Rubber Duckie antenna

[Frandito]

Any experiences here?
I seem to have the control cut out occasionally for a few seconds when using the short flexible antenna.

Very dissappointing at this point.



frandito

[bodacious]

I have had two of them....I use one now....but their range is limited to say the least. When you have loss of signal... just raise your transmitter over your head and you will gain some more range. I personally will not buy another! Great idea ... but doesn't work as advertised!( the one I use now was specifically tuned to my transmitter.... still loses signal at about 40- 50 yards, where my stock antenna was good to as far as I could see the boat!!)

[Rick West]

In addition, the more transmitters that are on around you the less signal energy there is...typical of RC low power units. The other thing is there is a null off the tip of the antenna so, pointing the antenna at the boat is a bad thing.

I have used one for some years now and understand them. Yes, holding the TX above the crowd works and should be a jerk reaction.

...94

[Matthew Houghton]

I use one and love it. I find that with boats, if it's beyond the range of the boat, I can't see it. The only control issues that have caused me any concern at all haven't been related to the "duck" but have been connections that I have screwed up inside the boat. That said, there have been a couple of times that I have made sure that my antenna was 90 degrees to my boat because I thought I lost control. Maybe I did but it was only momentarily and didn't cause any problems.

I tried sailing a boat whost TX had a standard antenna the other day and just couldn't stand it.

Matt Houghton
Peconic Boatworks

[Capt. Flak]

I have the Smiley Rubber Duck on both my radios. I have never had one problem with the old radio. I used my new radio last weeked in Sun City without a problem. Fran asked me about it then if I had problems.

However, John Bottensek in my club has had noted issues with loss of signal in spots around the lake. He uses a standard antenna now.

I think Rick is right about pointing the antenna at your boat. Most of us walk with our radios/antennas parallel to the ground. As long as the antenna is not pointing out into the lake or worse, directly towards your boat, it should work well.

I talked with the guy at Smiley the other day, and he said they are tested for planes and cars, but not boats. My feeling is that plane and car guys stand in one spot and hold the radios up most of the time. We boat guys walk along the shore and hold the radios lower. This may be the reason some experience a loss of signal.

You might try experimenting with it at your lake to see if that is the case for you.

Joe Walter #24

[MichaelJ2K]

Standard antennas radiate an omnidirectional signal from the sides, rubber duckies radiate from the tip. The standard antenna has a null point at the tip as Rick indicated. Try pointing your R/D at the boat. If that dosen't work, do a range check with the antenna off. Your receiver may need to be tuned. 20 feet or less is not good[xx(] while 50 to 100 feet is good BTW, you did not say if your receiver is the one matched to the transmitter. Receivers are tuned with standard antennas, thus the change in range. If you change to a R/D antenna you should retune the receiver.

[Carl]

The recommendaion is to tune the reciever to the transmitter.

How would you tune the reciever?

When we buy a transmitter the reciever has been tuned for the channel that came with the transmitter.

At regattas we generally have to put a different crystal (channel) in both units.

How close should the channel be to the original channel that was tuned?

[ivorcwalton]

I have also tried the Smiley antenna because it's small size is very appealing. I abandoned it very quickly though after I experienced several instances of lost control at a regional regatta. Maybe orienting it properly is the solution but I find that there are enough things for me to think about during a race without having to worry about which way my antenna is pointing!!!

Ivor Walton

[Capt. Flak]

Ivor, that is a very good point. Like I said, I have had no problems with my rubber duck. But, if you have, and it looks like several of you have, I would not use it either. Too many other thing to worry about then which way is my antenna pointing.

I will stick with mine, but I still have the regular antenna in my tool box and can change it out in just a few minutes if I ever have to.

Joe Walter #24

[MichaelJ2K]

Transmitters MUST be tuned by a licensed FCC Technician holding at least a 2 class commercial license. The receiver is tuned to the transmitter. As a user, you may tune the receiver provided that you have the knowledge and skills to do so. As a user, you are prohibited from removing and replacing crystals in the transmitter. However, most of the radios we use have plug in rf modules on the transmitter which are legal to change. So, if you are blindly removing and replacing crystals and not tuning the receiver to the module, you will have problems. My suggestion is rather than change crystals in the reciever, have an extra transmitter module with a matched receiver ready to go.

[ivorcwalton]

Mike, I am afraid that my knowledge on the process of tuning transmitters and receivers that you are describing is non-existent. However, the one thing that I thought I understood was that an FM radio could take any of the crystals for all of the 30 channels that we use with no problems. That was the improvement of FM over AM, where you had to stay within 1 or 2 channels of the tuned frequency. At all the regattas we attend we are expected to have a range of frequencies and we change them all the time with no problems.

If tuning is as important as you suggest, it still doesn't explain why my old telescopic antenna works perfectly over a wide range of frequencies and the Smiley antenna doesn't.

Ivor

[MichaelJ2K]

Hey Ivor, nice to see you here. Modulation whether it is AM, FM or PCM has no bearing on the quality of the transmission. MY Ace Nautical Commander is AM modulation and has a receiver matched to each RF board I have. What does make a difference is that each one is tuned for a particular frequency. So, inadequate range is the least of my worries, my position in the race is my biggest! [B)] [8] [xx(] [:D]

Forgot to mention that I have a rubber duckie on the transmitter and it works fine.

[Larry Ludwig]

I have an Ace Commander with the duckie antenna on 2 J boats and so far they have done fine out to almost 1/4 mile... at which range they look the same as a Victoria at 20 yards

visit us at www.LudwigRCYachts.com

[Ken S]

I found this site while doing a search and thought it could be of help, I found it very informative...especially the part where it suggests pointing the R/D antenna<b> AT </b>the receiver(page5). Doing that seems to have cleared up the glitching problems I was having on My Soling. So now My antennas follow My boats as they go around the courses.

Ken

http://www.friedrichwuerth.de/scale-models/RX-gb.pdf

[Frandito]

Well, after all that discussion....I have two black "Rubber Duckie" antennaes for sale.
$10 each, you pay postage
Email me at frandito@davtv.com

I am truly a "victim of soicumstances"!

frandito