Lost Orangerx Module Antenna

[xMeox]

Spare Orangerx Module Antenna - does a 3db antenna works (insead of the 2db antenna)

Hi there,
yesterday I managed to lose the antenna of my orangerx modul. Are there any replacement antennas from hobbyking that would work on this module? (I found frysky module antennas, but not for orangerx: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/RC_PRODUCT_SEARCH.asp?strSearch=modul+antenna) though im not sure if one of those would work with the orangerx modul and the 9xr...
best regards,
xMeox

 

[xMeox]

Update: The antenna I need is a SMA 2.4GHz 2db antenna. The problem now: I only get a 3db version (without paying 20$ for shipping).

Does such an antenna work too or not?

 

[xMeox]

update: according to a friend of mine it should work. Ill buy one, do some range tests and update this thread then.

 

[TheWW1FlyingAce]

2dB vs 3dB is what's known as the "gain" of the antenna. An antenna doesn't radiate equally in all directions - more energy is radiated out the side of the antenna than out the end. Think of one of those bagels that's so thick that the hole is closed up. Now stick a skewer through where the hole should be. The skewer is your antenna, and the bagel is the radiation pattern. The more bagel between the skewer and the model, the stronger the signal. As you can see, there's almost no signal in the direction the skewer (antenna) points, but there's a lot of signal coming off the side of the skewer.

The gain is how fat the bagel is. If the bagel is very fat, the gain is low (2dB) and it makes little difference what the orientation of the antenna is to your model (as long as you aren't pointing the tip of the antenna straight at the model.) As gain increases the bagel gets flatter and flatter (and the diameter increases) until at high gains (15dB) you have a pancake instead of a bagel - almost all the signal is radiated perpendicular to the antenna. If the model is in that "sweet spot" the range is greatly improved over the fat bagel, but if the model is not in the sweet spot range is extremely shortened.

The difference between 2dB and 3dB is probably not big enough to worry about. Just remember to keep the side of the antenna pointing at your model - never point the tip of the antenna straight at the model.

 

[xMeox]

thank you for this delicious explanation