A butterfly style antenna is the wrong choice for most people.

[Doc Justice]

A butterfly style antenna is the wrong choice for most people.

 

I have talked with a lot of mixers lately about the sudden popularity of these antennas, and there is a surprising amount of confusion about what they are, what they do well, and what they do not do at all.

 

For the RF engineers out there, feel free to chime in and correct me where I’m wrong.

 

A butterfly style antenna is a wideband dipole with a very broad pickup pattern. It hears a huge stretch of spectrum at once. That wide reach is the whole point of the design. It gives you flexibility across many blocks. It gives you one antenna that works with almost anything. That part is real. It also looks cool. That’s real, too.

 

The problem is that most people never use the advantage that the butterfly offers. Most ENG bag mixers live inside one block or maybe two. If you already know the block you are working in, there is no benefit to an antenna that is trying to listen to everything from one end of the spectrum to the other. All that extra pickup invites noise. It raises the floor. It lets in transmission that you are not using and do not need.

 

A single tuned dipole does the opposite. It focuses on the specific range you actually work in. It does not waste energy on the rest. That is why tuned dipoles almost always give you a cleaner signal to noise ratio. They are simple, predictable, and they only care about the world you operate in. The Lectrosonics SN600a has always been a favorite for that reason. It is adjustable and easy to dial in.

 

Side note: Hey Lectro! You’ve really gotta update the SN600a. It’s crazy that it’s still only for 550-800mhz.

 

Now let’s talk about what is really happening when you mount any antenna to the front of an ENG bag. The moment that antenna leaves the mess inside the bag, everything gets better. You lift the antenna away from the receivers, batteries, metal, the body, and all the RF clutter you carry around all day. That alone is the reason people think the butterfly is saving them. It is not. The improvement comes from height and placement. Put almost any antenna outside the bag and results will improve. Put a tuned dipole outside the bag and results will improve even more.

 

Long, long ago, I bought a pair of 433mhz dipoles that are meant for drone transmission. They cost fifteen bucks a piece, and can be cut to the right length. They’re linked in this post. Aside from the dirt cheap price, there are plenty of benefits. It weighs nothing. It bends. It stashes anywhere. It takes up no room on a bag. And it is so cheap that there is no reason not to try it. There is nothing magical about it. It is just a proper dipole tuned to the range you actually use.

 

If you’re looking to extend the wireless range on a bag rig, the answer is pretty straightforward. Use a quality distro, keep your cables short, and mount your antennas outside the bag. If you are living in a single block, a butterfly gives you nothing. If you are in one consistent chunk of spectrum, a tuned dipole is the better choice. The reason is not marketing. It is physics.

 

If you still swear that the butterfly antenna is the best choice for you, well, you’re not wrong. It’s just a personal choice. If you need the broad spectrum of a butterfly, go for it. If your priority is the cleanest possible RF inside a narrow range, you will get more from a simple tuned dipole than any wideband solution. And for the price of lunch, you can test it yourself.

 

https://www.getfpv.com/uhf-semi-rigid-dipole-433-mhz-ibcrazy.html

[JesseF]

2 hours ago, Doc Justice said:

Most ENG bag mixers live inside one block or maybe two. 

 

Is this actually the case? Most wireless kits are wide-band these days and can span 3 blocks or more easily.  Scanning and changing frequencies on the fly (with Shure or Zaxcom for instance) could bounce from one block to the other at a moments notice. 

[DanieldH]

4 reference

 

[Conor]

Filters and attenuators exist for this reason and pair very well with the SNA600A.

 

[Matthew Steel]

14 hours ago, Doc Justice said:

Side note: Hey Lectro! You’ve really gotta update the SN600a. It’s crazy that it’s still only for 550-800mhz.

 

The data sheet says the arm length for 550MHz center frequency has good performance from 465MHz -850MHz.  Are you wanting a narrower range?

I use the full US-legal range of blocks 470-23 and I am glad I can do that with a single antenna.

[Derek H]

Halter tech product release coming?

[fieldsound]

I agree that here in Canada I would have no use for one of the newer dipoles with reception into the gigahertz territory because I never work above 663 mhz.

 

Personally I like my Betsos a lot and they’re essential to my workflow. I use them with Wisycom wide-band, and I will sometimes go from working in 500 mhz to the duplex gap in the same day. I use a BSRF AS84 RF distribution and filter, and simply tune the narrowband filter to whatever area of the spectrum I’m working in. This system has proven to be extremely robust. 

[Doc Justice]

6 hours ago, Derek H said:

Halter tech product release coming?

No way, not my domain. I'm just a humble sound mixer, trying to spark some thought and conversation.

[karlw]

9 hours ago, Matthew Steel said:

 

The data sheet says the arm length for 550MHz center frequency has good performance from 465MHz -850MHz.  Are you wanting a narrower range?

I use the full US-legal range of blocks 470-23 and I am glad I can do that with a single antenna.

The data sheet mentions: "Adjustable elements tune center frequency from 550 to 800 MHz" in one of the bullets. The description in the main text points out that the antenna generally has a 100 MHz bandwidth, which would be roughly +- 50 MHz from the center frequency. So, if it is set to 550, you'd have about 500 - 600 MHz covered. However, the dropoff is fairly gradual at either end, so you are only losing a dB or two at 470 and 614 MHz, so this antenna, set for 550 MHz center frequency (the lowest available) is a pretty good match to the A1B1 (470-608 MHz) frequency range. 

[Michiel]

Interesting topic. I have the original antennas directly into the (Wisycom) receiver(s) on the left with the IEM/guide transmitter on the far right outside the bag. In theory a direct connection should minimize any interference that could leak into an extension cable.

 

I hired such butterfly antennas once many years ago for a bigger reach but it was marginal and added weight, clutter, sharp edges and acoustic noise (because I had no way of mounting them properly to the bag)...

[Pocketsizesound]

On 11/19/2025 at 5:31 PM, Doc Justice said:

A butterfly style antenna is the wrong choice for most people.

 

 

 

Amen brother. I use my own made flexible dipoles (somewhat similar to the link you posted) and directional fins. And it's really puzzling to see people buy the same trendy products without bothering to invest about one hour into understanding how they work. 

[Mark LeBlanc]

Interesting how a pic of my Omni setup pops up.. I can comment on the 2 SNA setup.. I was using this with my Zaxcom Nova 2 setup which has 35mhz filters build in and you can set a center frequency.. We were covering a scene where actors converge to the center of an intersection of our exterior set. They were giving dialog from the street as they head to the middle where most of the scene took place.. During the main part of the scene this omni rig was directly over the set, just off camera frame.. We also fight horrible RF interference from very large Antenna arrays south of Dallas.. I had clean, line of sight reception from all actors and worked great for 14 lavs and 2 booms!  I keep this setup built on my Trailer for this exact spot on set.