I got some of the parts for my FPV quad platform today. I will combine these with the Team Black Sheep frame set and the FPV equipment. Some of my ideas for the setup are also to use some UHF components from either Immersion RC (http://www.immersionrc.com/) or Thomas Sherrer Long Range Systems TSLRS (http://www.tslrs.com/) as these seem to be quite good at what they do. I am still up in the air on the frequency for the FPV video though.
Tiger and I being radio guys went for 900, but the forums and the other FPV people use a lot of 1.2 1.3 stuff. Avoid 2.4 for obvious reasons and not obvious reasons. If your fly 400 mhz rc and 2.4 video, your ground station could be affected by another user turning on a 2.4 radio, wifi laptop, microwave oven. 5.8 does work, but very temperamental. Getting something other than 900 allows us to fly at the same time.
Pelagic Pilot, didn't you say the newer stuff was in the 900 Mhz band or was the newer developments in the 1.2 Mhz band? Fewer places have 900 Mhz cloverleaf antennas than 1.2 Mhz cloverleaf antennas.
900 MHz is a better frequncy to use and gives longer distances and less signal loss/interference - but as you've noticed choices are limited. Much more is available in 1.2. If you can find what you're wanting in 900, then that is the better way to go
The newer electronic design is the 1.2 over 900, as was said the 900 frequency is the best, but the 1.2 equipment is a bit better so out of the box they work about the same. But keep in mind that either system will give us far more range than anyone of us is currently skilled enough to utilize. I have seen documented (youtube OSD) cases of 1.2 working out beyond 10 miles. Also 1.2 gives you smaller antennas, the cloverleaf for 900 that I want to do is actually bigger than my entire helicopter. I am thinking a IBcrazt Vee dipole and patch might be better. But also keep in mind that the second harmonic of 1.2 is 2.4 and there is the possibility of interference, but also a low pass is sometimes used to avoid interference with a GPS unit. "Each GPS satellite transmits data on two frequencies, L1 (1575.42 Mhz) and L2 (1227.60 MHz)." A GPS sat only puts out 25 Watts of power into a 13 Db antenna on 1.2 Ghz and you can recieve it on something that does not really have an antenna while sitting in a building. As an update the day you and Tiger were helping me at redwood with the video stuff, Tiger found out that I had a bad connector on my VRx unit, he carved the nickle plate off and now the antenna actually screws on. Before when you were watching and the signal was dropping off is because we did not have a connected antenna, works much better now.........
I want one that goes to 911 Mhz. That's one more higher. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbVKWCpNFhY[/youtube]
