Horrible range with Spectrum
 

Can anyone tell me why I am getting crappy range with my spectrum transmitter? I bought a new Losi 8ight 2.0 RTR. I usually run with my brother and he gets a lot better range than I do.. What is the expected range of these things? I havent had it but a couple of months..

what are some things I can do to improve the range? Do I need to run the antenna at full length out of the body? I currently have it about 4 inches out of the body.. I hate having a long antenna but you gotta do what you gotta do to make it work correctly. Ol' dude at my HS told me that i could coil the whole antenna up in the RX box and it would work fine..WTF?

Swap receivers or radios with your brother and figure out which is the issue. If it's the radio, take it apart and be sure the antenna is connected. If that isn't it, then get ready to send it in.

It depends on which model radio you have. The range on the Pro seems to be good, however, I'm not a basher and only use it on the track which may be 100 to 150' at most.

Many 2.4GHz radios don't have the range that older FM radios had. What radio does your brother use? Perhaps you're expecting too much?

If it's one of the radios included in a RTR, that's why. Their cheapo radios stink as far as range goes. It's the radio. I have a DX3R and even with the cheap 2ch recievers, it has great range. I have 2 of the cheap radios that came with my SCB and Mini8 and they sit in my garage collecting dust. I'm a firm believer that a good radio is a MUST in this hobby. Pick up a decent Futaba like the 4PL or 3PMX and you'll be set.

Mine came with the DX3S transmitter and the SR 3300T reciever i think.. if i swap the reciever to the SR300 do you guys think the range will be better?

Bryce, i recently purchased the same 8ight 2.0 kit and my radio's range seems to be ok, however the telemetry loves to cut out all the time anywhere past 50 or so feet... I have had numerous issues with spektrum radios in the past, some say its the reciever, i say its just bad quality. i know its not the answer you want to hear but if you can afford it try switching over to a different brand transmitter/reciever, i think ur problems will dissapear. i have had too many bad expierences with spektrum and im just waiting for my dx3s to crap out....

EDIT: also... make sure you have fresh batteries in reciever/transmitter and your antenna is ran to max length out of the car just to eliminate as many possible problems as you can

On a side note, the dx3s are notorious for having this issues. Shame as they are a great price range with decent features.

True, many of the racers at the track I used to race at had those DX3S radios and many dumped them for the DX3R. Who needs telemetry while racing?

I don't really care about anything except the temp feature. The rest of the telemetry stuff has never worked from the start anyways. I shortend my antenna by coiling it up in the reciever box. Imma put it back to full length. Do you guys think a lipo receiver battery unregulated will help anything? I have the servos to handle the high voltage already.

I run a life and a lipo and notice little difference in range. What has helped is if I can position myself on a hill or anywhere a little higher than I'm running. I plan on replacing my radio. I should have done a little more reserch before I bought it...

my sr3000 reciever only has about a 2" antenna and it has pretty good range.

thats about what mine was and it reduced the range to about half of what it was with a full antenna..

I'm sorry I meant sr300.
it came this way. you're saying yours had a longer one?
I've had my gas buggy out probably 50 yards or more. however I'm not using a spektrum radio. it's just the cheap stock losi MTX pro transmitter

my son runs a DX3S he can run easily over 250 yards away.. I ran this summer at Toledo Speedway and ran the 1/2 mile track easy with my DX3R pro and the Orange rx from hk.. all my vehicles run a Ubec(bec) I will not run the ESC bec anymore..I have many different RX's from push button bind to the micro's some give me 50 yards more thats all..

I run a Radiopost Ts401 now and range is even better than my spektrums

thinking ur RX's are the issue..