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.

 

[diversions]

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.

Woot. We could interchange lives, good sir! Mavic Pro fleet, check. Litchi autonomous waypoint missions, check. third-world backwoods location, DOUBLE CHECK! Oh, and bonus points for the aging eyeballs.

Any success with this project (wow, it's been almost a year)? I'm a little ahead of the game in terms of starting point since I already have an aerial that stands 20m AGL (38m ASL) used for radio comms on my ranch. I'm a little behind because I suck with a soldering gun. But I'm willing to learn!

Attached a photo of my house. I fly from that huge porch thing sticking out of my 109 year-old house. My great grandpa built it. Because I suck at life, I ended up growing old here a century later.

*D

 

[Conservative Nihilist]

Woot. We could interchange lives, good sir! Mavic Pro fleet, check. Litchi autonomous waypoint missions, check. third-world backwoods location, DOUBLE CHECK! Oh, and bonus points for the aging eyeballs.

Any success with this project (wow, it's been almost a year)? I'm a little ahead of the game in terms of starting point since I already have an aerial that stands 20m AGL (38m ASL) used for radio comms on my ranch. I'm a little behind because I suck with a soldering gun. But I'm willing to learn!

Attached a photo of my house. I fly from that huge porch thing sticking out of my 109 year-old house. My great grandpa built it. Because I suck at life, I ended up growing old here a century later.

*D

Your home looks like a movie set nestled amid tropical jungle, Diversions. It is rare for any building to last over a century in the tropics, where termites and weather are major concerns, so you're truly blessed to live in this magnificent self-sustaining home that has been in your family for three generations. I can see why a drone flying autonomous Litchi missions would be essential equipment for monitoring your ranch.

My rooftop antenna project has been stalled in the conceptual stage for years because I doubt my ability to correctly assemble the components such that the whip antenna and coax cable are properly matched to the DJI controller's impedance specs, and are not susceptible to lightning damage atop the 80-foot mast here.

It could be that I am overestimating the design requirements, because I notice from YouTube videos that almost all the DJI drones currently prowling Ukraine's skies are operated by men in bunkers who rely on this exact external whip antenna and coax cable setup, all hastily thrown up as they move about in a necessary shell game. How I wish I could get my hands on a schematic of what goes where from someone in Ukraine, but they've got their hands full with other matters over there.

I'm already following your posts in this forum in case you make a breakthrough in setting up a DJI Mavic indoor ground control station that has been my dream for a long time now. My humble abode is the "L" shaped one in the center of the frame, with the solar panels. Not quite as remote as your spread, but still a good way off the beaten track, and walking distance to the rainforest and swampland that were my playgrounds growing up.

There is a guy in upstate New York who flies FPV ( non-DJI), and it was his descriptions about building an indoor ground station at the RC Groups forum that became my initial inspiration to use the same idea for my DJI drones.

Antennas on the roof of my house - Page 18 - RC Groups

Page 18-Discussion Antennas on the roof of my house FPV Equipment

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