Wireless antennas-paddles

[Blah067]

Question about paddle antennas for wireless.
Is it practical/acceptable to use one paddle and one omni, or both the same?

The rental house I go though only includes 1 for free, the second costs a few hundred to rent. I want to use paddles for distance and better RF, but I'm already proposing a 3000 dollar rental!

[waynehoskins]

One each way would probably do fine.

[Stookeybrd]

Hmmmm, Interesting.
Anything is acceptable as long as it improves the sound(safety first).
Is this practical? Not so much.

As long as you have the two antennas spaced apart and in true diversity set-up, you will notice no difference. But like you said, a paddle has better RF at distance and directionality.

However, if that only applies for mics, if your using IEMs, a omni is rarely used, and 1 paddle will suit your fine.



I would also recommend finding a new rental house... seems like they nickel and dime you.

[DaveySimps]

I agree. It will work technically speaking, but not the best way to do it. Seems like you are being charged a lot just for different antenna. I would get other quotes.

~Dave

[Blah067]

Originally Posted by DaveySimps

I agree. It will work technically speaking, but not the best way to do it. Seems like you are being charged a lot just for different antenna. I would get other quotes.

~Dave

They're actually the only local place who rents UHF-R from Shure. Let's not get into the debate about the gear, it's all I'll pay money for to rent. (or start a new thread bashing me..i don't really care).

For the record, they don't usually nickel and dime. They give you a huge selection of mics and capsules, give you as much xlr or 1/4 inch as you need, adapters, etc etc for free.

So I can't complain too much...

[waynehoskins]

If you know your operating frequencies (and if they're close enough) you could construct a simple beam with parts from your junk box. Not amplified, no, but still gain over a vertical.

Alternatively, and certainly more flexible, you could construct a log-periodic. That's all a paddle is, a log-periodic, usually with a low-noise preamp at the feedpoint. A log-periodic is a touch more difficult to construct because of the electrical phasing of the elements, but it's still pretty easy. And it behaves as a three-element beam at pretty much all frequencies in its "passband", so you still have gain over a vertical.

So there's a cheap junkbox solution that should offer you gain over just a vertical on that second diversity channel. Not amplified, no, but if your feedlines aren't terribly long it ought to work fine.

Another option is a television receiving antenna, something like the bowties in front of a reflector plane. I've used that before. Not very directional, but still some gain over just a vertical .. and you or somebody probably has one of those knocking around.

[DaveySimps]

I would never bash the Shure UHF-R gear, it is excellent stuff. Sounds like you are stuck a bit, as far as vendors go. There are a lot of people in that situation I am sure.

~Dave

Originally Posted by Blah067

They're actually the only local place who rents UHF-R from Shure. Let's not get into the debate about the gear, it's all I'll pay money for to rent. (or start a new thread bashing me..i don't really care).

For the record, they don't usually nickel and dime. They give you a huge selection of mics and capsules, give you as much xlr or 1/4 inch as you need, adapters, etc etc for free.

So I can't complain too much...

[Chris15]

Note these things:

There are 2 types of paddle, one with a preamp and one without. If you have an active one, you will notice a gain difference at the receiver.

If you are using a non paddle antenna say a TV antenna, remember to polarise it vertically. Most TV transmissions downunder are horizontally polarised and hence we have our antennas horizontal, not sure about your situation. (Vertical polarisation would have been so much better - far fewer issues with birds sitting on antennas )

If you know which band you are working in, you might even get away with a Yagi since you may not need the frequency range of an LPDA.

You may also consider building a helical antenna, they are particularly good at dealing with those that don't have antennas perfectly vertically polarised

UHF-R is great gear.

As always, try and keep your feedlines as short as practical.

Oh and don't forget that so long as there is no need for power feeding, you can mix and match brands.

And chances are that these guys have one batwing left in inventory for the time you want it and the coupla hundred represents a cross hire...

[BNBSound]

I've had one paddle and one omni work fine in a pinch. Making an antenna distribution box supply twice as many mics as it was designed for. Four mics saw the paddle on channel A and the vert on channel B and the opposite for the other four. Guess which channels the mics preferred... yeah, it was the wierdest thing seeing diversity mics pegged on one channel the whole night. Worked just fine though, no drop outs.

[Andy_Leviss]

Originally Posted by Blah067

Question about paddle antennas for wireless.
Is it practical/acceptable to use one paddle and one omni, or both the same?

The rental house I go though only includes 1 for free, the second costs a few hundred to rent. I want to use paddles for distance and better RF, but I'm already proposing a 3000 dollar rental!

Will it work? Perhaps, if you're not in too hostile an RF environment. But that's an entirely different question than whether it's acceptable or practical, in which case the answer is that it is absolutely not in any way, shape, or form, and a shop that would do something as questionable and that makes me doubt their knowlege, and quality of both their service and their gear immediately. That's a huge red flag.

The omni whip COMPLETELY defeats the purpose of a directional paddle. The whole idea is to increase signal gain in your usage area, while also increasing rejection of outside signals that might cause interference.

Not to mention that a few hundred for a paddle is highway robbery (I'm assuming that's a weekly price?), even here in NYC, which tends to be on the high end of the price scale.