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0 So I'm on my way to work and I'm wondering what do most people fly with as far as their VTX power setting I myself use mostly 200 mw.
Is there a noticeable difference going up to a higher milliwatt setting ?
Or maybe the question I should be asking is how much higher than 200 milliwatt does one need to go to see a noticeable difference in performance ?
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45 I just use 200 mw, I'll lose RSSI before I lose video. The only difference I find is that at 600 mw I piss off more people.
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0 Do you mean at 600 mw, when flying with other people, you blast their vtx signal out of the air ?
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388 I usually fly at 200 mw with others. And 500-600 mw by myself. You will see slight difference when going through trees. But I get too lazy that I usually just leave it at 200 mw.
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72 I'm in the 200mW club as well.
25mW just doesn't cut it if there are trees in the way. 200mW is better and higher power levels are probably only useful if you're going to be flying something properly long range.
Increasing power levels don't deliver the kind of improvement you'd expect, largely due to the fact that signal strength decreases with the square of the distance. In theory, a decent FPV setup, transmitting at 200mW will get you just over 1Km range (with line of sight). If you want to double that range, you must quadruple the transmitter power to 800mW.
Many FPV transmitters are not particularly 'clean' when it comes to the signal they output. The higher the overall power, the higher the power of the harmonics that are created. These interfere with other people on nearby frequencies, and even quite far away frequencies if the power of the harmonics is significant. Once you start stamping on signals outside the 5.8GHz band, you'll not only be upsetting other FPV flyers, you'll also be upsetting critical systems like GPS, airport landing and locator beacons and other things like satellite communications and geolocation systems.
Do that often enough and a guy from the FCC (or local equivalent) will be sent out with his tracking equipment to find out where the interference is coming from. If you are caught interfering with frequencies that you are not authorised to use, the fines can be significant. They'll also confiscate the transmitter on the spot if they catch you!
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0 Unseen my friend, you are a WEALTH of information, may I ask what you do for a living ?
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0 Im an electrician by trade, I crossed over to systems programming (Fire Alarm, Access Control, CCTV, Intrusion, Door Entry..........etc) which gave me a little bit of "help" when I jumped into multi rotors.
I also have many years of flying 3d heli's under my belt, which seemed to make the transition to the goggles easier for me..............I still dont know why, but lI was very comfortable the very first time I flew with goggles.....................go figure !!
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23 200 for me as well. I fly though and around a lot of vegetation and I find that 200 mw gives much better penetration then 25 and only marginally less then 600 so I just stay on 200.
"Damn the torpedoes!!! Full speed ahead!!!"