10mW altitude?

[Doofer 0]

Hi there.

I've been trying various things (shortening Rx cable runs, changing Tx aerial position & angle etc.) to improve working range at 10mW 2.4GHz.

I wonder if people could help me survey 'typical' 10mW 2.4GHz transmitter performance with respect to usable maximum altitude?

Okay, anyone with a one-off record, I'd love to hear that too, but I'm thinking more of the height you tend not to go above because your experience suggests things get too unreliable.

Please include any aerial information you have (e.g. "Tx - standard whip, Rx - 8dB patch"), and anything else you think relevant (e.g. above a flat plain 1000 miles from civilisation, in a natural geological bowl that resonates at 2.4GHz, using directional oxygen-free copper cable, wearing my lucky socks etc. Who knows? ).

Remember, please distinguish between your personal altitude record, and the height you'd usually consider a safe maximum generally.

To kick off:

Usual: 600ft

(Record: 820ft)

- Standard 10mW 'stamp-sized' Tx with wire whip aerial, 2x8dB patch feeding RC-Tech Rxs, Oracle diversity.

- Tx on the nose of MPX Easy Star, whip pointing up. Patches on 1.5m tripod pointing upwards-ish.

- Rolling farmland, with about 3 mobile phone towers in line of sight, nearest 300m away, housing estate about 500m away.

[Sibster 0]

Hi Doofer,

my personal record was ~300m but I wasn't pushing and there is plenty of meters left to go, for sure.

A friend of mine has shown me a video of his recent flights, and it shows a Dragon OSD with a height of 1.2km.

We both use this system:

http://www.immersionsflug.de/index.php?a=84

2 x 8dBi Patch from Hyperlinktech and Oracle diversity on the RX side. One antenna pointed to the sky directly and one

parallel to the ground.

hope this helps.

regards,

Sibi

[Kilrah 2]

I'm not really into high altitude flying, so if I told you my "usual" flying height it would probably be 200-300m, but more because of interest than because of gear

With the gear 500m is no problem, 800m would be max comfortable I'd say.

RC-Tech TX and single RX with 8dB, clean environment.