thanks Chris , as I asked Andras I want to understand the power settings of mission planner and how do they affect higher power modules? and am interested to know from 3dr users what is the maximum some one can get out of say 100mw 3dr with dipole on air unit and 4 element yagi on ground? I saw one a you tube video where a Russian guy went out 100km with 100mw 3dr!!!and patch on ground
Yes, power in radio range is not the answer. The antenna is. I regularly communicate with other radio operators around the world on ham radio using less than 2 watts because I have huge 11 meter tall phased antenna array that develops a large amount of gain in the forward lobe of the antenna’s radiation pattern, with high f/b rejection.
Doubling the power only increases the gain by 3dB. 6-9dB gain in the antenna is walk in the park for 440 band or 33cm band antennas to get ERP.
Mission Planner will not work to set power for your radios. I have not seen any of those that are adjustable. And most of them have such terrible spurious emission that it causes problems with the rest of your electronics on the aircraft. The best thing to do with those is sell them to somebody that doesn’t know the difference and buy decent radios.
yes Chris but don’t forget telemetry uses 915mhz while I think your ham is in low MHz or even khz range …I want to know form people who really tested it what the maximum to pour out of the 100mw 3rd and how to get there
this power setting is for what and affects what and how does it affect higher power telemetry modules???
This was explained already but I’ll give it a go. The standard SiK radios have a Si4432 radio module that is configurable for output power as per your posted image. Radios with more power (500mw is common) have a fixed gain amplifier as an output stage. This amplifier is fixed so it cannot be configured via software. So if you set the radio for 20dBm it will produce 100mw X the Gain of the fixed amplifier. 10X presumably for the units you have if you believe what they state (I don’t).
I have a pair of the 500mw units and they are junk as I suppose are the units you have.
Junk is not a severe enough term. The ones I have, even after I fixed them, make the servos jump all over the place on a helicopter. The only way they would be usable is to tow the radio on a long-line, using the wires to tow it, and maybe it would be far enough away from the aircraft to not wreak havoc.
Ha, ha joke of the day 
Maybe Andras description as “Shitty” is best…
Indeed, as Dave said the 3dr radio cloness from china claiming 500mW or 1W are simply put a PA at the output stage of a standard Si4432 module (or even worse a HM-TRP module).
Beside the noise they spit out, they will never work perfectly because the firmware needs to be modified to handle the PA stage in the output, and of course they did not modified it.
You can rather go with a 100mW version and some good antennas. A well tuned rubber ducky antenna pair can go for 2-4Km at least, and a patch or yagi directional antenna can go well over 10Km. (But you will need antenna tracker for them.)
However there is one issue with the standard SiK radios, the input stage of the SiK4432 is deaf just like my Grandma… If you really want long range with small power you need a LNA stage at the input. So we are back at RfDesign radios…
hello Andras thanks for reply am not so used to the Sik4432 module what do you mean LNA stage at the input
LNA means Low Noise Amplifier, it is used to amplify the received signal without increasing the signal to noise ratio significantly.
yes I got it, but I think its already implemented in the 3dr module that uses sik
if you have any proposals or had come across such diy thing for adding such an amplifier to a 3dr module ( I mean modifying it) and given that this idea works I request you send me the link or address please Andras
Nope, there is no external LNA in normal SIK modules.
And modifying one to add an LNA is not a straightforward task, I would say it is easier to build a new radio than try to hack an existing one. Sorry.
thanks for advice , there should be out there a board to send gps position at least to an antena tracker to follow for video, I need such a solution
say for 20 or 30 km, I know there is the rfd but arent there cheaper ulternatives.
Merry Christmas to you all too
RFD is the cheapest solution for that range. Others are way more expensive.
hello all I passed by a project on the net where someone used a lora E32 module 433mhz to transmit telemetry far more than what a 3dr module can not even dream of, its price and performance seems to be a solution for any one needing long range telemetry, ifeel I will need it for an antenna tracker in the future, if some one out there have a link to such a diy from A to z (mentioning software and hard ware and confugurations….)and tested working implementing lora e32 sx1278 or similar cheap but powerful modules for telemetry. thanks in advance
Here’s one that supports mavlink
I’d be interested in seeing whatever you come up with!
it is actually where I saw this topic but I donot need their rc control I just need telemetry their project is successful a friend of me tested it, but their telemetry link is limited to one way from copter to ground station cause they are using the main data transfer for the 16 channel!! I thought some one can implement the same module but exclusively dedicated to telemetry so the module will give a full two way telemetry, that’s why I posted here 