Increasing radio range? Or which radios have longer range if any?
 

I have a Futaba T2peka FM radio.. And it doesnt seem to go as far as my lowest of the line Hitec AM Radio used to go.. is there any way to increase range? And what kinda ranges do these have normally? Thanks!

Check the MHz....the bigger the number, the further it can go....

extend the controller antena all the way.....

check to see if the controller antena is screwed in properly (tighten by turning it clockwise).....

make sure u fully extend the receiver antena, dont coil it......

check the battery......

AM, FM, PCM, does not affect the range.....only how uninterruptable the signal is.....

and if all else fails, run with your car.....


Good Luck.;)

no doubt u will need lots of good luck if u are going to follow Dragon's advice. Hurhur....:D

Check out for a fried crystal. I had one in my receiver and it lost control after going a certain distance.

Is it so? So what range of frequency are you using?75's? LOL!

Or even 88.9FM?:sneaky: :sneaky:

Higher the mhz the further it goes? Humm... no wonder the 75mhz are all taking at my track.:rolleyes:

Depends...not totally dependent on your frequency... your power transmission plays a part too...

Here is an anecdote for ya :)

I have a lynx 3d and was running my car from the drivers stand mayby 15-70 foot range required. Some idiot came in with one of those cheapo stick controllers on my frequency and started to run his electric car. He was MUCH closer to his car than I was. Except his car was the runaway not mine!!!! :D Mine stayed under control. I run on the 29Mhz channel.

So I am sure that the more expensive transmitters have more "grunt" in the signal than the cheapo ones.

AMG is half right I think...

They frequency has little to do with range... all that realy changes with freq is the sine wave of the transmision. The thing that affects range is the output power of the transmittor.
The more amplification of the signal the longer the range....

So stick another battery in the tx.

Another battery may not help... For those guys that have served in the forces should know this too... you would need an amplifier to amplify the signal... Depending on the amplifier, the signal could even be received in the next state you are staying in! But don't think anyone uses this for RC!!

I did not get into the "technical" aspects in my last post because I was too lazy :) But it goes something like this......

The tighter the waves, ie the bigger the Mhz, the more penetrating they are. Ie, the will go through solid objects easier with less distortion. This is one reason why microwave is used in mobile phone technology. This obviously has little bearing in RC :)

So the second way to make a wave more powerful is to make it stronger, ie. have a larger wave amplitude which requires an amplifier. Better radios may have a degree of amplification for a clearer signal. I am not sure however.

Another way to get better reception is to make the receiver less prone to noise (shielding) and to make the transmitters aerial and the receivers aerial the correct length. There is actually a scientific forumula for calculating how long an aerial should be for a given frequency for maximum signal strength.

Its not the power that runs the transmitor that gives range as such, but the transmittors power output.... new batteries will not make much if any difference.

My main experience with radio is military comunications. The frequency of our radios are changeable with thousands of available freqs. in HF and VHF. the difference in range between VHF and HF is notable, but we are talking a large freq difference here, not like the diff between 27 and 75 Mhz. And the atmospheric conditions play their part here.

Our newer radios (military) amplify the signal on transmision and recieving, so that a week signal being recieved is clearer than would normally be. The range of these babies is vastly improved over the radios that were used 20 years ago and they use less power to run.