couple things here; the antenna can be more than .25" from the transmitter as long as it is connected with a 50 ohm connection. this needs to be either using 50 ohm cable or a microtransmission line. at any rate, all of this is covered in the linx whitepaper (rdf24002).

while the irf6 mod works (what were they thinking with that cable?!!) it does not solve all problems with the t2/irf6 combo. specifically, the problem that most installers have with the set (and rti has alluded to this themselves) is that the transmitter is unable to transmit with enough power to pruduce a coherent signal over the noise floor, which happens because there are so many other devices operating in the exact same band with much higher gain. because of this, moving to another band *will* work (including 900 mhz) as long as the the same problem does not exist in the new band. ultimately, this becomes a problem to find unless you have the ability to take background readings or else you need to test empirically. the reason that i know this is only because i have access to a network analyzer for the design process.

As for the FCC, gaining up the remote even several db will not get you in trouble as long as you follow the rules... the fcc procedures on this topic are as a matter of fact, quite interesting: you can increase the power as long as there are no complaints (i.e. if the neighbor complains about his tv reception, you need to work with them to fix it) AND you are not producing them/modding them commercially...

This means that an installer can roll his own as long as he is responsible about it but your mail order mods are definately a no-no!

Once again, as i said before, this is definately not something that everyone should try; if you do not have any experience with electronics then this is something that should be left to someone who does, but in the hands of someone who knows a thing or two, it makes a world of difference, especially if you have a customer who just wants his remote to work as promised. The rti is a *great* remote for the money, and when it works, everyone who owns one loves it, but the fact of the matter is that the rf section is a terrible design, and needs to be addressed.

I noticed that alot of installers here have complained and noone was offering any suggestions. these forums are about the free exchange of ideas and information and this information can potentially help alot of people out there to understand why the remote will work just fine in one area but not in another (and in those areas, the irf6 mod will probably not help). at least in this case, they have some recourse and some possible fixes.

For anyone who decides to take the leap and try any of these mods, i would suggest taking an experimantal approach; try things in a temporary manner before settling on permanantely altering the remote. to be honest the biggest performance gain came from the easier mod; adding the stub antenna. while it is not the most asthetically pleasing, the performance gain was phenomenal...