Antennas
The antennas are a key component for any radio link solution and the same for radio waves are applicable here. The right combination depends on the objectives, like short-range (all-around flight) or long-range flight for more advanced pilots. A good starting point is the default antennas for the wifi cards at the workbench (omnidirectional), once you get confident with the system during a line of sight and short flights, you can move with directional antennas.
As nothing is free, changing your antennas is a trade-off, while omnidirectional antennas give you autonomy to fly around your position, these antennas offer limited range, on the other side directional antennas concentrate the radiated pattern and allow a long-range at the cost of the need of pointing the antennas precisely, in other words, more antenna gains more directional. For the high directive antenna, add components like trackers are recommended to keep always pointing the main antenna pattern lobule to the aircraft.
5 TIPs for Antennas
Make sure you have proper wiring and you have followed all previous sections, wrong connections can lower your range or destroy your radio link.
Start simple using Omni antennas, and move with directional ones as you get more experience.
Make sure you use the same polarization on both sides, Vertical/Vertical, Horizontal/Horizontal. The cross-polarization can work but you will lose 3dB (half of the power).
Lower bands like 2.4GHz can benefit the range, however, in some areas, this band is highly polluted and you may consider 5.8GHz. Try changing also the channels in the selected band.
When using directional antennas (meant for ground side), always aligned with the airside, consider using ATT (automatic antenna tracker). Omnidirectional antennas are always recommended in the Airside.
The below link explains how the video quality is impacted under different scenarios. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T78JRAELjec
Antenna Hardware
| Brand | Antenna | Polarization | Frequency GHz | Link * |
|---|---|---|---|---|
DYI | PCB Maple | Omni Vertical | 5.2-5.3 | |
Maple | Flat Panel FY-05A | Directional Vertical | 5.8 | |
Maple | Planar Antenna | Directional Vertical | 5.8 | |
Interline | Panel | Directional Vertical | 5.8 | |
uuustore | Flat Panel Antenna | Directional Vertical | 5.8 | |
Aomway | Biquad | Directional Vertical | 5.8 | |
DYI | Biquad Yagi Antenna | Directional | 2.4 | |
DYI | PCB patch array | Directional | 2.4 / 5.8 |
*Links are only for reference purposes. It will be added more as users report, check the connector type in order to make sure it will fit to your wifi card.
Range Calculation
A typical question is related to the maximum range, link budget or system range have relation to three main elements: Transmitter power, Antenna gains, and Receiver sensitivity. The next formula can be used to calculate this:
R_km = 10 ^ ( ( RF_HW - LM - 32.44 - 20*log10(f_MHz) ) / 20 )
RF_HW = P_TX + G_TX + G_RX - S_RX
where:
R_km is the transmission range in km f_MHz is the frequency in MHz LM is the desired system Link Margin in dB 32.44 is the Friis constant for solving with units of km and MHz above RF_HW represents the RF Hardware (Radio / Antenna) parameters in dB P_TX is the Tx power in dBm G_TX is the Tx antenna gain in dBi G_RX is the Rx antenna gain in dBi S_RX is the Rx Sensitivity in dBm
| Ground Side antenna / Gain | Air Side antenna / Gain | Frequency GHz | Power TX mW | Theoretical range Km * | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Maple 5dB Omni / 5dBi | Maple 5dBi Omni / 5dBi | 5.2GHz | 200 | 2.9 | Excellent upgrade for default antennas |
Flat Panel Direct / 14dBi | Maple 5dBi / 5dBi | 5.2GHz | 200 | 8.2 | Directional antenna with ATT |
Planar Direct / 17dBi | Omni / 5dBi | 5.8GHz | 500 | 16.37 | Directional antenna high range ATT |
*Network card receiving sensitivity approx. -93dBm. Link margin assumed 10 dB
To understand the impact in range against the transmitter power, the below logarithmic graph shows some calculations using different antenna sets:
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