Rodney

RFW1953, sorry if I ruffled your feathers, its just that often statements are paraphrased and not literal quotes, I did not mean to offend you. Dirty Birds comments are right on, the people you talked to do not know very much about RF or antennae when they make statements as you quoted. I've worked in RF, instrumentation and electrical engineering for some 40 plus years and can guarantee that without the most sophisticated equipment and an anachoic chamber you would not be able to see the difference in the receivers ability to detect the signal if you vary the length of the standard antenna an inch or two. A good solder joint will be as good as the original antenna if one decides to splice a broken antenna rather than replace it.

dirtybird

My Feedback: (5)

Yes.

rfw1953

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks! . I probably overacted and you were just trying to make a point based on years of experience in the field. Well taken and no harm done.

It might help us all get better info on this subject from Hobby Services if a person with your experience talked with one of the managers in the department to help them understand this subject a little better. I certaily can't hurt. It's so frustrtating when the people that are supposed to know really don't......... I still have nothing more than your word for it Vs. the word of Hobby Services. This puts everyone is a real dilemma .

Sport_Pilot

Thats not what exponentially means. Exponentially means that a small amount will hardly make any differance, each cut of the same length will affect the range much more than the last, but it may still take a considerable length to significantly affect range.

rfw1953

My Feedback: (2)

Arrgh! I think we are splitting hairs and saying the same thing,but maybe not.

For arguments sake only, what the tech was trying to explain to me was that the amount of wire cut does not have an equal proportional effect on the range of the Rx. So for examples sake only, if you cut 10% of the wire you may reduce the Rx range by 20%. If you cut the wire by 30% you may impact the range by 50% and so on.

These numbers have nothing to do with actual results and are only used to clarify the use of the word, exponential. Regardless, I believe I have been clear enough to represent what the tech implied.

N1903Z

Well, here's my $.02 on this. What I discovered with my Ohm meter is that on all my different brand of RX's, there are zero Ohms (100% continuity) between the negative (-) terminal of the battery and the antenna. Therefore (and verified by measurement), all ground wires going to each servo and chassis ground in the receiver are connected directly to the antenna. The whole system by design is one big antenna. So I can hardly see how an inch or two off the antenna length is going to make a big difference.

JPMacG

My Feedback: (2)

The battery leads, servo leads, and switch harness make up the other side of the antenna. Wire antennas must have two terminals, somewhat like batteries have two terminals and ac power wiring has two terminals. The two sides are obvious in some types of antennas such as rabbit ears for TV or dipoles for FM broadcast receivers. Other antennas would seems to have only one side, but the other side really is there. For example, cordless phone antennas would seem to have only one side, but the other side is actually inside the case.

If you make a dc continuity test the antenna wire and battery wires may measure as a short, but at 72 MHz the two sides are not shorted. The antenna wire 'works' against the other wiring to produce an RF voltage at the receiver input. If you were to take away one side of an antenna completely (not really possible but we can imagine) the antenna would no longer function.

Jon

N1903Z

Jon, yours is a very good explaination as to why the antenna wire is shorted to ground at the DC level but not at the rf of 72 MHz. Thanks.