How to hook handheld up to external antenna?

[Roy Smith]

My club wants to equip all our planes with jacks so people can plug
their handhelds into an external antenna in case the panel radios fail.

In the past, what we've done is had a length of coax run into the
cockpit with a BNC connector crimped onto it. The problem there is it
tends to get kicked around, the connector gets smashed, etc. When you
need it, it's not usable.

One alternative I've thought of is to have the antenna cable run to a
BNC jack on the panel. The problem with that idea is then you need a
length of cable to go from the jack to your radio, which will in turn
get lost, smashed up, etc.

Has anybody come up with a good solution to this problem?

[G.R. Patterson III]

Roy Smith wrote:
>
> Has anybody come up with a good solution to this problem?

Jim Weir has. Check out http://www.rst-engr.com/kitplanes/KP0203/KP0203.htm

George Patterson
Great discoveries are not announced with "Eureka!". What's usually said is
"Hummmmm... That's interesting...."

[Tom Pappano]

Roy Smith wrote:

> My club wants to equip all our planes with jacks so people can plug
> their handhelds into an external antenna in case the panel radios fail.
>
> In the past, what we've done is had a length of coax run into the
> cockpit with a BNC connector crimped onto it. The problem there is it
> tends to get kicked around, the connector gets smashed, etc. When you
> need it, it's not usable.
>
> One alternative I've thought of is to have the antenna cable run to a
> BNC jack on the panel. The problem with that idea is then you need a
> length of cable to go from the jack to your radio, which will in turn
> get lost, smashed up, etc.
>
> Has anybody come up with a good solution to this problem?

Have each member carry and be responsible for their own cable, and
maybe they'll take better care of them 8-)

FWIW, I have used a lot of "crimp on" BNC connectors on Ethernet
cables, and if moved or handled a lot, the shield braid usually
breaks right at the connector. Adding a piece of heat shrink
tubing as a strain relief improves their longevity quite a bit.

[Jim Weir]

Oh GRIEF, George. Posting a website with free information that is linked to my
business? HORRORS.

{;-)

Jim

(But thanks for saving me the time of having to look it up for the guy.)


"G.R. Patterson III" >
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

->
->
->Roy Smith wrote:
->>
->> Has anybody come up with a good solution to this problem?
->
->Jim Weir has. Check out http://www.rst-engr.com/kitplanes/KP0203/KP0203.htm


Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

[Jim Weir]

BTW, in the 182 the "emergency" cable to connect the handheld to the panel
connector is made from the little tiny RG-174 coax with BNC crimp on one end and
the 3.5 mm connector on the other end, both with shrink sleeving to keep the
ends from breaking at the connector.

It is then coiled up, tied up with an "asparagus" tie and put in the glove box.
Don't use a tie-wrap because the odds of your having a knife to undo it in an
emergency is inversely proportional to the seriousness of the emergency.

Unless you have Cessna-Crafted® radios, you won't be using this cable but four
or five times in the airplane's life, so why are you worried about it breaking?
OTOH, if you DO have Cessna-Crafted® radios, I'd make it out of steel jacketed
material welded together with a torch.

Jim



->->>
->->> Has anybody come up with a good solution to this problem?
->->
->->Jim Weir has. Check out http://www.rst-engr.com/kitplanes/KP0203/KP0203.htm




Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

[Snowbird]

Roy Smith > wrote in message >...
> My club wants to equip all our planes with jacks so people can plug
> their handhelds into an external antenna in case the panel radios fail.

> In the past, what we've done is had a length of coax run into the
> cockpit with a BNC connector crimped onto it. The problem there is it
> tends to get kicked around, the connector gets smashed, etc. When you
> need it, it's not usable.

> One alternative I've thought of is to have the antenna cable run to a
> BNC jack on the panel. The problem with that idea is then you need a
> length of cable to go from the jack to your radio, which will in turn
> get lost, smashed up, etc.

Couldn't the jack-to-radio cable be coiled up and kept in the
glove compartment? Or, make each person w/ a handheld responsible
for rolling (and toting) their own radio-to-bnc cable -- we have
an extra length ourselves

wrt the bnc connector in the panel, one Grumman I saw had a
lower-tech solution. The cable between the radio and the
antenna looped through two holes in the panel. at the 2nd
hole, it was cut and a BNC connector put into place. So
there was no switch involved. It was very neatly done and
looked reasonable. I'll try to find a picture.

Cheers,
Sydney

[EDR]

In article >, Snowbird
> wrote:

On our Champ, we just coil up the coax and stuff it space between the
wing root and the windscreen.