# R.C. Antenna Wire, Help please!



## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

I want to bypass the telescoping antenna on an RC transmitter and hook up a length of antenna wire to be concealed in my costume so I can hide the transmitter under my cloak and control my prop discretely. 

Question: Does the wire have to be a certain thickness or will any wire do? The antenna wire on the receiver is very thin; do I need that or thicker on the transmitter, or does it matter? Will single strand vs. braided make a difference? And will doing this affect my range?


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## time2dive (Dec 29, 2007)

The length of the wire may affect the range. Antennas are designed for a certain length for the frequency of the transmitter. If your antenna is too long or too short it can affect the range and operation.


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

What frequency does the transmitter operate at? You can likely get away with using wire like you are suggesting. Odds are, it's a very low frequency so you can probably use braided or solid wire with no issue. The key is to get the length right or else you will wind up with poor performance due to poor VSWR.


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## NickG (Sep 12, 2006)

I remember something about even having your transmitter on with the antenna collapsed can overheat the RF module and mess it up. This may be only with the radios that have removable modules (like my hitec optic 6) - something to consider.


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## Scottzilla (Jun 13, 2007)

A good starting point would be to match the length of the original antenna. ...or the receiver antenna. ...or a multiple of one of them.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

NickG said:


> I remember something about even having your transmitter on with the antenna collapsed can overheat the RF module and mess it up. This may be only with the radios that have removable modules (like my hitec optic 6) - something to consider.


OH NOES!!!! That's what I was planning on doing! I was just going to leave it collapsed and clip a wire to the end of it. It's a Vex transmitter... 75 MHz. The module... I guess you mean the heart and/or brain of the transmitter? ... to my knowledge that's all supposed to stay locked up in the case; there's nothing removable on this unit but the crystal. I don't wanna smoke my transmitter!

If that's not an issue... and I match the length of the antenna wire... does it have to be straight? Can I put it in the hemline of my cloak and hood or will the curves affect the transmission? I know little to nothing about RC... I've got this thing and it's all a magic black box to me. I should have been researching this weeks ago.


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## Zombie-F (Apr 12, 2004)

I'm an antenna technician by trade and have been doing it for 15 years now... RF is a whole lot of black magic.

The antenna may or may not work tucked inside your costume. Being in such close proximity to a human body may affect the antennas performance by making it more capacitive, which is the main problem with most cell phones... you may see 3 - 4 bars when you pull the phone away from your head and wonder why you have bad reception. As soon as you put the antenna back near your head, the performance changes.

Basically, it's going to be some trial and error. I would start out by having the wire you use as your antenna be longer than the original antenna and then try it out as you intend to use it on Halloween night. If it seems to work for you, then leave it be but if not start to trim the length of the antenna back a little at a time until the system works. Without a network analyzer you really can't know very much about the antenna.

Have you tried searching around the internet for info on this? There may be RC forums or web sites that could better help you than we can here.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Feh... I'm not even bothering with it at this point. Work dumped a huge load of extra stuff on me a few days ago and I'm putting in extra hours... and I spent most of tonight mixing sound and getting the MP3 players ready. At some point I gotta get some sleep. I think I'm just gonna wrap some creepy cloth around the antenna to hide the shine and call it good.

I think the essence of "Track C" from a Halloween perspective is "Think like a visitor, don't think like a haunter/propbuilder." Seriously... who the hell is going to pay any attention to the scythe-less pudgy Grim Reaper Wannabe when there's a moldy skeletal human torso crawling around on the ground? Good enough is good enough. 

Thanks guys for the advice. I shoulda started checking this techno-voodo out months ago but, ya know. I'll be ready next year.


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## Flying Dutchman (Oct 29, 2008)

*other factors to think about*

I'm a Ham radio operator and an electronic tech. by trade. Zombie-F has a valid point about the effects of the body when it comes to antennas. Another factor is the length of the wire. If the wire isn't the correct length, the swr's will be too high, and burn up the final stage of the rf amp of your rc. You also have to consider the effects it will have on your body. Good luck with you project. Let me know how you made out, and what type of solution you came up with.


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## Revenant (Mar 17, 2007)

Wellp... I just used the remote with the antenna out like it was made to be. Didn't even have time to wrap the antenna. So a couple of punk-ass little 10-12 y/o kids were making remarks about seeing the antenna. My solution was: I hid the whole thing under my cloak. It's a pretty voluminous wool cloak and had like 3 pounds of creepy cloth tatters all over it, so I can conceal a lot under there... I realized that if I let my arms hang down all the way I could hold the transmitter sort of in reverse and work the joysticks with the tips of my middle fingers, and let the antenna come up through the neck under my hood (I had more gauze and creepy cloth hanging in front of my face so everything in the hood was hidden). Worked like a charm; no one realized he was being RC'ed. I don't know if my body affected the transmission any but if it did, it wasn't enough to affect the function. I was never more than 10 feet away from it anyway.

Thanks guys! Between you 2 and bourno I think I'm in good shape with any further RC questions; now that I've seen its effectiveness in haunt environments I think I may be further exploring its possible applications.


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