On Monday, February 26, 2018 at 12:07:49 PM UTC-8, krasw wrote:

Sorry but with "light test" you have no clue of the turtle deck material.

Dude, chill. They're trying to talk sense for ya.

* Radio waves and light are both electromagnetic radiation; the only difference between them is frequency. If light goes in through the turtledeck structure, then radio waves will almost certainly to in and out as well.

* It doesn't matter if the turtledeck is fiberglass or Kevlar (aramid) or basalt fiber. If light goes through it, so will radio waves. Light doesn't go through carbon or aluminum, and neither does radio waves. BTW that's one of the reasons UV-curing vinylester resins are kind of a dead-end, they won't play nice with carbon. Someday there might be x-ray-curing vinynlesters, though, so hang on to your lead apron.

* When I designed the HP-24 fuselage, I surveyed the field and found that many if not most manufacturers were using radio transparent fiberglass for the portion over the wing, and I did the same. I also made the rudder out of Kevlar, and developed a tuned dipole com antenna that is a standard part of the rudder kit.

* I specifically decided not to develop an internal transponder antenna for the rudder or fuselage; for that I recommend an external blade antenna. I have on my to-do list the development of a flush 1090 mHz slot antenna, but it's pretty far down the list.

--Bob K.