Van's Air Force
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Bow-tie antenna?
- Thread starter yooper
- Start date
Do you mean the dipole?????
yooper
Active Member
Dipole
Ok, so it's not a bow-tie! Yes, the V6 dipole antenna . . .
http://byonics.com/microtrak/mt_antenna.php
Ok, so it's not a bow-tie! Yes, the V6 dipole antenna . . .
http://byonics.com/microtrak/mt_antenna.php
Not a Bow Tie!
Gentlemen,
First, let me apologize for my long absence away from your board. Crohn's disease and surgery have left me running on minimal systems, but I will try and keep up! Some of you have contacted me through the Byonics webpage tech support E-mail link, which is of course, always just fine.
The V6 antenna is in excess of one meter long, is made of light gauge music wire. The ends are rolled into .10 loops and plastic dipped in high visibility lacquer so you don't put your eye out ( i.e., see: "Red Ryder BB gun") It comes with a one meter SMA patch cord. It was primarily designed for high altitude "edge of space" balloon flights, but hams will do what hams will do, and lots of them have been installed either vertically in fiberglass ships, or horizontally, often in gliders. The antenna has significantly more gain then our magnet mount and more importantly, provides its own ground, so it loads an RTG well and eliminates instability. ( The rubber duck antenna is a complete non-starter with the RTG- the SWR is just too high, and the processor will eventually freak out from excessive SWR)
I would stick with Pete Howell's wire J-pole for the wing tip application.
Best regards,
Allen
VHS
Gentlemen,
First, let me apologize for my long absence away from your board. Crohn's disease and surgery have left me running on minimal systems, but I will try and keep up! Some of you have contacted me through the Byonics webpage tech support E-mail link, which is of course, always just fine.
The V6 antenna is in excess of one meter long, is made of light gauge music wire. The ends are rolled into .10 loops and plastic dipped in high visibility lacquer so you don't put your eye out ( i.e., see: "Red Ryder BB gun") It comes with a one meter SMA patch cord. It was primarily designed for high altitude "edge of space" balloon flights, but hams will do what hams will do, and lots of them have been installed either vertically in fiberglass ships, or horizontally, often in gliders. The antenna has significantly more gain then our magnet mount and more importantly, provides its own ground, so it loads an RTG well and eliminates instability. ( The rubber duck antenna is a complete non-starter with the RTG- the SWR is just too high, and the processor will eventually freak out from excessive SWR)
I would stick with Pete Howell's wire J-pole for the wing tip application.
Best regards,
Allen
VHS
Balloon antenna
I am hoping you meant the High School Lad flew the V6 antenna, not the J-pole. When I built the first unit, I had almost 25 minutes in exhaustive R&D, but the antenna forced me to learn a lot. For instance, I learned that 60/40 solder is worthless for soldering piano wire to PC boards, and that a lot of surface prep is necessary to mount the elements. I had to find high tin solder and use a really hot iron; It was almost like soldering copper pipe! I also learned that if you don't lacquer the base of the SMA connector, the unit can start RF arcing when it gets close to space. I learned that you can give yourself an RF burn just by touching the elements of a ten watt transmitter! I found that RG-174u cable acts as part of the ground radiator if you don't roll the excess up into a ball near the antenna as a sort of balun. We now use a higher grade of cable, and have increased the length to 1 meter, from the previous version of 1 foot. This allows a little more boom mounting distance, which is handy when the high power unit starts jamming the other payload electronics! I have had quite a few fiberglass and dope and fabric ship builders use the V6 with the elements curved against the interior wall of the fuselage, with good results. I know that does not help you guys in metal airplanes!
Allen
I am hoping you meant the High School Lad flew the V6 antenna, not the J-pole. When I built the first unit, I had almost 25 minutes in exhaustive R&D, but the antenna forced me to learn a lot. For instance, I learned that 60/40 solder is worthless for soldering piano wire to PC boards, and that a lot of surface prep is necessary to mount the elements. I had to find high tin solder and use a really hot iron; It was almost like soldering copper pipe! I also learned that if you don't lacquer the base of the SMA connector, the unit can start RF arcing when it gets close to space. I learned that you can give yourself an RF burn just by touching the elements of a ten watt transmitter! I found that RG-174u cable acts as part of the ground radiator if you don't roll the excess up into a ball near the antenna as a sort of balun. We now use a higher grade of cable, and have increased the length to 1 meter, from the previous version of 1 foot. This allows a little more boom mounting distance, which is handy when the high power unit starts jamming the other payload electronics! I have had quite a few fiberglass and dope and fabric ship builders use the V6 with the elements curved against the interior wall of the fuselage, with good results. I know that does not help you guys in metal airplanes!
Allen
yooper
Active Member
Those are the best kind of lessons!
Our high school girl was using the V6 just last month. Check out KB1URG on APRS.fi for her flight. We were sweating if the balloon would make it down before it reached the ocean, and luckily it did. And it landed less than a quarter-mile from a street, with the parachute snagged on a sapling at about eye level - can't beat that! The radio worked flawlessly and even sent position reports all night as it sat there on the ground until recovery.
BTW, the cabin roof and doors of the RV-10 are fiberglass, so I think the antenna would work fine in there. I actually have the basic V3 antenna mounted vertically alongside the front edge of the passenger-side door frame and have had no issues.
Our high school girl was using the V6 just last month. Check out KB1URG on APRS.fi for her flight. We were sweating if the balloon would make it down before it reached the ocean, and luckily it did. And it landed less than a quarter-mile from a street, with the parachute snagged on a sapling at about eye level - can't beat that! The radio worked flawlessly and even sent position reports all night as it sat there on the ground until recovery.
BTW, the cabin roof and doors of the RV-10 are fiberglass, so I think the antenna would work fine in there. I actually have the basic V3 antenna mounted vertically alongside the front edge of the passenger-side door frame and have had no issues.
