RF Tips and Tricks

  • NOTE: MAKE THIS INTO A MULTI-SECTION SUB-PAGE

  • This is not an RF textbook or course. It’s meant to be a practical hobbyst guide to RC aircraft RF systems. By careful attention and proper application of the following literature, you are almost certainly guaranteed to get well over 100km range out of your NOVALINK mLRS radio system.

  • There will be no advanced electrical engineering math needed beyond basic logarithms and elementary mathematics principles.

  • RSSI vs LQ and what each means practically

  • Separation from radio controller (radiated emissions, emi etc)

  • Importance of antennas and antenna placement

  • Using a VNA to test antennas - calibrate VNA

  • Basic smith chart usage

  • Different types of antennas

  • db gain explained, dbi etc

  • RF power explained db vs dbm vs watt

  • Link budget explained

  • Antenna setup - faraday cages, installing in aircraft and putting in RF noise-free environment

  • Using a spectrum analyzer, important of the FFT and looking in the frequency domain

  • The best way to test your antenna is on your aircraft with everything installed

  • RF line of sight calculations

  • Fresnel zone

  • Curvature of the earth

  • Flying over water

  • Flying through rain, air, space, fog

  • Meaning of free space

  • Obstacles and urban environments

  • Multipathing

  • Measuring RF power with an oscilloscope

  • RF test setup tools

  • How to design an RF power amplifier

  • Basic principles of an RF front end

  • Separate vs combined Tx and Rx antennas

  • The ideal setup that will 100% get you 100km

  • Calculating RF range given link budget, data rate

  • General principles of RF physics. Data rate vs range vs frequency vs bandwidth, etc

  • LoRa settings, SF, coding rate, bandwidth, what NOVALINK uses and what this means vs ELRS, etc

  • Why ELRS will get better range usually and the compromises. Why mLRS is better for mavlink vs ELRS mavlink

  • How to design an antenna

  • Additional resources for RF topics

  • Getting your ham radio license

  • RF textbooks and reading for advanced topics

  • The practical truth of why NOVALINK works - because it uses the right chipset and no other mLRS system uses the correct chipset.

  • Long-range challenge: If you hit 100km or more with NOVALINK, we will give you a 50% off discount code for any complete NOVALINK kit. You will be featured on our website. And added to the Long-range leaderboard hall of fame. And get a special surprise in the box when you claim your discount.

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