John Ferrell wrote:
A simple dipole will do what you want. That is a lot of power in the
airborne TX. 400 mw is still over kill and 40 mw will probably do the
job. At some point you will need to regain control with conventional
RC equipment and getting a signal into the airplane with that much
radiated power may not be easy.
If you are short on the RC airplane experience I suggest you consider
a Telemaster from Hobby Lobby. Smaller versions are available for
experience and the Senior (8 foot span) with carry many pounds of pay
load.
I guess you didn't notice the part about an autopilot, I plan on having
the plane fly out about 10 or 15 miles out and then back, not just where
I can see it. I have several years and a few hundred hours experience
flying RC planes but still plan on using a plane that is reasonably easy
to fly so the autopilot has an easier time controlling it. I have a few
tests I plan to do to check if the video TX will cause a problem with
the RC RX. I will rig up a servo to turn the video TX on and off and
will set a fail safe so that if the RC RX can't get it's signal it will
shut off the video TX. I will first set the video TX to very low power
(the TX I am looking at is adjustable from 0 to 4+ watts), then I will
make sure my video shut off switch is working good then make small
increases in the video TX power and see how far away I can fly the plane
before the fail safe shuts down the video TX.
If the high power video TX does prevent me from retaking control of the
plane from the autopilot/GPS navigation system, I have a plan B that I
am working on. A system that will make adjustments in video TX output
power at various way points, so it adjusts the power up as it gets
farther away, and back down as it gets closer, this will have the added
benefit of increasing the life of my video TX battery. I'm not sure how
I will do that yet but I have a few ideas I am looking into.
--
Chris W
KE5GIX
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