fwilson

I know everyone is trying to shorten antennas, but I wondered about the other way. Is there any advantage or problem with making the antenna longer on a 2.4 GHz receiver? Would it help or hurt if it was 12 or 15 inches long?

I wonder because I have one with a cut off antenna and I don't know how long it should be.

Fred

getterflash

What brand of RX? I have played with Airtronics 2.4 RX's and found the internal antenna wire connectors are the same as the ones used on laptop mini-pci wireless cards. The antennas from scrapped laptops offer up a source of coaxial wire with the connector attached. For Airtronics receivers, only the last 1-3/13" of bare wire is the actual antenna, the rest is shielded coax. I don't think the length of the caox up to the point where the center conductor is exposed to form the antenna is critical, but make sure thoroughly range check if you repair it yourself.

jdetray

An R/C receiver is designed to work best with an antenna of one specific length. The antenna is tuned to a specific frequency, and this is largely determined by the length of the antenna. If you make the antenna longer or shorter than the correct length, it will not work as well, and range will most likely be reduced.

So if you randomly lengthen the antenna, you are de-tuning it, and it will probably decrease performance.

- Jeff