[N7UJJ]

The photo of "Virginia's DREAM" is just the drive train module. We are still building a "ball lifter" which will be mounted on the drive train and the radio transceiver will eventually be mounted on the superstructure. The radio placement you see in the photo is temporary. Currently we are running the robot around the halls so prospective drivers can get some practice.

One advantage of our builinding material, extruded fiberglass, is that it is transparent to radio waves so the fiberglass does not block the signals.

Having the external metal antenna and the internal antenna "vertically polarized" does make a difference, assuming that the operator radio antennas are also vertically polarized.