DRAGON LINK RECEIVER ANTENNAS

 

THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP, and will determine the performance, and range of your RC control and telemetry.  Please take the time to read below and look at the pictures for recommended mounting.

These instructions apply to all versions of Dragon Link Receiver antennas, regardless of size, version, or coax length.

 

 

We know not every antenna installation can be perfect, especially on small planes and copters, just do the best you can to follow these instructions.    The reason you start with a 50 Kilometer capable system is so that you can have an imperfect antenna mounting, and still get incredible performance on copters and small planes with imperfect installations and little equipment spacing.  You can loose 1/2 of your performance on a copter or small plane, and still never have any fialsafes or limitations, and 25 Kilometers range !   Below are pictures of practical and good antenna mounting for different kinds of planes and copters, and your solution might be different.  We will tell you what the hard rules are, and where you can use your own style.

1.  The top element wire MUST ALWAYS BE MOUNTED VERTICAL.  This is the most important rule that you should never change.

2.  The LOWER ( GROUND ) wire element of the antenna can be mounted horizontal on small planes and copters where there is no room to mount the bottom element vertical.

3.  You should NEVER have both wire antenna elements parallel to each other, this will result in an RF short, and absolutely horrible performance.

4.  You should NEVER mount the receiver antenna wire elements in a V configuration, this performs very poorly.

5.   You should ALWAYS use the antenna we provide,  the popular vertical monopole antennas many people use are pretty and small, but the perform very poorly.

6.   Mount the Dragon Link receiver wherever you like, the best, most practical position is usually in the fuselage.

7.   The receiver antenna position is what really matters, mount it as far away as practical from Video Transmitters, Video Cameras, and OSD's.  

8.   You may coil any extra black coax extension you may have, make bends and turns, and run it along carbon fiber and metal with no decrease in performance.  The length of your coax extension will not affect the performance of the antenna.

9.   You may mount the antenna on carbon fiber as long as the carbon fiber is NOT PARALLEL to the top element wire.  The LOWER antenna element may be run horizontal along carbon fiber on small planes and copters.

Below are some pictures of typical, good, and practical antenna mountings for copters and planes.

See picture to left to identify the TOP and BOTTOM element wires.   

 

The TOP wire connects to the CENTER portion of the coax.

 

The BOTTOM WIRE connects to the GROUND of the coax.

BACK SIDE OF ANTENNA PCB

TYPICAL PLANE:

Antenna is mounted in the tail, both elements vertical for maximum range.   

Antenna is far away from Video Transmitter and Video Camera

Antenna is out of the way, resistant to damage in transport, and on landing.

Receiver is mounted under canopy, using 36 inch antenna extension.

MEDIUM COPTER:   

Antenna is mounted against carbon fiber body

Top element MUST be vertical

Bottom element is mostly vertical

Mounting against carbon fiber is OK since antenna element is perpendicular to carbon fiber body

Bottom element can be run horizontal along carbon fiber body if desired, but will result in some reduced performance

SMALL COPTER or PLANE:

 

Top element of antenna MUST be vertical.

Bottom element of antenna run horizontal along carbon fiber body of copter.   Some reduced performance, but more than good enough for the range a small copter will fly.

Top element of antenna should NOT be next to video transmitter antenna.

Receiver can be mounted anywhere you want, against carbon fiber is OK.