I have a Phantom 3 Pro and just looking for any items out on the market that can help keep the signal strong. I am new to all of this but have had microdrones for a while so I never really went out that far. I tried flying it by a local river (I live in upper NJ) that runs along the highway (dont worry it was over the river not the road) and the second it got to about 600 ft away I was already have signal issues and the screen would black out. Am I just to assume that the second its out of my site I will keep having this? There werent any radio towers near by the river is just lined with trees. Is there anything to help keep the signal strong that I can purchase? Any advice would be great thanks!

Best reception and best advice is to always keep it n your line of sight..if you cannot see it, it is either too far away which can be dangerous, or over or behind an object/trees/buildings etc.  which will reduce reception...

Trees destroy signal. My suggestion is to gain altitude for distance. If the remote can't "see" the phantom, it has trouble relaying the signal. 400 feet of elevation will generally get you 5000 feet of range on average. That is with a stock setup on the antennas. If you have tall trees close to you there will always be signal problems. The only option around this is to mod the controller and use a high gain 2.4ghz booster setup that gets costly.

Do a search on eBay for windsurfer antennae booster. There are several people out there who build them at home with their 3d printers. I have one and it boosts my range by about 50%. They are cheap,about $30 and they just slide on top of your antennas.

If you are "New To This" then you shouldn't be flying BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line Of Sight) for two reasons.
1. It's against the law in almost every country.
2. It's dangerous in that you could loose control of the aircraft and risk an accident which may cause someone or something some injury/damage.
You could even lose your P3 and I"m sure you don't want that!
Your best bet is to fly within Line Of Sight for at least 40-60 hours of flight so you have much more experience.
I've seen too many guys posting pics on the FB P3 Group of how far they can fly their P3.
This will only bring too much attention from the likes of the FAA etc. in each country until they start fining people and then put major restrictions on this hobby industry.
No need to risk loss or damage of your P3 and possibly and innocent bystander and/or ruin it for everyone just to say "Hey I flew my P3 5000ft".

40-60 hours is quite a bit of flight time.. It shouldn't take anywhere near that long to get good at flying a phantom. Not everyone's situation is the same. For someone who lives in a rural area it may be completely safe to fly long ranges without any risk of hurting anyone.

Get one of these http://dbsmods.com/

Anybody on here bought one of those DBS Phantom range extenders for the P3??  I would definitely be interested in buying one if they work as well as the company claims they do...Seriously?? 5.25 miles with a Phantom 3 Pro???  I would have to see it to believe it...

They seem pretty cool, but I wouldn't get one. My controller won't be able to fit in my case. I also don't want to drill into my controller. Also, they are big and kind of ugly.. So far I am happy with my windsurfer antennae booster. I get a 50% to 100% increase in range just with that and it's small and just slides  right off my antennas when I am done flying.

Saw this a while ago haven't tried it but seems like an easier solution!

http://www.phantompilots.com/thr ... or-phantom-3.47516/

Slyone Posted at 2015-8-20 12:51
Saw this a while ago haven't tried it but seems like an easier solution!

http://www.phantompilots.c ...

I built a set of the paper ones before I bought a plastic one.They definitely work, and they only cost about $1.00 to make. I decided to buy a more durable pair made of plastic because the paper ones worked as well as they did.

Yeah, I saw that...for $29.95, the plastic ones seemed like a decent investment.  It seems alot better than ripping the controller apart and voiding the warranty.  I may try to make my own paper ones and see how the range improves before investing $30, but again, it's only $30...compared to the price of most accessories, that's nothing

Another couple things to keep in mind are the following:
1) As your phantom moves farther away, your signal antennas on your transmitter should point lower to the horizon as the copter's position will be a lower angle to your position than when you took off.  This will keep your transmitter's line of site more directed toward the copter
2) As your copter moves further away, you should increase the height to reduce interference from any obstacles and again improve your direct line of site between your transmitter and the copter.   NOTE:  keep your height at 400ft or less

I also agree with everyone here...the parabolic "windsurfer style" boosters DO work quite well.  Just keep the line of site as I mentioned in my previous post.   I was able to get roundtrip 15,000ft with this and even had some forests that I was above, so there was some blockage of line of site.

SpunOne69 Posted at 2015-8-20 11:53
Anybody on here bought one of those DBS Phantom range extenders for the P3??  I would definitely be  ...

I can ALMOST believe 5 miles one way but you are limited to about 3 if you want it back with you. LOL. I use a fpvlr stage 2 for deep forest flying and have gone out 17k feet one way. I had 12% battery when I landed. It is WAY to scary and highly likely that you will lose your investment.

2.1 miles ( 4.2 total miles ) test run today.
No issues, signal was great
Incredible feeling flying my P3P " Skysurfer "
( named after the sport I did when I was a young lad )

Well worth the cost for future long range footage

SkySurfer Posted at 2015-8-21 08:53
2.1 miles ( 4.2 total miles ) test run today.
No issues, signal was great
Incredible feeling flying  ...

Now THAT is impressive.

spheasant1 Posted at 2015-8-21 08:58
Now THAT is impressive.

Thanx

Considering I wasn't high, well it was 100 ft from where I took of on those hills that you see to the left

I could of went further and higher, but I was flying around for 5 minutes before flying out.

2 miles??  That's amazing!! I get uneasy when I'm a 1/2 mile out...I think I'll order one of those windsurfer antennas ASAP

The DBS Extender I was referring to is the one that you actually have to open up the controller to install, it draws power from the controllers battery.  It requires some modification (obviously) and I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with that...but they claim that a P3P can fly 5 miles with their modified antenna.  I am no stranger to "modifying" equipment...I am a network engineer and I fix copiers, routers, PC's etc. on a daily basis, so I don't think installing the antenna would be a big deal...I just don't like trying something like that without any input from the forum.  And I haven't heard anyone on here say that they've bought or tried one the DBS extenders.

spunone69.gmail Posted at 2015-8-21 09:27
2 miles??  That's amazing!! I get uneasy when I'm a 1/2 mile out...I think I'll order one of those w ...

Thanx

For me 2 miles is more than enough to take long range footage, beach, dunes and so on

There's some talk here about DBS

http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/dbs-mods-power.51276/

Yeah...I feel ya!  I don't need to go 5 miles, or even 2...but it would be nice to know that I could if I wanted to ha ha ha

16000 feet is the furthest I have done. This flight was over clear pastures and on a day with low wind speeds. On long distance flights I like to fly out into the wind in atti mode so for the return journey the wind is at my back.

SpunOne69 Posted at 2015-8-20 11:53
Anybody on here bought one of those DBS Phantom range extenders for the P3??  I would definitely be  ...

Yeh i have one and there are multiple threads on here about them.In my opinion these should be a standard antenna from DJI.There penetration in built up areas or dense trees is just amazing.And long range is only limited by your battery.Do your self a favour and get one asap.

OzBlueDragon Posted at 2015-8-20 10:53
If you are "New To This" then you shouldn't be flying BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line Of Sight) for two re ...

"Line of sight" and "within visual sight" are two different things. You can pass a bunch of kid with you car doing 50 mph, they are also innocent. Thats why you drive carefully and have insurence for liability. And of course thats why you have the same kind of insurance for your drone should something unforseen happen

Not sure about these things ie ( if its Poop or not) seems sort of logical. anyone here had experience of them, A remote tinfoil hat ahhaha. could work.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/252058 ... =STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Alien tech Posted at 2015-8-21 16:16
Not sure about these things ie ( if its Poop or not) seems sort of logical. anyone here had experien ...

Yes, that's exactly what I use. I have flown 16,000 feet one way with it, but had to turn around because of battery concerns. It basically doubles my range. No drilling required, slides right off when you are done. It's also cheap. I would recommend it if you are considering buying it.

toddf.perkins@g Posted at 2015-8-21 16:38
Yes, that's exactly what I use. I have flown 16,000 feet one way with it, but had to turn around b ...

Thanks for the hands on experience update/report,  My faith has been increased, Spent out at the min, but its on my board to buy in a month or two, my new P3 advanced order has cleaned me out at the moment, still waiting for it tun up. And trust me when it does, it will be just my luck for it to Peeeeeeeee down with rain for the next week.  

toddf.perkins@g Posted at 2015-8-21 16:38
Yes, that's exactly what I use. I have flown 16,000 feet one way with it, but had to turn around b ...

I, too, got 15,000 ft round trip using one of these from ebay.

Already ordered the windsurfer antenna booster from ebay last night...should be here next week.  Will post test results when available

SpunOne69 Posted at 2015-8-20 11:53
Anybody on here bought one of those DBS Phantom range extenders for the P3??  I would definitely be  ...

great till the juice runs out. its long walk 5 miles, while crying. next they will be selling 1 hour batteries.

Slyone Posted at 2015-8-20 12:51
Saw this a while ago haven't tried it but seems like an easier solution!

http://www.phantompilots.c ...

that's the design and template I have used only I made my one out of a plastic bucket, seen loads of these types now on youtube, and it seems ( to a point) anything goes, after all its a reflector,  just have to glue my old tin foil hat onto my plastic bucket bits, and warp drive is ready, me thinks!  HOPES!   

spunone69.gmail Posted at 2015-8-21 00:04
Yeah, I saw that...for $29.95, the plastic ones seemed like a decent investment.  It seems alot bett ...

plastic buckets, or plastic half gutter pipes work as well, more effort to make, but when done, well, its done!

toddf.perkins@g Posted at 2015-8-21 16:38
Yes, that's exactly what I use. I have flown 16,000 feet one way with it, but had to turn around b ...

would that be the tin foil hat bit, or the Antenna thing ?      sorry had to do it!!

...and again most of those flights are extremely dangerous, if not illegal, yet people applaud them for being "cool". I don't get it. Why do people do those things?

Let's just assume, you lose control or a propeller breaks - suddenly you have 2 lbs of plastics and electronics falling from the sky. You may just imagine the consequences.