Spray paint for parabolic radio antenna

[frank26080115]

My robot has one of those super cheap RF transmitter and receiver modules. It's works great in my house but it suffers from low range and maybe even noise.

So me and my friend are talking about using a salad bowl covered with aluminum foil for a dish antenna, but I didn't want it to look messy so I suggested paint. I know silvery spray paint actually has aluminum particles in it to give it the shiny look, would it work?

[bukowski]

Odds are it would insulate it more, not add to the conductivity.
You'd do better with amping up the output of the transmitter.

[Admin]

No because with the low metal content it'd have a very high electrical resistance.

Make sure both antennae are parallel to each other for maximum reception. Also try making your antenna longer by at least 3x (attach another wire to it or something). Lastly, keep your antennae away from large metal objects and your robot motors - interfering electrical noise.

If these ideas don't help, post again and I'll give you a few more ideas.

[frank26080115]

My antennas are the lengths recommended in the module's datasheets, would using multiples of that length increase performance?

[Admin]

depends on why they decided on that length . . . couldnt hurt to try . . .

[dunk]

for straight whip antenna the most efficient antenna length is 1/4 the wavelength if i remember correctly.
speed = frequency / wavelength
(where speed is the speed of light etc.)

i'm afraid i don't know anything about optimal shapes/sizes for other antenna shapes.

dunk.