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#1
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Antenna installation question
I am installing a regular rod type antenna on the wooden turtledeck of
my plane where it will attach to only wood. I got the antenna from a friend who didn't have the attaching hardware. Do I need to do or know anything special to attach this antenna to make sure it operates correctly? Does it need to have a metal plate on the inside of the airframe to attach to or does it need to somehow be connected to the metal part of the airframe for proper reception/ transmission? Can I just use local hardware store parts? I will be running the cable to my handheld radio. Thanks for any assistance. Stan (mechanical novice) |
#2
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Antenna installation question
On Feb 27, 8:27*am, wrote:
I am installing a regular rod type antenna on the wooden turtledeck of my plane where it will attach to only wood. I got the antenna from a friend who didn't have the attaching hardware. Do I need to do or know anything special to attach this antenna to make sure it operates correctly? *Does it need to have a metal plate on the inside of the airframe to attach to or does it need to somehow be connected to the metal part of the airframe for proper reception/ transmission? Can I just use local hardware store parts? I will be running the cable to my handheld radio. Thanks for any assistance. Stan (mechanical novice) Stan, The metal plate you're thinking of would be called the Ground Plane I beileve. I've run into this issue putting an antenna into my wood glider. What I did was make a simple ground plane antenna that uses 4 wires for the ground plane. I got a BNC connector from Radio Shack (I could give you the number) and 5 thin welding rods. 1 rod gets soldiered on top as the antenna and the other 4 project downward at roughly a 45 degree angle from each corner. You might have seen antennas that look like this on top of airport hangers or FBOs. You clip the rods to the proper length for glider frequencies (I could also give you that number). The great thing is that these are really cheap, really lightweight, and the whole thing is flexible enough that you can wedge it in some pretty tight places. Mine fit right into the space under the turtledeck of my Woodstock which is a pretty tiny glider. Zip ties hold it in place. With my ancient Narco handheld plugged into this thing I can talk to people 200 miles away when I'm at altitude. Once while landing out I was still talking to my crew when I was down to 300 ft and they were over 20 miles away on the ground! So, these cheap antennas really work. Matt |
#3
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Antenna installation question
please see my page http://www.wingsandwheels.com/page14.htm
The basic math for 1/4 wave antenna is quite simple 1/4 wave = 234 divided by frequency or to arrive at a proper antenna length. As an example for 123.5 would be 234 / 123.5 = 22.8"....this length should however also take into effect the distance from the ground plane to the antenna mast tip. Considering this though an antenna cut for 118.00 would be 23.88" and one for 136.00 MHz would be 20.64 so the total difference is only just over 3" to cover the entire aviation band and 1/4 wave antennas are fairly tolerant and will function with fair results several MHz off from the "ideal" antenna length. tim -- Please visit the Wings & Wheels website at www.wingsandwheels.com wrote in message ... I am installing a regular rod type antenna on the wooden turtledeck of my plane where it will attach to only wood. I got the antenna from a friend who didn't have the attaching hardware. Do I need to do or know anything special to attach this antenna to make sure it operates correctly? Does it need to have a metal plate on the inside of the airframe to attach to or does it need to somehow be connected to the metal part of the airframe for proper reception/ transmission? Can I just use local hardware store parts? I will be running the cable to my handheld radio. Thanks for any assistance. Stan (mechanical novice) |
#4
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Antenna installation question
One other thing to do is to use more than 4 wires (multi stranded computer
ribbon cable say) and cut them to suit the whole spectrum of frequencies you will use. This way at least your ground plane will be more closely tuned.. Running the wire at different angles will also vary the impedance (50 ohm required for a 1/4 wave) so again the different lengths will get you to a much closer result.. Malcolm... "Tim Mara" wrote in message ... please see my page http://www.wingsandwheels.com/page14.htm The basic math for 1/4 wave antenna is quite simple 1/4 wave = 234 divided by frequency or to arrive at a proper antenna length. As an example for 123.5 would be 234 / 123.5 = 22.8"....this length should however also take into effect the distance from the ground plane to the antenna mast tip. Considering this though an antenna cut for 118.00 would be 23.88" and one for 136.00 MHz would be 20.64 so the total difference is only just over 3" to cover the entire aviation band and 1/4 wave antennas are fairly tolerant and will function with fair results several MHz off from the "ideal" antenna length. tim -- Please visit the Wings & Wheels website at www.wingsandwheels.com wrote in message ... I am installing a regular rod type antenna on the wooden turtledeck of my plane where it will attach to only wood. I got the antenna from a friend who didn't have the attaching hardware. Do I need to do or know anything special to attach this antenna to make sure it operates correctly? Does it need to have a metal plate on the inside of the airframe to attach to or does it need to somehow be connected to the metal part of the airframe for proper reception/ transmission? Can I just use local hardware store parts? I will be running the cable to my handheld radio. Thanks for any assistance. Stan (mechanical novice) |
#5
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Antenna installation question
I have also used Foil Tape on wood gliders with good success.....foil tape
can be found at any local hardware (home depot and Lowe's also have it)....in the heating departments, used as a "duct tape".....but don't use common silver colored "Duct ""Duck"" tape....has to be metal tim Please visit the Wings & Wheels website at www.wingsandwheels.com "Malcolm Austin" wrote in message ... One other thing to do is to use more than 4 wires (multi stranded computer ribbon cable say) and cut them to suit the whole spectrum of frequencies you will use. This way at least your ground plane will be more closely tuned.. Running the wire at different angles will also vary the impedance (50 ohm required for a 1/4 wave) so again the different lengths will get you to a much closer result.. Malcolm... "Tim Mara" wrote in message ... please see my page http://www.wingsandwheels.com/page14.htm The basic math for 1/4 wave antenna is quite simple 1/4 wave = 234 divided by frequency or to arrive at a proper antenna length. As an example for 123.5 would be 234 / 123.5 = 22.8"....this length should however also take into effect the distance from the ground plane to the antenna mast tip. Considering this though an antenna cut for 118.00 would be 23.88" and one for 136.00 MHz would be 20.64 so the total difference is only just over 3" to cover the entire aviation band and 1/4 wave antennas are fairly tolerant and will function with fair results several MHz off from the "ideal" antenna length. tim -- Please visit the Wings & Wheels website at www.wingsandwheels.com wrote in message ... I am installing a regular rod type antenna on the wooden turtledeck of my plane where it will attach to only wood. I got the antenna from a friend who didn't have the attaching hardware. Do I need to do or know anything special to attach this antenna to make sure it operates correctly? Does it need to have a metal plate on the inside of the airframe to attach to or does it need to somehow be connected to the metal part of the airframe for proper reception/ transmission? Can I just use local hardware store parts? I will be running the cable to my handheld radio. Thanks for any assistance. Stan (mechanical novice) |
#6
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Antenna installation question
On Feb 27, 3:32*pm, "Tim Mara" wrote:
I have also used Foil Tape on wood gliders with good success.....foil tape can be found at any local hardware (home depot and Lowe's also have it)....in the heating departments, used as a "duct tape".....but don't use common silver colored "Duct ""Duck"" tape....has to be metal tim Please visit the Wings & Wheels website atwww.wingsandwheels.com I echo Tim. I have metal foil tape on the inside of the turtledeck of my Austria, and it works great. You take ground from the antenna and connect to the foil tape. It lasts a long time (it was like this when I bought in '95) and works cheaply. You could also put the ground plane and antenna internally, which would be less prone to damage, look better, and slightly improve aerodynamics, assuming you have room for the antenna; wood is transparent. Just a thought... Dan |
#7
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Antenna installation question
On Feb 28, 5:09*am, Dan wrote:
On Feb 27, 3:32*pm, "Tim Mara" wrote: I have also used Foil Tape on wood gliders with good success.....foil tape can be found at any local hardware (home depot and Lowe's also have it)....in the heating departments, used as a "duct tape".....but don't use common silver colored "Duct ""Duck"" tape....has to be metal tim Please visit the Wings & Wheels website atwww.wingsandwheels.com I echo Tim. *I have metal foil tape on the inside of the turtledeck of my Austria, and it works great. *You take ground from the antenna and connect to the foil tape. *It lasts a long time (it was like this when I bought in '95) and works cheaply. You could also put the ground plane and antenna internally, which would be less prone to damage, look better, and slightly improve aerodynamics, assuming you have room for the antenna; wood is transparent. Just a thought... Dan Yes, my Woodstock antenna is completely inside the glider as is the Cherokee Kids installation. |
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