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Antenna for airplane	Reply
by KD0CVN on February 11, 2008	Mail this to a friend!
Hello, I am a newly minted ham and also a private pilot and the owner/builder of an experimental aircaft. My plane is a Van's RV-9A: http://picasaweb.google.com/fly.rv9A/RV9A02/photo#5084895019182433426 I would like to add APRS tracking to it. I built the little microtrak 300, but need an antenna to get the signal out. The wings and fuselage of the plane are aluminum, and the wingtips are fiberglass. This weekend, I built a roll up jpole tuned for 144.39 out of 300 ohm TV wire and have it laid out in the wingtip as a first attempt. http://picasaweb.google.com/fly.rv9A/Tracker/photo#5165599525911790002 I realize the polarization will be wrong, but thought it might be better than a rubber duck or the little music wire 1/4 wave it came with. Have not tried it yet b/c it is still below zero here in Minneapolis. The plane cruises at 175-180mph, so an inside antenna is attractive, but I would consider an external mount if required. I obviously like to to build things, so homebrew solutions are welcomed/preferred. Thanks for any help. This is my first post so I hope it is appropriate. Cheers, Pete

RE: Antenna for airplane	Reply
by W4RAA on February 12, 2008	Mail this to a friend!
I modified a RA Miller Antenna(AV-529) that is made for Aircraft to mount on my PA28-235, calculated the length that the antenna would be for 145.500mhz, cut the antenna with a very fine hacksaw blade, sealed the end superglue, mounted it on the bottom of the AC. I ran the Rg cable undeneath the rear seats/carpet and came up the middle of the console(between the Pilot/co-pilot seats. have a BNC adapter so i can connect to my ICOM 90A, also have a Cigarette lighter adapter for 12VDC power if i should need it. Result are VERY Good so far. I recently flew from KOMN to 19A at 8000msl and on simplex i was having a clear conversation with clun members slightly over 100 miles away, on our repeater freq i was hitting them almost 150 miles out. I also made a headset adapter so i can utilize my headset for both normal ATC use and HAM use. Thinking about doing the same thing for my C310 also.

RE: Antenna for airplane	Reply
by KD0CVN on February 12, 2008	Mail this to a friend!
Well, the homebrew jpole seems to work pretty well even at 300mw in the wingtip. The unit tracked my entire flight today and even hit a digi 136+ miles away! http://aprs.fi/?call=kd0cvn&mt=m&z=11&timerange=3600 I'll think I'll keep it. Pete

RE: Antenna for airplane	Reply
by WW5AA on February 19, 2008	Mail this to a friend!
Since I use a 5 Watt HT and Tiny Track plus, I just installed a dual band rubber duck on the rear cockpit support of my Tomahawk and it works well for APRS and voice. 73, de Lindy

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