Aerials

[BCooke]

I'm at the stage where I need to set up my (twin) aerials.
What I've done so far is to make up a triangular piece of lightply, two sides of which are at 90 degrees, glued two tubes on these sides and slid the aerials into these tubes. Then I've velcroed the triangle inside the (glass) fuselage, under the wing, one aerial pointing for and aft, the other pointing down.
Will that work ?
Or should the aerials be outside the fuselage, or pointing in other directions ?
I've noticed that no satellite aerials are available? One of our guys did some tests and reckons that three aerials in the three axis, x, y, and z are best, one preferably down on the fin post?
I'm told that 2.4 GHz requires 'line of sight' so that a motor or battery or lump of lead in between the Rx and TX will interrupt the signal?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

[ShowMaster]

If you plan to stay line of sight it looks good to me.
Your pretty much doing everything I have done for 2 years and have never lost link control.
The tubes your putting your antennas in and the fiberglass could attenuate the signal. Running parallel with your wiring is another and antenna separation another.
Breaking each down.
If the tubes and fiberglass doesn't have any ferrous (void of iron or metal) content they shouldn't attenuate the rf.

Since the antennas tx and rec can be affected or detuned, or blocked when running close parallel to other wiring.. You've solved that with your install.

Finally you have the super feature or real time RSSI readout and alarm option plus a range test mode before you fly.
It's been posted that any RSSI above 40 gives a solid link. Set your RSSI alarms for 45 and do a range test on the ground with your receiver antennas in open air and then in the mounting system you've made and compare the distance results.

I actually had a broken antenna and was flying with a RSSI of 18 and never lost link. I never had my alarms set at the time so I discovered it many flights later. I do use 45 as my lowest alarm now but the lowest at 1000 ft is 51 so I'm good.

[BCooke]

Many thanks.
I tested the RSSI in house. I got a reading of 83 with the Tx about 1 metre from the Rx which fell to 75 when I put my hand in the way. I'll set the alarm at 55 at first and see what happens.

Thanks again, it's appreciated.

Bill

[jhsa]

set the alarm to 45 as said before.. 55 is a bit too high and you will have a lot of single beeps