SmokinJoe

I have a Dago Red which I flew for the first time today. What a blast. However, I've just got the aerial taped to the side of the fuselage at this stage.

I would appreciate some advice from QM40 pilots on how they route the receiver aerial in the fuselage and where it normally exits the fues.

daven

My Feedback: (1)

Joe, I will tell you how I mount the antennas in all of my racers, includuing a dago, Vendetta, and Miss Ashley. I get a section of antenna tube about 10" long and make a gentle "U" shaped bend in the center. From the receiver I run the antenna forward under the fuel tank in the tubing untill it hits the firewall and comes back on the other side of the fuze. I drill an 1/8" hole under the stab and fish the line back out that hole. I take a piece of racer "speed" tape from www.darrolcady.com and tape about 3" of the antenna flat to the side of the fuze and cover the hole.

I can take pictures if you want.

There are lots of thoughts and views on this, but this has worked pretty good for me. If you check the site I listed above, Darrol has a neat way of running his antennas listed there, that seems to work for quite a few people that I know who have tried it.

One of my concerns with running antennas internally with some of the newer Q40 designs (Proud Bird for example) is the vast amount of Carbon Fiber that is used in the nose, near the front of the tail, and along the fuse sides. Whatever you do, just make sure you are getting a nice solid range check on the ground before flying.

SmokinJoe

Dave,

Any chance of taking some pictures?

I tried running the antenna inside some plastic tube that was just big enough diameter to take the antenna, looping that forward from the Rx up one side of the fuse to the firewall, then back the other side of the fuse right back to the tail. It just fitted in the fuse with nothing sticking out the back.

Only trouble was that I ran out of signal after 20 paces doing the range check. With the antenna run down the outside of the fuselage, the range was 50 paces or more with the Tx aerial collapsed and pointing at the plane.

I am assured that there is no carbon in the fuselage construction - just lots of fibreglass.

daven

My Feedback: (1)

Smoking Joe,

The test is the range check, if your not getting more than 100 feet, I would suggest another method.

Here is Darrol's method that I know a few people are using:

http://www.darrolcady.com/Racing_Inf...ch/Antenna.htm

Here are a couple pictures of how I route my antenna.

The last picture shows the antenna still in the fuze. What I would do is just drill a hole in the side and let about 2-3" come out and tape that to the side of the fuze.

splatt

Looking at your antenna route, the only thing I'd change is to have the antenna pass over the top of the servos. Maybe with a little tube holding it away from the servo arms. The bottom of the servo is where all the electrical stuff is going on. Going over the top, its just gears.

I try to have all the servo wires on one side and the antenna wire on the other.

With my Dago, I loop the antenna forward enough till I have 2 inchs trailing out the back. Electron 6 receiver, a FRESH crystal with 3121 servos. My flys very nice.

BTW, I have mine balanced so my eleavator moves slighty less than 1/8th inch for a nice solid pylon turn.

daven

My Feedback: (1)

I've always run them under the servos, don't want the antenna getting stuck in the gear movement of the servo. IMO, if you can get a good range check, there are lots of ways to run them that will be just fine.