bitPimps.lixlink.com

I wasn't quite sure where to post this, so I just popped it into General. I did a 17 3/4" telescopic mod to my Bit controller today, but wasn't very impressed with the change in range. I pretty much got no added range. But when I used both the telescopic and whippy antennas together, I finally got a serious range boost. Unfortunately, having both antennas out looked all sorts of stupid. So I neatened things up a little. I put the tips of both antennas together, with the whippy tip just slightly higher, and shrink tubed them together. The shrink tubing stuck to the whippy tip, and left a nice and snug spot underneath to tuck the telescopic antenna tip into.

So now, the tip of the whippy antenna has a permanent shrink tubed tip. When I want some serious range, I fully extend the whippy antenna, and then extend the telescopic antenna into the shrink tubing. No more whippy antenna flailing all over the place!!!

so both antenna's are soldered to the board in the controller?

weird how the telescopic would work worse than the flimsy antenna.
good work around tough!

Nope. The telescopic antenna isn't soldered. I just ran a wire around the screw that holds the controller's antenna terminal in place, and around the screw that holds the telescopic antenna in place. A pressure fit; kind of like how you loop a wire around the screw of an electrical outlet. I could solder the wire in place at both ends, but I don't think I'd gain anything.

The telescopic antenna wasn't any worse by itself than the whippy antenna was. It just wasn't any better in terms of range. That’s not so big of a surprise considering that both antennas are the same length.

I never have gained much from antenna mods though. None of my internal car antenna mods ever made a change in range either, when the antenna was kept at the same length. I got no range boost from switching to CAT5, and ended up going back to the original car antenna, which didn’t get hung up so badly when running under furniture.

I have a feeling that almost all of the range issues in my house are interference problems, which are beyond what a simple antenna change would resolve.

The one thing that did made a difference, believe it or not, was moving my booster pcb from the MS chassis to a Zip Zap chassis. I don’t know why it would make any difference whatsoever, but it did. Maybe the chrome coating on the Zip Zap car body effects the reception. There was a dead spot in the house that the car could never move through without dying out. There is no dead zone anymore. Weird stuff.

Does anybody know if doing a dual cell mod adds to the range of a car? Does more power go to the car’s antenna?

One more word on duel antennas......... If somebody was clever, they'd find a way to run the whippy antenna through the center of the telescopic antenna. Then you wouldn't need shrink tubing. You'd also get a good boost in range, and be able to use wheel to retract the whippy antenna and telescopic antenna at the same time. The only problem would be the 90 degree bend when putting the telescopic antenna away.