Futaba 2.4 and Carbon Fiber models
 

By Moderator request, this post was transferred from the Futaba radio factory support thread.


Hello everyone,

Well, the issue of 2.4 Gig receivers and all carbon fiber models has surfaced again at our Club and sparked considerable debate. Some of the JR jet flyers say they are by-passing the signal blanking issue. They mount each of their JR remote antennas in their models to minimize frequency blanking by any CF components. Popular remote RX locations are within aircraft's dorsal spines, within all-plastic canopies, or fiberglass nose cones or belly tanks.

Those of us Die Hard Futaba Flyers have a different problem. We have no remote receivers to mount in RF transparent portions of our models. With one RX we have to find ONE place that gives us the 90 degree antenna spread AND has RF "holes". OR, I suppose, we can entirely forget flying any all-carbon fiber models. Neither of these two choices are very good solutions.

Has anyone flying a Futaba 2.4 rig come up with other solutions to this dilemma? Is there a way to use base-loaded antennas with the 2.4 6014 RXs to maintain a RELIABLE link? From cursory Google and RCU searches, THE answer to this question still seems to be forthcoming.

Care to share in the debate?[sm=rolleyes.gif]

RE: Futaba 2.4 and Carbon Fiber models
 

since futaba used an industry standard coax connector for the antenna coax ends, one could buy coax extensions of the right length, i have seen em up to 10 ft, cut them in 2, strip the 21-22 mm of coax insulation off the cut ends and have a pair of much longer antennas to mount. maybe one out the top of the rudder/fin and one out a wingtip.
i would not just use the original antenna attached to the extension by connector, but rather replace the whole antenna with a longer one.

RE: Futaba 2.4 and Carbon Fiber models
 

The German Futaba Dealer ROBBE are already selling 400 mm (15.7 in) antennas extensions for the FASST receivers. Must be soldered in yourself or specially ordered premounted with the receiver. Then the receiving part of the antenna can be mounted clear of the fuselage on most sized airplanes. See link from a Robbe dealer;

http://www.der-schweighofer.at/web/p...90&prodID=1281

These are said to be Futaba original parts so the US dealer should be able get these as well.

The range is said to decrease by 15-20%, but most likely this has no practical effect since mounting of receiver inside a fuselage will also decrease the range in the first place.

RE: Futaba 2.4 and Carbon Fiber models
 

No soldering required. The antenna plugs into the receiver. Simply open the Rx case, pop off the original ant and then push on the new one. Note that the small plugs have a limited on/off lifecycle so keep antenna swapping to a minimum.

Fritz