Sheepish

Hi David My go to for anything like this is Mike Shellim on RC-soar. if you haven’t taken a look at his site it’s well worth it.

I did read sometime ago about the radiation pattern from a straight whip type aerial and understood that they project a donut shaped pattern of RF. From this information it stated that using the aerial tilted to around 45deg should give the best compromise of signal strength and projection. RF signal interpretation does seem a little like witchcraft but this could well be because I don’t know enough. I appreciate there is no such thing as a free lunch but if I use a more directional and higher gain antenna (Moxon, Loop…?) can I use their RF projection pattern, whatever this is, to my advantage and will it be detrimental if I connect this type of antenna to the internal RF module in my TX16? I also believe that the environment I am flying in is “noisy” according to the comments from a professional drone company that shares our site and this could also be impacting on the quantity of telemetry lost and RSSI critical warnings I get using the ACCST protocol. Am I the Guinea pig here and need to just have a try and see what happens?

Thank you for the input so far. I understand about the directionality? Of the higher gain antenna but this could also be an advantage perhaps. If I am flying in front and above me and always facing the model as I have to to fly in my line of sight then an antenna that projects the maximum signal where I am looking directly at my aircraft should be an advantage or am I missing the point? I am not an electronics expert and would welcome any input from someone that knows about what I am rambling about. I guess the other question is if I attach a Moxon or similar 2.4ghz ELRS type antenna to my TX16 will I do any damage to the internal RF module?

I have a Radiomaster TX16S mk1 TX that I have had almost since they were launched. In true boy racer style I have upgraded the stick units to the latest type and also added a carbon effect front, very bling! The most recent mod was to add the removable antenna to make the TX easier to pack for transport and I wondered if there was any benefit in trying a higher gain antenna on the normal internal multi protocol module? Radiomaster sell a Moxon type (attached) which is intended for ELRS protocol use and I wondered if this, or indeed any other higher gain antenna type, would be of benefit to the range on the normal internal multi protocol module my TX has? There was some debate here recently on range issues with the Radiomaster and Frsky receivers with the internal Tx module and the usual tuning issues were discussed but I also wondered if the TX antenna would have made a difference? I have taken a look on the internet but find nothing of direct interest other than about the ELRS protocol BVLOS flying. I have to confess that I do have an ELRS module I use in this TX and have experimented with different antenna for this and even using them in normal VLOS flying, which is all I do, there does seem to be a benefit to signal strength using a more directional and higher gain antenna. The use of the ELRS protocol has reduced the telemetry lost and RSSI warnings I get to zero for all the flying I have done so far but I wonder, would the higher gain type antenna work on a more “normal” TX and has anyone else tried this?

I have used Koto veneer from here with success: https://www.thewoodveneerhub.co.uk/collections/decorative-wood-veneer/products/koto-wood-veneer

Hi Jake Thats really interesting for me about your experiences with ELRS and Graham’s experiences with poor range on R88 rx’s are also familiar. I too have been less than impressed with the range of some V1 R88 Radiomaster receivers I have especially when I have tried them in gliders which I tend to fly further away. Moving antennae in the models and tuning the tx output seemed to make very little difference in the end. I have a Betaflight ELRS module that I have spent some time updating firmware on and have a Betaflight Micro 5 channel rx, a Betaflight Super P 14 channel rx and a Radiomaster ER8G 8 channel rx to try. There is some interesting information on Mike Shellim’s RC soaring site about setting up ELRS receivers and Oscar Liang seems to show useful stuff too. What has been your experience with setting up your rx’s Jake? And Did you get to grips with the channel 5 issue without too many issues?