Sid Wood wrote: > For antenna location, don't neglect the shielding effects of carbon fiber > on > radio transmission and reception. Fiberglass and lumber are > non-conductors > and not issues for that. Keeping the belly clean is a good thing. Aside > from cosmetics, the oil slick will have carbon and lead contaminates, > which > are conductive. Shielding for the transponder antenna could still become > a > problem.
Yes, that was my point...get the antenna out of the messy environment on the bottom of the plane and put it in the clean environment inside the fuselage. My wings are carbon fiber, but not my fuselage or aft deck, so I'm not worried about shielding the antenna inside the plane. When it was bolted to the bottom of the fuselage I used an X-shaped plane made from copper tape, but I used the thin aluminum disk from an aluminum pie plate for a ground plane for the new location. As for regular com radio reception and transmission, I don't see how it could be much better than it is now. I've talked to Joe Horton with 175 miles between us, and 150 miles is routinely done. And that's with rudder cables, tailwheel cables, and seatbelt cables running right between the legs of the dipole. Mark Langford [email protected] website www.n56ml.com
