ozzietriker Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Hi all, Does anyone have an AIRKIT antenna made by Mobile One (picture in attachment) fitted to their trike? if so, can you: 1. please let me know where you have mounted it; and 2. how it is affixed? - what type of mounting system did you make? any pictures will be appreciated, please PM me for email address. This antenna type cannot be mounted on the king post as it will cause the antenna to behave as an untuned di-pole and significantly reduce it's operating range. The AIRKIT antenna is a completely ground independent antenna (doesn't need a ground plane i.e wing or flat suface to launch the RF waves) so i'm interested where you've mounted yours. Thanks in advance :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horsefeathers Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Hi Oz. My plane is obviously not a trike,but the Airkit antenna I fitted made an amazing improvement to my transmissions. I read of someone mounting it in their spat on a trike,and have attached a few pics for you. Note they used a plug at the spat to make it easier when de-rigging. (Pics come from http://forums.bmaa.org/default.aspx?f=15&m=50114&p=5). Just for completeness, I show where I mounted mine. I bought my airkit pretuned to 127.0 Cheers Gerry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zibi Posted March 22, 2013 Share Posted March 22, 2013 I'm not sure if it was exactly the same antenna, but I've seen them mounted in couple different places on the trike: - on the keel with a purpose made strap, I think Airborne even had them in stock for a while - on the side of the pod, but that was later moved to the keel mount - on a bracket attached where the rear bottom suspension strut attaches to the trike. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzietriker Posted March 22, 2013 Author Share Posted March 22, 2013 Hi Oz.My plane is obviously not a trike,but the Airkit antenna I fitted made an amazing improvement to my transmissions. I read of someone mounting it in their spat on a trike,and have attached a few pics for you. Note they used a plug at the spat to make it easier when de-rigging. (Pics come from http://forums.bmaa.org/default.aspx?f=15&m=50114&p=5). Just for completeness, I show where I mounted mine. I bought my airkit pretuned to 127.0 Cheers Gerry [ATTACH=full]21150[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]21151[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]21152[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]21153[/ATTACH] Thanks Gerry for the info, that looks interesting! cheers Dennis :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzietriker Posted March 24, 2013 Author Share Posted March 24, 2013 I'm not sure if it was exactly the same antenna, but I've seen them mounted in couple different places on the trike:- on the keel with a purpose made strap, I think Airborne even had them in stock for a while - on the side of the pod, but that was later moved to the keel mount - on a bracket attached where the rear bottom suspension strut attaches to the trike. Hi Zibi and thanks for your post, would you mind taking a close up pic of the bracket holding your antenna on the kingpost for me please. I'm curious how your bracket looks like and how it secured. Thanks greatly :) Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest roy.counsell Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 You'll find that Yarrawonga Flight Training has a bracket that is easy to fit on the keel like the one on the XT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest buzzard Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 You'll find that Yarrawonga Flight Training has a bracket that is easy to fit on the keel like the one on the XT Yes, I know of this and it works really well. Thanks Roy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Andys@coffs Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 I would not mount the antenna like the one in the spat. The radiation pattern on a 1/2wave dipole is like a donut put down over the top antenna element with the antenna in the donut hole...... most appropriate when the antenna is mounted as all the other photos but useless when mounted as per the spat. horizontally. Any aircraft in front and behind will be in a Tx/Rx dead spot. Generally the ones you have to worry about are those in front and behind you.... Details on raditation pattern here about 1/4 way down the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_antenna However if you drilled a hole towards the rear of the spat and had the short rubber end inside the spat (not bent!) and the long flexible end straight up on top of the spat it will likely work.....but too much hard work for me when you can do the same thing off the front trike pod and that way the coax run needs to only be relatively short (Good thing!) and doesnt need any inline connectors (an even better thing!!) . No matter where you put it remember that 1/4w antenna (The top long metal one) have an unerring ability to poke you in the eye on a regular basis! try really hard to put a rubber protective cap over the sharp end, preferably some bright fluoro colour as well...... If mounting on the pod remember that there are some drawbacks (cause lifes never so straight forward) the closer to the antenna you are the more raditation from it you will absorb. Power denisty reduces as a squared function as you move away so a doubling of the distance will be significantly less than 1/2 the power. Also humans arent the only thing to absorb RF energy, any wire will do that (good braid/foil shielding) will lessen the affect (actually thats not quite true, the braiding will still absorb, but the center cores wont and its the center wires signal that can be adversley affected) , and quite a few headsets/intercoms dont cope well with RF induction into their wiring, hence why a lot of trikers mount the antenna up on the keel post away from the intercom and other wiring/instrumentation..... It worked without issue on my trike on the pod, but I have heard and seen others for whom it didnt work so well......On my trike Aerial pursuits provided the intercoms/headsets and the radio was a microair M760... Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cscotthendry Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Oz: Here's a pic of an antenna mount I made for my trike. Essentiallt it's just a plug of nylon with a piece of angle bolted to it. The bolts are threadded into a solid rod running transversely through the nylon. I made the nylon fit into the keel tube with another hole vertically to take the pin that normally secures the keel extension tube. I found that I needed a the angle to tilt down at the back a little to make the bottom of the antenna tilt away from the prop when the wing was fully in the up position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zibi Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Hi Zibi and thanks for your post, would you mind taking a close up pic of the bracket holding your antenna on the kingpost for me please. I'm curious how your bracket looks like and how it secured.Thanks greatly :) Dennis I'll see what I can do, when I'm at the field next time (it's not on my trike). Here's the photo from Yarrawonga school shop, that roy has mentioned: http://www.yarrawongaflighttraining.com.au/?page_id=104 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alf jessup Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Look very similar to mine Scott. Alf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzietriker Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 I'll see what I can do, when I'm at the field next time (it's not on my trike).Here's the photo from Yarrawonga school shop, that roy has mentioned: http://www.yarrawongaflighttraining.com.au/?page_id=104 Thankyou Zibi & MUCH APPRECIATED :) Regards, Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzietriker Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 [ATTACH=full]21168[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]21167[/ATTACH] Oz:Here's a pic of an antenna mount I made for my trike. Essentiallt it's just a plug of nylon with a piece of angle bolted to it. The bolts are threadded into a solid rod running transversely through the nylon. I made the nylon fit into the keel tube with another hole vertically to take the pin that normally secures the keel extension tube. I found that I needed a the angle to tilt down at the back a little to make the bottom of the antenna tilt away from the prop when the wing was fully in the up position. [ATTACH=full]21167[/ATTACH] Thankyou Scott! Great pictures, this looks like an excellent way of securing your antenna, a pro job too :) Regards, Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozzietriker Posted March 25, 2013 Author Share Posted March 25, 2013 I would not mount the antenna like the one in the spat. The radiation pattern on a 1/2wave dipole is like a donut put down over the top antenna element with the antenna in the donut hole...... most appropriate when the antenna is mounted as all the other photos but useless when mounted as per the spat. horizontally. Any aircraft in front and behind will be in a Tx/Rx dead spot. Generally the ones you have to worry about are those in front and behind you....Details on raditation pattern here about 1/4 way down the page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_antenna However if you drilled a hole towards the rear of the spat and had the short rubber end inside the spat (not bent!) and the long flexible end straight up on top of the spat it will likely work.....but too much hard work for me when you can do the same thing off the front trike pod and that way the coax run needs to only be relatively short (Good thing!) and doesnt need any inline connectors (an even better thing!!) . No matter where you put it remember that 1/4w antenna (The top long metal one) have an unerring ability to poke you in the eye on a regular basis! try really hard to put a rubber protective cap over the sharp end, preferably some bright fluoro colour as well...... If mounting on the pod remember that there are some drawbacks (cause lifes never so straight forward) the closer to the antenna you are the more raditation from it you will absorb. Power denisty reduces as a squared function as you move away so a doubling of the distance will be significantly less than 1/2 the power. Also humans arent the only thing to absorb RF energy, any wire will do that (good braid/foil shielding) will lessen the affect (actually thats not quite true, the braiding will still absorb, but the center cores wont and its the center wires signal that can be adversley affected) , and quite a few headsets/intercoms dont cope well with RF induction into their wiring, hence why a lot of trikers mount the antenna up on the keel post away from the intercom and other wiring/instrumentation..... It worked without issue on my trike on the pod, but I have heard and seen others for whom it didnt work so well......On my trike Aerial pursuits provided the intercoms/headsets and the radio was a microair M760... Andy Hi Andy and thanks for your input! Yes I sure can relate with what you've mentioned as some of those antenna placements were past experiences of mine. As you said antenna placement on a trike is definitely not easy like a conventional aircraft, I like the look of the rear keel mounts that Zibi and Scott posted and think that's where i'll mount mine. Mobile One recommended not to mount the AIRKIT antenna on the king post as it will cause the antenna to act like an untuned di-pole but at least 12 inches away from it. Regards, Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cscotthendry Posted March 25, 2013 Share Posted March 25, 2013 Mobile One recommended not to mount the AIRKIT antenna on the king post as it will cause the antenna to act like an untuned di-pole but at least 12 inches away from it.Regards, Dennis Dennis: That is exactly why I made the antenna mount for my trike. Also, after I made this, I had occasion to go to the Airborne factory and I talked to them about my mount. They said that a few people had made similar, and Airborne designed a mount using a piece of keel extension tube undercut on an angle so that the bottom of the antenna would clear. Theirs is a much simpler and lighter solution. Alf: From memory, I'm pretty sure that I got the idea from you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alf jessup Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Dennis: That is exactly why I made the antenna mount for my trike. Also, after I made this, I had occasion to go to the Airborne factory and I talked to them about my mount. They said that a few people had made similar, and Airborne designed a mount using a piece of keel extension tube undercut on an angle so that the bottom of the antenna would clear. Theirs is a much simpler and lighter solution.Alf: From memory, I'm pretty sure that I got the idea from you. Scott, I'm pretty sure I sent you photo's of it, I should have taken a patent out on it as believe I was the first one to do it lol. But now we have gone to the darkside it doesn't matter anymore. Cheers Alf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cscotthendry Posted March 26, 2013 Share Posted March 26, 2013 Scott,I'm pretty sure I sent you photo's of it, I should have taken a patent out on it as believe I was the first one to do it lol. But now we have gone to the darkside it doesn't matter anymore. Cheers Alf Alf: Yes I think that agrees with my memory of it. I'm also pleased to see that you've also come over to the dark side. I haven't regretted a moment of the transition to 3 axis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark11 Posted July 18, 2013 Share Posted July 18, 2013 My antenna mount - very similar to a number of others in the hangar The metal bracket and pipe clamp from bunnings Aerial from mobileone - tuned to 124 3.6m from radio to hang point - connector - then 2m to antenna Works beautifully Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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