Blue beam cloverleaf antenna, effectiveness compared to a patch antenna

[aminklein]

The blue beam omnidirectional antenna looks interesting and compact. How does it compare with the 8db patch antenna, other than being omnidirectional? Art M

[Keith]

Speaking purely on theories, as I've only a couple flights with the Blue Beams and both close range...

The Blue Beams are much lower gain, and omidirectional, circular polarized antennas, whereas the patch is a higher gain directional linear polarized antenna. The benefits of circular polarization are that it rejects multipath (signals bouncing off objects and hitting the receiver out of sync) well, and you don't have to worry about having one antenna vertically polarized on the ground while the one in the air is horizontally polarized because your plane is rolled on it's side or climbing (or diving) vertical which happens with linear antennas. It depends on where you're flying, how high/far you want to fly, etc. as to which antenna will work best for your. Keep in mind that you need circular or linear antennas on both ends. The stock whips that come on most transmitters and receivers are linear. You can use the patch with one of those on the transmitter just fine. If you put a circular antenna on one end, you'll want one for the other end as well. If you want the best of both works, look at the omni circular antenna for the transmitter and a helical for the receiver. The helical is a directional cirular antenna that works a lot like the linear patch does.

Also, read here for a good idea on how higher and lower gain, and directional antennas work for us: http://rcexplorer.se/Educational/gain/gain.html

[FPV FLYER]

Good summary there Keith.

[ReadyMadeRC]

Yep, great summary Keith!

I've added some description of antenna selections here. If we really wanted to, we could go even more in depth, but that may serve to complicate things more than help. I think Keith's summary above is great!