Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Hi all,

Ive got a silly little discussion with a friend of mine.
I want to feed the antenna wire through the carbonfiber tale of my falcon,
instead of out the side and around back, taped to the booms outside, getting hung up on landings and stuff..

In a bad throw my thumb got stuck on it and the props almost chewed off the wire..

But my friend keeps going on about encasing an antenna with carbon will kill the reception.
So what is it? Can I feed the antenna through the tailboom and get away with it?

Best Regards,
Sven

Mokken

My Feedback: (63)

I don't see why not, do a range check before flying..simple enough....

carcraze

You will want to do a good range check as I believe your friend is describing a Faraday Cage. I am no expert but as I understand it RF shielding can be done through a refinement of the Faraday Cage and is done by enclosing it in a conductive material. Carbon fibre is a conductive material so you need to take care and do a good range check from all angles just in case.

Mat

LSP972

My Feedback: (13)

carcraze is correct; you are describing a Faraday Cage.

And your friend is correct. IOW, don't do it.

Time Pilot

I bet a 3 inch piece of scotch tape along the area that you get hung up on would take care of your problem.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Well, you could slap some playdough over it for all you care, it just doesnt make it any pertier. And thats actually the main goal now.
And is carbonfibre really conductive?

vicman

My Feedback: (10)

OOOHHH YEAHH it's conductive! No fly fishing in a thunderstorm! Fish not biting, poor reception will be the least of your worries.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Whahah, ok then.
Ill just drill a new hole in the butt area of the pod insted of the side then. Ill just tape it under the boom with black tape like I did now.

Funny thing is though, my other boom-pod plane has its antenna prefabbed into the carbon tale. [&:]
Are those people at the plant so stupid, or is there "a way" ?

Lynx

It isn't inherantly a problem, the only way to be sure if the specific setup you have is going to work or not is to do a full range check with a friend to see if different orientations of the plane cause problems. It may not cause any problems at all. Carbon fiber might be conductive, but it's not a very good conductor so it's not like encasing your antenna in a steel tube.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

[quote]ORIGINAL: Freakazoid
Funny thing is though, my other boom-pod plane has its antenna prefabbed into the carbon tale. [&:]
Are those people at the plant so stupid, or is there "a way" ?
[/quote

Maybe not stupid at all, There is a huge variety of those airplanes and not all have Carbon Fibre tubes. Some are fibreglass arrowshaft and some are just plastic, neither are conductive or a problem and often look just like CF tube.

Freakazoid

My Feedback: (1)

Oh my, I didnt even think of that.
It might just be fibreglass or something, because it looks kinda layered.

Anyway, I'll just try it out and see what happens, but I wont plug up the hole in the side just yet.

clockdryve

I hear alot of suggestions telling to keep antenna away from carbon rods (NO CONTACT) and that carbon rods rubbing together make glitches. Carbon will conduct electrical signals> Take a pencil and draw a line, then check with OHM meter for (continuity) it WILL beep. If you choose to put in carbon (as long as antenna is longer than rod) there will not be a block of signal (make sure some antenna sticks out) if not sticking out the signal will be reflected by longer lenght of carbon (reflecting shorter wavelength then itself) Also (AREA) of antenna that enters AND sticks out of carbon rod will have to be protected against chaffing away the insulation...............or you will short antenna to carbon-causing static (glitching) Another point to think about................STATIC will be caused by antenna insulation rubbing against carbon (NO CONTACT POLICY) Causing some small glitching some of the time. Aaaaaaah but I LOVE CARBON anyway!!! Personel note: I think that if you make antenna tight inside carbon-this will minimize the rubbing inside (causing) the intermittent short term glitching???????

clockdryve

STATIC is a very broadband radio signal............covers many radio frequencies ( most all to some extent) Duel band receiver WILL help here, with double channel conversion and narrower band reception.

hypersoniq

Kitplane manufacturers, like S.N.A. (makers of the Seawind 3000 Amphibian and the 300C) make use of E-Glass due to corrosion resistance, also, they mount their antennas inside the glass vertical fin because fiberglass is invisible to radio signals, this makes a sleeker plane... free of external antennas. They caution against the use of Carbon Fiber because CF acts as an RF shield.
I would imagine that what you want to do would be the same as cutting off a length of the antenna equal to the length of the carbon fiber rod... might work but would probably adversely affect overall range.