On Thu, 22 Apr 2004 20:20:35 -0700, "Dennis Mountains"
wrote:

:I'm building a carbon fiber airplane and understand that the carbon is too
paque to radio signals to use antennas inside the carbon. (The wing tips
:are E-Glass and come with navigation antennas already installed.) For
:communication, marker beacon, and transponder antennas, I'm wondering why I
:can't use a foil tape antenna kit to stick foil tape to the outside of the
:fuselage skin somewhere on the belly and then cover it with a layer of
:E-Glass to protect it? I could use the carbon as the ground plane or build
ne inside the fuselage, if the carbon isn't enough.
:
: I heard from an expert that applying the foil directly to the electrically
:conductive carbon would be just as bad as applying it directly to aluminum.
:That makes sense, so how about I put a nonconductive layer of something
E-Glass?) between the foil and the carbon?

I've done it (with a layer of E-glass in between) on a carbon canard
for a NAV antenna and it worked fine. The same antenna worked for
marker beacon, too, but I was told the link budget for the marker is
huge.

But my understanding is that com and transponder are vertically
polarized. Jim?