Circular Polarisation the Easy Way

Antennas?  Antennae?  I’m not an expert on pluralisation, but I know how to search the internet.  Seems English authors don’t differentiate between metallic apparatus and sensory appendages, so antennae it is.

Anyway, a couple of months ago I carefully soldered together a couple of circular polarised FPV antennae.  I followed the guide on rcexplorer.se, carefully measured some 0.8mm welding wire and fiddled for hours getting it soldered together.  The end result was a pair of incredibly fragile antennae in which I had very little confidence.  At 5.8GHz the tolerances are incredibly small and even the smallest blob or errant solder can cause issues, not to mention bashing into the ground and ruining everything.

The answer?  Buy something!  These fantastic plastic-potted circular polarised antennae are built to plug into Fat Shark goggles but can be made to fit the HobbyKing FPV stuff with a very cheap adapter that can be found on eBay for about £1 each (search for an SMA female to RP-SMA male adapter).

HobbyKing just added a version that doesn’t need the adapter too!  I found it while looking for a link for the previous paragraph.  I’m not too fussed that I missed out though - the ones I got are great!

These little antennae are much smaller than I expected.  They are also very light and very tough.  The flexible but stiff cable allows them to be bent into the right position for your model too.

Can’t wait to give these a try - when it stops raining.