Antenna tracker

[e.Man]

the base station antenna (receiver end) is motorized and used GPS data sent back from the aircraft/vehicle to keep the base station antenna pointed at the vehicle. by doing this you can use very high gain antennas on the base station end, thereby greatly increasing range.

[Wana_B Pilot]

I'm probably too late to ask but... I already have diversity (spent big bucks for an Oracle) and now I really want tracking. ...will the new product allow me to use my own diversity system or should I plan to put it up on eBay?

For those of you who ask what does antenna tracking do, on March 1st I tested the current evolution of my ground station, having added directional antenna, reciever and diversity. The directional antenna is on top of a tripod. I did not have a friend along to manually track the plane so I set the directional antenna to look up 45 deg from the horizion. Everything looked great when I was flying in front of the antenna but when I flew directly overhead the diversity switched to the omni-directional antenna and the image did not look so good. I was above the look-angle of the directional antenna. Here is a video I made of the ground station test, if you watch closely you can see where edited out the poor video quality from the omni-directional antanna/receiver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZDuXqfkyYU

Not in the video, but after a subsequent landing the video image was very poor when the aircraft was only a few hundred feet away. This time the airplane was below the look-angle of the antenna. This confirms to me that a directional antenna is exactly that and needs to be pointed at the transmitter at all times.

[canopus]

Originally Posted by Wana_B Pilot

I'm probably too late to ask but... I already have diversity (spent big bucks for an Oracle) and now I really want tracking. ...will the new product allow me to use my own diversity system or should I plan to put it up on eBay?

For those of you who ask what does antenna tracking do, on March 1st I tested the current evolution of my ground station, having added directional antenna, reciever and diversity. The directional antenna is on top of a tripod. I did not have a friend along to manually track the plane so I set the directional antenna to look up 45 deg from the horizion. Everything looked great when I was flying in front of the antenna but when I flew directly overhead the diversity switched to the omni-directional antenna and the image did not look so good. I was above the look-angle of the directional antenna. Here is a video I made of the ground station test, if you watch closely you can see where edited out the poor video quality from the omni-directional antanna/receiver.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZDuXqfkyYU

Not in the video, but after a subsequent landing the video image was very poor when the aircraft was only a few hundred feet away. This time the airplane was below the look-angle of the antenna. This confirms to me that a directional antenna is exactly that and needs to be pointed at the transmitter at all times.

In this video ..i put my 8dbi Path antenna 20 cm from the.. ground video duration was about 14 min ..the signal of the video throughout the flight was very good quality with no interference or other problems...very good video signal..try it..
http://vimeo.com/9962169

(by mistake i change the video format to 16 9..natural is 4 3)

[Wana_B Pilot]

[quote=canopus;5307]i put my 8dbi Path antenna 20 cm from the.. QUOTE]

Very good video. Some questions... Your video did not show your ground station. How did you mount your antenna? What frequency is your video transmission?

[canopus]

[quote=Wana_B Pilot;5308]

Originally Posted by canopus

i put my 8dbi Path antenna 20 cm from the.. QUOTE]

Very good video. Some questions... Your video did not show your ground station. How did you mount your antenna? What frequency is your video transmission?

my ground station is very simply build..is a normal case with the 8dbi antenna mount by side..and in side i have the 1,3Ghz 850mW receiver..and also a 7inc LCD display for preview my videos and autopilot setup..
now for flight my plain i use a bicycle helmet and the top is mounted along the other receiver with a 7 dbi omni antenna and video glasses
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/v...0/DSC_0085.jpg
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/v...0/DSC_0086.jpg
http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/v...0/DSC_0088.jpg

[Wana_B Pilot]

When you fly, do you put the case on the ground with the lid closed so that the antenna is flat with the ground and looking directly up at the sky?

I would be very interested to know how other pilots position their directional antenna without tracking.

[Drakeremoray]

Hey Alex,

Any update to the Antenna Tracker? I was wondering if there was a release date yet? What else are you working on? Got any cool stuff in the works that you can share?

[Alex Villa]

I will show a video of our ground station soon.

[Martin Y]

Originally Posted by Alex Villa

I will show a video of our ground station soon.

Kool! Can't wait to see this

[Drakeremoray]

Would rather "buy it" than "see it"