FPV Antenna question

[kilby]

I understand for the most part which antennas you choose for a particular purpose BUT...

In the case of circularly polarised it seems to have been the convention to pair a skew planar on the ground with a cloverleaf as the transmitter.

However it seems that skew planar at both ends is becoming the popular choice.

This stems from somebody stating on Facebook that you must use a cloverleaf (which I know not to be the case) and he also stated that the antennas shouldn';t have the same polarisation.

I';m not so interested in his statements as to whether the skew planar + cloverleaf was better, better only in theory or just tradition

[JT]

Just in myth lol. I believe the skew has a better radiation pattern than the clover(No expert though).   As for using different polarities I can tell you that they need to be the same, I have a set of gavs RH on my wing and a set of flyinghippys LH on my quad(or the other way around lol), last night I forgot to take the quad one off my goggles and got lots of breakup when flying the wing, I went to about 450m with the mismatched pair with lots of flickering and out to a km with the matched pair with good reception.

[kilby]

That';s what I suspected, the mixed 3 & 4 leaf setups all stem to be from a couple of years ago.

To me the improved pattern from a pair of skew planar made more sense, I think the 3 & 4 leaf combination may have come from a statement from IBCrazy when he was doing some testing

I knew the mismatched polarity was utter balls but couldn';t be arsed arguing with him

[bazzerh]

I';m using homemade cloverleafs on tx and rx and getting good results. They take less time to make and use approximately 25% less welding wire to build too. I';ve saved around 10p so far I think.

Main reason I build them is that I saw an ibcrazy comment that he thought duel clovers was very marginally the best combo for mini quads

[kilby]

I have inherited a set of Gav';s skews and they are pretty damned good

We did have a play one day comparing them against a pair and although neither went out of range (it was too far to walk)  Gav';s certainly suffered less breakup.

Of course to do the test properly it should be done with antennas from the same maker, as it may have been Gav';s build quality or using 4 leaves (or even both)

If I was making my own I think I would go for clovers as its less for me to mess up.

[bazzerh]

I have inherited a set of Gav';s skews and they are pretty damned good

We did have a play one day comparing them against a pair and although neither went out of range (it was too far to walk)  Gav';s certainly suffered less breakup.

Of course to do the test properly it should be done with antennas from the same maker, as it may have been Gav';s build quality or using 4 leaves (or even both)

If I was making my own I think I would go for clovers as its less for me to mess up.

i think build quality is going to surpass clover/skew planar mixes

[kilby]

Probably, but it would he nice to know

[bazzerh]

there is so much been written about the combos but I do think for DIY a pair of clovers is your best shot. the angles can be harder to eyeball i guess though compared to the cross pattern of a spw but i built a jig to give me a good 120deg every time.

I can';t find the ibcrazy comment regarding the cloverleaf pair but its definitely out there somewhere.

also be aware that the cl and spw need different length lobes so for a diyer its simpler to just cut all your lobes the same and stick to one type

[JT]

 Doesn';t IBcrazy now favour a 5 lobe version???? I would go for skews over cloverleaf, better radiation pattern over 3 lobed obviously means better signal??

Gav would be the one to ask, he knows a bit about antennas....

[bazzerh]

Doesn';t IBcrazy now favour a 5 lobe version???? I would go for skews over cloverleaf, better radiation pattern over 3 lobed obviously means better signal??

Gav would be the one to ask, he knows a bit about antennas....

he does but my gav spw bust on the first crash unfortunately so i didnt get much chance to test them. the clovers ive built seem to take more of a pounding, they get squashed and can be bent back a few times before they go in the bin. copious amounts of epoxy helps!

copied your kinder egg idea on the last few though and now they';re indestructable  ::)

[JT]

copied your kinder egg idea on the last few though and now they';re indestructable  ::)

Can';t take credit for it, it was flyinghippy who discovered them, 3d printed ABS ones work a treat too, I';ve not tried PLA yet but to test any type of plastic just give it a spin in the microwave, if it comes out warm it';s no good as it absorbs radio waves and if it';s cool, it';s errr cool 

[tupoar]

Can';t take credit for it, it was flyinghippy who discovered them, 3d printed ABS ones work a treat too, I';ve not tried PLA yet but to test any type of plastic just give it a spin in the microwave, if it comes out warm it';s no good as it absorbs radio waves and if it';s cool, it';s errr cool 

Can you PM me a link please??

[JT]

will do