Cheap 5.8GHz Antennas Worth It?

[mmeyer]

Are either of these two antennas worth buying? I am hopefully buying some FPV gear soon and know how shocking the stock whip antennas are. I know either of these should increase range but are they worth it? If it is worth it, would one of them be better?
Antenna #1
Antenna #2
Antenna #3

 

[jhitesma]

I just got a set of the ones from ebay with the white housing on them...haven't fully tested them but so far they seem to work fine. I hope to have time to do a full range test on them this coming weekend.

I've also got a set of the HK ones but the direct mount ones without the lead on them and they've worked fine but are easily damaged since they're completely unprotected - and with no lead on them they're probably not quite as efficient being that close to the TX.

With the HK set I've flown my quad over .5k with no video breakup at all on a 200mw TX. Ground testing I didn't get quite that much range but there were a lot of trees and obstructions in the way. With the "stock" antennas I wasn't able to get half that range without breakups.

I don't plan to fly the quad or the 5.8ghz setup much further than that so for my needs the cheapies have been fine.

 

[mmeyer]

What FPV Tx Rx set are you using? Is it the cheap Boscam 200mw one? If so did you have to get a SMA to RP-SMA adapter or was it already the right connector?

 

[Andre]

5.8 are so easy to build.

- After looking at the links... Yeah why waste an hour.

 

[mmeyer]

My thoughts too, wont save that much by building my own and its probably not going to be as good as even the cheapest off ebay.

 

[jhitesma]

Yeah, just the Boscam setup, and I made sure to order antennas with RP-SMA so I didn't need connectors.

I felt exactly the same way, I've built lots of antennas for HF VHF and UHF before but the higher the frequency the harder time I have getting the accuracy required to pull them off successfully. At <$15 I just couldn't justify fiddling with Ghz sized antennas myself. I've love to have a set of iBcrazy's to compare with...but just can't justify the cost for my meager needs.

 

[RC-Flyer63]

I am using two sets of the HobbyKing ones and although I have only been out about 1/2 mile they are working great IMHO. The only problem I can see with them is they are left hand polarized and that presents a problem using them with other antennas available here in the US. But for the money I had to give them a try.

 

[KJ4CCH]

Witespy offers a cheap nine dollar 5.8 ghz antenna. I dont know how well they work. They are advertised to less than 1.5 SWR...which is fine. I dont know if it is true or not but eh. its nine dollars. I have seen the cheap ebay ones, and people have had success with them. Id go for it.

here is the link: http://witespyquad.gostorego.com/fpv-gear/5-8ghz-circular-polarized-antenna-rp-sma-with-sma-option.html

 

[adamd]

I have the white top ebay ones as well and I find they work great! Like mentioned above I would love to test them against ibcrazys