strikerone

Receiver Antenna Routing

I have a question for everyone about antenna routing for planes with removable wings.

Generally(at least on the planes I'm familiar with) the receiver is placed in front of the servo tray for balance. On my Sig LT40 I flew last year, I started out but routing it down through the fuse floor and taped it going back. Needless to say, that didn't last long. The glow fuel residue played havoc with the tape and the antenna kept falling away from the tape. My next bright idea was to send it along the side of the fuse to a point behind the wing saddle then bring it up through the top of the fuse and attach it to the vertical fin. This was a good idea until I tried to put my plane in my car. To put my plane in my car(Pontiac GrandAm) I have to collapse the rear seats. The vertical fin fits neatly through the trunk, under the rear deck, resting on the collapsed seats. When I tried it with the antenna attached to the vertical fin, the rear deck hit the antenna. I ripped the Ultracote where the antenna emerged through the top of the fuse.

Right now I have a piece of drinking straw glued using Thin CA back near the vertical fin, holding the antenna. If I knew then what I know now, it would have been a lot simpler with a lot less fuss.

I've heard about RF interference around the servos. How close is too close or how far away is safe? Is it better to be inside or outside the fuse?

Where do you consider the best maintenance free and interference free route to be?

TIA
Nathan

Lynx

The further away the better. Be more concerned not to run the antenna parallel to a servo wire, or any other wire for that matter as this causes capacitance between the two wires and can really screw up reception. I wouldn't run the antenna within 6 inches of any other wire if it can be helped.

Jeff Thompson

Isn't it pretty hard not to run an antenna wire within six inches of other wires, when all the servo wires enter the receiver two inches away? I try not to run the antenna parallel with servo wires like everybody, but in order to keep interference down I use Nyrods instead of metal wires to link servos to the control horns. They work much better, anyway. Not only do they have the least resistance and better flexibility of any other control rod or wire I've used, but they don't interfere with your radio reception as wires do and it fixes the control rod problems of flex, breakage and having the wire come loose from the wood rod. Who other than me has crashed an ARF because the manufacturer held the wire to the control rod with shrink-wrap tubing that split in flight?

Jeff Thompson

I suppose antenna routing varies depending on the airplane. on most of my nitro-powered planes I route the antenna outside the fuselage, stick a T-pin into the vertical stab and attach a rubber band between the antenna and the pin to keep the antenna taut without pulling hard on it. If you have a problem storing it this way you can always unhook the rubber band from the T-pin to get the antenna out of harm's way. On smaller planes such as slope soarers, mounting it internally is the way to go so you don't break the wire when you land (whether on purpose or not.) There are also aftermarket antennas you can get; one type is shorter than the antenna that comes with your receiver, and sticks to your plane. You could fit it entirely inside your fuselage. It costs about $12. There's also the Deans "Loaded" whip antenna that you can install inside or outside of your plane. It too is shorter than your present antenna, and costs about $12. There are probably more that I don't know about.

Good luck.