Windsurfer booster video

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I made the windsurfer booster antenna and it doubled my distance!

You'll see that at about 4500 feet I started to lose signal but when I added the antenna I gained an additional 4200 feet and probably could have gone further but I came across some houses and didn't want to fly over them.

Here's the link:
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EDIT: Didn't realize the forum web site would automatically imbed my video. :)
 
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Did you maintain FPV for the additional distance? I would suspect you did as you looked around at the area where the houses were. Show pictures of the antenna if you don't mind.
 

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Do you make just 1 of these to place over both antennas or 1 for each?
Actually doesn't look like there's room for 2.
 
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Nevermind just poked at the photo. It's 2 of them. One for each..
Seems like a wide spread on the antennas. Usually they are shown not so far apart. Would that matter as long as facing outward?
 
I am not the expert on these but from what I understand it's best to have them spread apart and of course these are omni-directional so you must point your rc at your drone for best result.

You are correct. You make 2 of them. I put it off for a week but after I did the first one I thought it was really easy to do. Will only take you 10 minutes. The 2nd one, I did let the glue dry before assembling and I think that is best.

Also, on my first attempt I didn't have the foil part facing the drone (had them facing me) That is NOT CORRECT. The foil must face the drone. Good Luck!
 
Cool & Thanks! I am going to try it. I did wonder about the foil on the wrong side. Seems to me that foil facing the P3 would be best....
 
I just made the antennae boosters out of folder stock and aluminium foil. With a good line of site and open terrain (corn fields), I flew the bird 10,000 feet away without any hiccup in connection (alt ranging 200-393 feet). Now, we could have flown farther, however we took off and traveled with the wind on the leg out, and logged a top speed of 40 mph. At 73% I pressed RTH (didn't have visual but had good map and camera view). Returned home with 43% with a 10-12 mph head wind at cruising speed of 20 mph.

The boosters are dorky looking... but they perform, it was well worth my time and the $1.50 in materials.
 
I just made the antennae boosters out of folder stock and aluminium foil. With a good line of site and open terrain (corn fields), I flew the bird 10,000 feet away without any hiccup in connection (alt ranging 200-393 feet). Now, we could have flown farther, however we took off and traveled with the wind on the leg out, and logged a top speed of 40 mph. At 73% I pressed RTH (didn't have visual but had good map and camera view). Returned home with 43% with a 10-12 mph head wind at cruising speed of 20 mph.

The boosters are dorky looking... but they perform, it was well worth my time and the $1.50 in materials.
Yep, that's all there is to it. My results were about the same.
 
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ok i just built one. maybe got a few hundred extra feet but not much. my issue is trees and houses and what i saw someone else post is that reflectors give range in open spaces and booster amps give range through trees. i guess that makes total sense. how far i can go seems directly proportional to how high i fly. if i could get my existing antenna 40-50' in the air i think i could go for miles.
 
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ok i just built one. maybe got a few hundred extra feet but not much. my issue is trees and houses and what i saw someone else post is that reflectors give range in open spaces and booster amps give range through trees. i guess that makes total sense. how far i can go seems directly proportional to how high i fly. if i could get my existing antenna 40-50' in the air i think i could go for miles.


That's my problem, too. Where I live is very forested and it's hard to get LOS for longer flights. Road trip out west this fall should remedy that!
 
if you build one of these i highly recommend you use the excess tinfoil to fashion a hat as i did. my wife really appreciated the entire package of me with my remote controller complete with tin foil reflectors wearing my brain protector ready to go out in the yard and wait on the aliens to land...

in the end the exercise was not a loss.

greg
 
How did you render the text/flight data into the video?

There's instructions in this forum. You extract the flight recorder info from the bird, then I use Dashware to combine the video and flight info. Then use Windows Movie Maker to splice video and add the audio which renders the final product. Here's another video I did out over a local lake:

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