daven

My Feedback: (1)

I would like to try a Deans antenna in a Quickee 500 airplane. I believe Dan Kane had once told me that he uses these, but wanted to hear to see if anyone else has tried these, and if they had any problems.

I soldered one up to a receiver, and have it mounted inside my fuze with velcro and the range seems fine.

Anyone else use these?

MikeyD

Dave N
You may wan't to give Tom Scott or Grunk a call, I know they use them

Mikey D

js3

My Feedback: (3)

Dave,

I used to use the Dean's antennas. I don't trust them any more. After experiencing weird radio related difficulties, I've replaced all my dean's equipped RXs with standard. I much prefer routing the antenna along one side of the fuse from the RX forward toward the firewall, then through a "U" shape to the other side of the fuse to the back of the plane.

I've also tried the "wrapped standard antenna" method with excellent results.

vector-RCU

My Feedback: (8)

Hi Dave,
I have been using tem for almost 20 years now, and except for some problem with one Futaba PCM, they work great. I am using them right now with my JR stuff and also on Hitec RX.
When i flew sailplanes, everyone was using them, and they REALLY push the range with them.

Lewis

daven

My Feedback: (1)

This is the kind of response I heard a couple years ago when I brought this up.

Some swore by them, and some swore at them.

I guess, I'm going to give it a try on a "Woodie" before trying on a composite. I have a receiver that had its antenna chopped, so it made sense for me to give it a try rather than replacing the antenna.

glowplug47

Keep them awaw from your carbon fiber pushrods.
Dick

PylonWorld

I've been doing some static testing with carbon fiber cloth, 50K tow, and 12K tow for stiffening up the front of planes. In some cases, I've effective created formers with the tow, as far back as the back of the wing.

What are the rules of engagement for CF interference and antennea?

I know that you can't run the antenna in the fuselage of some of the Speed 400 and F5D pylon planes that have fuselages made of Kevlar and CF.

I had one Q-500 that had CF cloth in the wing saddle down to the bottom and that didn't seem to be a problem.

So is the key to have them not touching?

If the wing saddle area has a lot of CF in it and you use an antenna tube that is afixed to the side adjacent to the CF, is that a problem?

regis

My Feedback: (3)

F3F (thermal soaring) models use lots of carbon for strength and stiffness. They regularly fly at the limit of eyesight. Some modelers report problems with reception, others seem to have no problems. Anecdotally, problems seem to be more likely with certain brands of receivers than others.

daven

My Feedback: (1)

My plane has quite a bit of Chopped Carbon Fiber in the Nose Area, and does use CF pushrods that are behind the wing. In the main fuze area under the wing is where I mounted the antenna on the left side with a dab of silicone adhesive. Not much cf in this area, unless you count the cf in the wing just above the antenna.

It does seem to range check just fine without the engine running, will check the range with the Nelson running hopefully this weekend. Receiver is a Hitec 555. I'll let you know how it goes.

glowplug47

I must apologize, I repeated info I heard with no real knowledge of the do's and don'ts.
I have, however, used deans antennas in many aircraft over the years. The last had 2 elevator push rods at the rear darn near in line with the deans antenna. It worried me some but it did not seem to effect the reception.
Range with these antennas is exceptional and if it's not as good as a stock antenna my eyeballs sure can't see far enough away to tell the difference.
Dick