Hello,
I have noticed that in a lot of ARF's, in the instructions it will tell you to run your receiver antenna out of the fuselage and to string it up on the vertical stabilizer. Does this make a big difference, as opposed to running it down into the fuselage? Just curious to see how many people do put the wire up there, because the planes I've seen don't have that.
Thanks

Some run through a tube inside the fuselage, I run alot of mine along the bottom.
In fact the one place I don't like to run the antenna is out the top to the vert. stab. simply because it has a tendency of getting caught on stuff while handling and it spoils the looks of scale planes.

I like to run mine down the wing or fuselage so it's out of the way. Pushrod tubes work great for this. The most critical part of this is to ensure you run it in a straight path as long as you can. From what I've gathered, this will be the effective part of your antenna. Interesting info on this subject... http://www.rc-cam.com/ant_exp.htm

I've run my antennae down to 1/3 their effective(zig zag mounting) length and been fine. Can't imagine I fly past 1500 ft at the very most so 1/3 full range for me has worked in this instance without incident... * knocks on wood *

somgeeek

What is not good is to run the antenna close to parallel metal rods, such as all metal push rods going to the elevator and rudder. That seems to be a general rule of thumb.

And, as already stated, running the antenna straight as possible out of the receiver is what is best. The antenna length is somewhat critical in all of these systems. 72 MHz, for instance, uses a quarter wave length antenna which is 40.74 inches. (72.450 MHz). Antennas are normally cut for the mid frequency range of the band. So, never cut an antenna 'to fit' because it needs the entire length to operate properly.

On my 90 size pattern plane, when I was running 72 MHz (Airtronics RD8000 channel 11) I ran the antenna along the bottom of the fuselage. What I did was drill a small hole right behind where the wing saddle is, and passed the antenna through there and through a 'strain relief' so that it did not pull against the receiver. I then ran it along the bottom of the fuselage stretching it so that it is 'tight', then put a piece of either matching covering over the length of the antenna or a design color strip of covering. I then hit the covering with the iron. It looks good, and you cannot see the antenna, AND it is out of the way. See the diagram.

CGr

I think I'll try that, thanks.

What's nice about that, it hides the antenna but puts it in an ideal location plus it remains fully extended.

What happens sometimes is this: Often, people will pull the antenna through a tube as suggested above, which is just fine by the way. However, they fail to tie it off on the end or at the beginning (preferably at the end) and, with vibration, it will snake back into the fuselage into a ball and this will definitely make for a bad-hair-day. So, no matter what way you route the antenna, make darned sure you secure it so that it does NOT snake back up in the tube or somehow back into the fuselage.

The method I described above will definitely prevent this, as well as looks good. I've had people at the field ask me where my antenna was routed. I pointed at the strip on the bottom of the fuselage and they took a good close look before they realize that it's really under that strip of covering.

CGr.

CGR do you cover the whole antenna with covering when you put it on the bottom?

G'Mornin, Irish.

I cover as much as I can. If the antenna stretches beyond the fuselage, as it would on some smaller models, well, it will have to hang over. Just secure it as it goes out the rear by some tape. Blenderm (as used on foamies... see my post on the bug) is very strong and practically invisible. You just don't want it to whip around and end up tearing the covering (if it hangs off the end). But, I can tell ya, it does look good. I have a blue fuselage bottom on my Excellerion 90 and put a strip of red for covering the antenna as described above. It looked pretty neat, and you couldn't tell it was there to cover the antenna. (of course, 72 MHz only.. the DX7, which I put in later, and as you know, is not necessary to make up such a scheme.

And, a round bottom fuselage, like the Nexstar, for instance, is not a problem at all. Pretty much the same as it would be for a flat bottom fuselage, just a little more care to iron on the covering.

CGr.

Thank you Sir: Are you still in the warm weather.

Yeah, but we fly back north today.. blah. Weather is supposed to be an issue today. Strong storms from Tampa north to about North Carolina with rain north of that. We may be delayed leaving out of Tampa today... we will see. They are saying strong thunderstorms with tornado's in Georgia and north Florida. I've been known to push the issue with US Airways and get them to change my reservations based on storm predictions. I don't plan on sitting on the end of the runway waiting an hour for ATC clearance...

We did get some great sunshine on this trip. I'm several shades darker right now.. ha.. will probably fade by the time we come back in April.

CGr.

a few questions for you, CCr,
You just use an extra servo arm for the strain relief, right? Does it go inside our outside of the fuselage? Also, what do you mean by "tying
the antenna off?"
Thanks.

I use a 2-hole button and thread the antenna through it. That way when it exits the fuselage the button will come up against the opening in the fuselage and take any strain off of the receiver. Buttons are cheap--save your servo horns.

Exactly. I made a little plug out of a plastic ....... well, a plastic plug.. that I drilled a small hole through. The hole was small enough that the antenna was very tight passing through it. The plug was CA'ed into the fuselage where I put the hole for the antenna to pass through, right behind the wing saddle. The antenna never moved until I pulled the 72MHz RX out and put in the RX from my DX7.

All you need is something to hold the antenna in place as it passes through the fuselage. You can use something to double loop, as Goirish mentioned, or use a scrap servo arm and thread the antenna through the holes. Whatever you want.

No matter what you do, the strain relief goes at the hole you drilled through the fuselage behind the wing saddle. In one case, I actually cut a groove IN the wing saddle so that the antenna would lay in the groove, then I put a strip of Blenderm tape over the groove that held the antenna in place. Then I passed the antenna along the fuselage bottom as previously described, and put covering over it. Voila.. easy and very safe. When the wing is bolted in place, it presses against the antenna as it passes through the saddle in that shallow groove and it does not move.

CGr.

In my 35% yak thats was PCM now 2.4 ghz, I had 2 ant. running down the center of each side. On my high wings and small airplanes I run on stabilizer, If I don't like the look of it on top or sides like on my new airplanes I run on bottom, I have covered them but I quit because I switch recievers quite often, a bad habit, will most lickly get me in trouble some day.