I finally got the antenna for the Lassen IQ today, and after hooking it up and leaving it alone for quite some time the unit finally got a good enough GPS signal to determine its position and altitude.

I'm glad that it's finally getting data, but I'm a bit disappointed in the quality of the unit. Whereas the Garmin got signal almost instantly, and the Inventek could take a couple minutes, the Lassen took quite a while, perhaps up to 10 minutes (I didn't keep track). More worrying is that it only sees something like 4 or 5 satellites, whereas the other two units would see around 10 +/- 2 when they had signal.

I'll try using some scrap sheet metal to make a better ground place for the antenna, hopefully that will increase reception. Also the unit will have somewhat fewer obstructions as it flies through the air, but still, it would be less worrying if it didn't have such a weak signal to begin with.

Today my team and I successfully conducted a radio range test for two different receiver antennas.


We tested on Purdue's campus, with one team member on the 7th floor of Beering Hall (BRNG) right next to the "Vision" conference room, and me, the other team member at 11th and Tippencanoe streets in Lafayette (across the river). As you can see in the graphic, the distance is about 1.6 miles. Not quite as far as the test Eric and I conducted a couple months ago, but far enough to get some good testing done. For reference, the rated range of the NTX2 transmitter is 500m - 1.6 miles is > 2500m.

We tested a couple different antenna and found some interesting results...