Home Roof Antenna Install

[kentdavidge]

My order of extra-range batteries for my Mavic 1 Pro and Mavic 2 Pros will arrive next Wednesday, Kent, and I can hardly wait to run some tests to see how long each drone can stay aloft with those batteries on steroids. For my initial tests, I'll create a half-mile radius circle centered on my house as a waypoint mission, and monitor the battery level as the drone flies progressively increasing numbers of laps at 30mph until the low battery alarm signals the end of each test and the time to land.

With the new DJI Air 3S hitting the stores yesterday, I was able to snag a lightly used Air 3 paired with the RC-N2 controller for a reasonable price but that impulse buy won't reach me for another month, so I won't get to probe the Air3's impressive range when powered with that 40-minute stock battery. I never intended to buy any drone newer drone than a Mavic 2 Pro, but the more enthusiastic reports I watched about the Air 3 on YouTube, the more I convinced myself that I had to own an Air 3 to find out what all the commotion is about haha.

that's great; hope you get it soon
however I was asking about your setup of external antennas and amplifier; how did it turn?

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

that's great; hope you get it soon
however I was asking about your setup of external antennas and amplifier; how did it turn?

My external rooftop drone antenna project will take shape soon because I am becoming wary of climbing up the ladder of a 60-foot water tower to maintain RC contact when my DJI Go4 drones are several miles out flying autonomous Litchi waypoint missions. Ironically I bought all the components that I could think of to complete the indoor drone cockpit, from 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz whip antennae to line amplifiers and bandpass filters for the same two frequencies as well as enough coax cable to run two lines up the 80 feet metal tower already in place right next to my home.

I also acquired the tiny connectors and coax cable connectors needed to convert a Mavic 1 Pro RC controller so it could be connected via yards of cable to remote tower-top antennae. But then the demands and distractions of life got in the way, and my planned DJI ground station was once again relegated to the back burner. If the Air 3 that I have on order is capable of transmitting its video signal over the remarkable distances being reported by YouTube reviewers, I may eventually realize that all the hardware I painstakingly assembled would only have made a difference with the older DJI-Go4 drones that I own, whose vintage dates back long before Occu-sinc 4 was introduced with the Air 3 in 2023.