great.

http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=11_45_49_97

(no affiliation btw, just have been reading way too much on the subject lately)

djiatl · Jan 14, 2014

oh and make sure the tx and rx antenna are both either rhcp or lhcp.

I personally like the Circular Wireless or 5.8 GHz Airscrew Cloverleaf Ultra Antenna (RHCP) IBCrazy

Avidphoto · Jan 14, 2014

djiatl said:
oh and make sure the tx and rx antenna are both either rhcp or lhcp.

I personally like the Circular Wireless or 5.8 GHz Airscrew Cloverleaf Ultra Antenna (RHCP) IBCrazy

What make those stand out to you?

djiatl · Jan 14, 2014

Alex Greve (IBCrazy) is a highly respected innovator in the field.

Here is his website: http://videoaerialsystems.com

See here as well: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1388264

Pretty much sets the standard..

Avidphoto · Jan 15, 2014

djiatl said:
Alex Greve (IBCrazy) is a highly respected innovator in the field.

Here is his website: http://videoaerialsystems.com

See here as well: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1388264

Pretty much sets the standard..

Thanks for the info!! You altered my thoughts. I appreciate it.

djiatl · Jan 15, 2014

Happy to help. I've spent waaayyyy too much time learning and researching over the past few months for my own use. May as well pass on some of what I picked up! :mrgreen:

wkf94025 · Jan 20, 2014

AvidPhoto,

Please advise as to how that works out. I am in same boat: P2 with Fatshark Attitude and looking to improve video range.

Kelly

castlemaster · Jan 20, 2014

Which antenna would you recommend from that site for 5.8Ghz vtx/rx? There's so much choice on that website!

thanks

skeeter · Feb 20, 2014

Does anyone know if the stock DJI AVL58 Tx antenna is RHCP or LHCP? Or??

I ask because I have a Lilliput 664 that has a female Rx antenna port and the DJI AVL Rx antenna is female also. I'd like to avoid an adapter if at all possible...

..

ianwood · Feb 20, 2014

skeeter said:
Does anyone know if the stock DJI AVL58 Tx antenna is RHCP or LHCP? Or??

I ask because I have a Lilliput 664 that has a female Rx antenna port and the DJI AVL Rx antenna is female also. I'd like to avoid an adapter if at all possible...

..

You may be mixing up right and left hand circular polarization (RHCP and LHCP) with SMA and RP-SMA which are the connectors. The Lilliput is SMA. I don't know about the AVL58.

For the rest of you, when I bought my set up I looked at the expensive antennas and thought "meh, it's just a piece of curled up wire" and bought myself a cheap set of eBay cloverleafs (http://www.ebay.com/itm/141120723324). Now, I'm wondering "maybe some wire is curled up better than others" and considering paying IBCrazy prices for a better piece of wire.

Who has upgraded to premium antennas from the not so premium cloverleaf antennas and was there a worthwhile difference? And which of the myriad IBCrazy ones should one consider?

Almmohd · Feb 20, 2014

ianwood said:
You may be mixing up right and left hand circular polarization (RHCP and LHCP) with SMA and RP-SMA which are the connectors. The Lilliput is SMA. I don't know about the AVL58.

For the rest of you, when I bought my set up I looked at the expensive antennas and thought "meh, it's just a piece of curled up wire" and bought myself a cheap set of eBay cloverleafs (http://www.ebay.com/itm/141120723324). Now, I'm wondering "maybe some wire is curled up better than others" and considering paying IBCrazy prices for a better piece of wire.

Who has upgraded to premium antennas from the not so premium cloverleaf antennas and was there a worthwhile difference? And which of the myriad IBCrazy ones should one consider?

hmm... I was just wondering if the curled up wire you get with the DJI AVL58 5.8 GHz Video Link Kit would need upgrading

C-Mac13 · Feb 20, 2014

ianwood said:
skeeter said:

Does anyone know if the stock DJI AVL58 Tx antenna is RHCP or LHCP? Or??

I ask because I have a Lilliput 664 that has a female Rx antenna port and the DJI AVL Rx antenna is female also. I'd like to avoid an adapter if at all possible...

..

Click to expand...

You may be mixing up right and left hand circular polarization (RHCP and LHCP) with SMA and RP-SMA which are the connectors. The Lilliput is SMA. I don't know about the AVL58.

The AVL58 is RP-SMA.

SCADAMON · Feb 20, 2014

http://youtu.be/mt1S3ckeVWA
DJI AVL58 are(LHCP)

skeeter · Feb 20, 2014

I remember, long ago and far away, when signal flow followed the sex of the connector, ie., male connectors were the source, and female the input. Why, oh, why, did they decide to associate polarization with a connector. (perhaps they didn't and I've just mis-understood something..) Connectors don't know from RF polarization....(if RF theory from, uh, a few years back serves me)...Could they not just label the antennae with they type of polarization they are designed to emit/receive and Tx or Rx ?

So, I'm going to try a Fat Shark Tx/Rx antenna system on a DJI AVL58/Lilliput combo and see if it, um, flies...stay tuned...so to speak...

And, for thems like me that got a bit confused by this "Polarization" naming convention stuff, here is a quick read that kinda 'splains it...

https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/140

Avidphoto · Feb 21, 2014

Kelly,

I hope the two photos loaded up. These are the antennae so got off eBay. I get 1/2 a mile if it's line of site. I get roughly 100 yds. if it isn't. I've flown from inside my house 100yds. I connected the fatsharks to my Samsung tv for my wife to see FPV. She loved it.

wkf94025 said:
AvidPhoto,

Please advise as to how that works out. I am in same boat: P2 with Fatshark Attitude and looking to improve video range.

Kelly

goldfishrock · Feb 21, 2014

A lot of the cheaper antennae you see on ebay aren't particularly good as they haven't been manufacturered to the tight tollerences that they need to be for optimum performance. In my opinion it's better to shell out a little extra to get a quality antenna that you know has been made properly.

You can't go far wrong with IBCrazy antennae (Blubeam, Skew Planar Wheel) for the P2 and for the receiver the IBCrazy Helicals are brilliant (maybe with a Spironet Patch if you are running a diversity receiver?).

There are plenty to choose from here (i'm presuming you're US based?)
http://www.readymaderc.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_45_49_97&products_id=822

Tmesis · Feb 21, 2014

goldfishrock said:
A lot of the cheaper antennae you see on ebay aren't particularly good as they haven't been manufacturered to the tight tollerences that they need to be for optimum performance. In my opinion it's better to shell out a little extra to get a quality antenna that you know has been made properly.

Have you compared the two or are you just guessing that you get what you pay for? I'm wondering how you know that the tolerances are out on a lot of them unless of course you have measured a lot of them.

I'm running on eBay specials and have achieved 1.1 miles LOS. Cloverleaf tx, SP on Rx.

So either I got lucky or there are some good ones out there.

goldfishrock · Feb 21, 2014

Tmesis said:
Have you compared the two or are you just guessing that you get what you pay for?

I've got a box full of cheap ebay specials stuffed in a cupboard and good quality kit fitted to my P2. I got suspicious because of differing (mostly under) performance and started to dismantle some of the cheap ones to examine the build of them. Measure the wire lengths with accurate calipers and you'll find most of the cheap ones are out by mm...... which makes a big difference with these things. If you examine an IBCrazy or Terry Build antennae you'll find they are mm perfect and using good quality components. There is a reason cheap antennae are cheap...... You get what you pay for in general.

If you've got a good one then that's great however my statement was to highlight that for the majority, this won't be the case.

ianwood · Feb 21, 2014

So I get that being a mm off can be a big difference in performance but I am wondering if anyone has any real world empirical data or like for like comparisons.

I guess I am "hung up" on the relative simplicity of it just being a bent up wire hanger from the dry cleaners. I remember, when I used to spend a lot on stereo gear, the amount of money people would spend needlessly on "premium" speaker cables that were "precision engineered to exacting tolerances". Some costing $50/ft. And when you A/B tested these premium cables with some high quality but pragmatic cable, not a single "aficionado" could discern any audible difference.