Hitec electron 6 receiver antennae - Cut Down:
 

Hi All,

I accidentally ate a few inches off of my Hitec electron 6 receiver antennae. I know they are about 39 inches in length. I have a few of the pieces, from what I what I could dig out of my small electric ducted engine. It looks like approx. 6-8 inches of wire antennae may have been cut off. What is the safe length that the antennae can be reduced to without causing any reception issues with the Transmitter?


Thanks Ed :cool:

Apparently you are talking about a 72MHz, 75MH (ground system), 35MHz or 6 meter. If so, any plain insulated wire that is 32 to 37 inches long will work fine as the receiver antenna as most (if not all) of the receivers for those frequencies use a base loaded antenna that is adjusted for approximately a one meter long antenna. It would help if you specified the brand and frequency of the receiver you are asking about.

Hi, The Hitec Electron 6 and before that the 555 were pretty bomb proof for their day and I used a ton of them. They came with a slightly longer antenna than the equivalent Futaba's and I actually have a few new ones still packaged up in the shop. So curious I just dug one up and measured it and the length is exactly forty inchs.

However I can remember operations often with quite a few after loosing four and five inchs of trailing antennas.

John

Chopped up Antenae:
 

Hi John,


Here's a Picture. Don't laugh too hard.... LOL



http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2171076



Ed

Hi John,


Here's a Picture......Don't Laugh too hard.



[ATTACH]2171076[/IMG]



Ed

Stock antenna length should be 41-3/4". Try to keep it as close as possible to this length, otherwise range will be affected. It's impossible to say how much range will be reduced with X amount of antenna removed because it is not at a linear rate.

Hi Guys,

I actually returned to the scene of the crime and I was able to finally remove the receiver and then length of the antennae is actually 33-1/2"

Thanks Ed

Hey Electriceddie Thanks for coming on back but I think you have made a mistake concerning antenna length.

33.5 inchs definitely will adversely affect your range and reduce it to a very small number. OK first, just a few minutes ago I returned to my Hitec 72 MHz drawer witch includes at least about 30 receivers. many of these were 555's and a few were Electron 6. I totally abandoned 72 MHz close to ten years ago. However several of the Electron 6's were brand new and I was able to unwrap the original tie rap on the antenna's and measure them accurately from the case. Remember that does not include the small bit of antenna that is inserted to the case.

The 555's were all at or near 41.5 and the two brand new Electron 6's are 40.5

Now how do I know that 33.5 is insufficient, easy I have flow airplanes more times that I care to remember that short and more. In my Q-500 pylon racing days when everyone used 72 it was common to leave anywhere from five to ten inchs of antenna trail directly out the back of the fuselage. Well on occasion my team mate would inadvertently have a knee on that trailing antenna as he gave the airplane a mighty shove resulting in leaving that trailing portion on the tarmac. The result always was anywhere from a spectacular crash to a few that was just a full throttle run across the tarmac until hitting the grass etc.

Later most of us successfully learned how to do the soda straw technique leaving no trailing antenna with out cutting the antenna or turning it back on itself, if you are interested I can post some pics of the simple technique.

Any way please do not fly without extending to at least 40/41 inchs, if not me at least heed the factory Customer Service Rep in post #6 above. Oh and simple soldered splices are totally adequate.

John:cool:

Hi John,

Thanks for the info as well. I just checked Tower and they have them for under $2.00. Already placed the order.

Ed

Cool Ed, Ya, I am sure they got lots of them left;) Hint: soldering a simple splice with shrink wrap is a completely different skill than soldering a complete new antenna on circuit board trace.

So my suggestion is to cut the receiver wire and the new wire at an appropriate to enable making a small soldered splice with shrink wrap so end up with the desired total length. Also a good reason to save old rx's for the antenna wire.

Best of luck; Oh by the way I enjoyed your picture of your old antenna. John

It's 42 inches..