New antenna for Hobby King's Orange 9CH RX

On the first day I got my HK 9ch Orange RX before I even tried it out I started thinking, 'how can I make this better?'

My end goal is to get the best range I can with this (until I can afford a UHF system) so I figured that it could use a better antenna.
So first things first, I popped open the case to see how the little coax wire antenna was connected to the board.

I used a strait blade screwdriver and carefully unlatched the little clips on both sides of the case.

Now I could see that it uses a little UFL connector as it's connection. This is great because that means we can plug and play almost any 2.4ghz antenna we want into this RX. 

  

All we need is one of these: (these can be found at Sparkfun or at Mouser.com part # RN-UFL-SMA6)

They come in both regular and reverse polarity SMA. (make sure you check what type of connector your antenna has before you order!)

and one of these: (you can find 2.4ghz antennas everywhere online....Google it, or start with Sparkfun.com)

I already had an antenna siting around (the one that came off my DX6i) and a little cable with a UFL connector on it. I just soldered the two cables together, attached the connector, and snapped the case back together. Please note!! You need to be very careful when you remove the current antenna and snap the new one on. Pull or pry the old connector strait up and use a flat surface (pencil eraser or something like it) to push the new connector strait down into place. Make sure you don't damage the connector or any of the other components on the board.

 Now please note that I haven't even tried this RX out yet, or range tested it. It might work better, or it might be worse...we will see after I test it. However I'm pretty sure that the little black antenna will preform better than a chunk of coax with the braiding stripped off.  I will try to get my findings posted ASAP.

As always, don't try this if your not comfortable doing it. I can't/will not be responsible for any damages or loss of limb if you attempt this mod.  If you have any questions just post them in the comments and I will try to reply to them in a timely manner. :-]

UPDATE!! 8/11/11
I range tested this on my FPV Grim Reaper wing last night. It was solid out to a little over 5100 feet....so around a mile. I started getting glitches at about 5350 and it was totaly gone around 5500feet. However, I only have one satellite receiver on it right now, it was strapped to the top of my buddy's car (so it was only 5.5feet off the ground), and it wasn't a direct line of sight. So if I was flying it might have gotten better range. I was a little disappointed though. I'm using my little wifi booster that is supposedly putting out one watt of power and the transmitting antenna is about 12 feet off the ground. So I expected more. I will have to do more range testing and see what I can get.