Monopole whip v standard endfeed dipole

[bnmont]

Trying to tidy up the installation in my flexwing I have tried a tuned low profile antenna positioned inside the pod just infront of my left leg/knee, this leads to loss of reception on the right. Caused by my body, radio, transponeder etc I assume. In an effort to correct this I mounted a tuned monopole whip antenna with ground plane at the front of the pod this appeared to give better performance.
However on returning to the airfield I knocked the antenna and it split ( Chinese I think). So the question is can I use the supplied original endfeed dipole antenna with a ground plane? does it matter?
  Second question, why do I sometimes see my ground station and UP/OGN on Skydemon and sometimes no groundstation but UP/OGN gliders still displaying?
Regards Brian

[Ian Melville]

On you last point, do you have altitude filters set? If you are above your ground station by the filter setting you won't see it.

Your end fed dipole will work...ish, just try it as it is not transmitting it's not going to damage anything.

[bnmont]

Surely the Pilotaware antenna will be transmitting as well as receiving?
Hadnt thought about the  filters, I'm pretty certain I have 500' set in the config for warnings however my ground station is sometimes (seen at 2000  + feet) Skydemon filters are wide 30000'

[bnmont]

Lack of clarity on my part. I'm talking about the P3i antenna

[exfirepro]

Hi Brian,

The altitude filters in PAW config only affect bearingless Mode C/S. Whether or not you see your ground station depends on the altitude filter set in SkyDemon.

You are right of course, your P3i is transmitting as well as receiving. You can use an end-fed dipole without a ground plane - it doesn't need one. I have mine mounted fairly high up the side of my windscreen on a short extension cable, cable tied to a couple of self adhesive cable tie mounts. It seems to work fine like that. If you are using it on the front of the pod, you might want to seal the flexible joint to prevent water ingress though.

Regards

Peter

[Admin]

Hi Brian

We modified the ground station to only pulse infrequently, I think every 20 seconds.
In the software we need to retain a ground station for longer, than the default 15 second timeout

I thought this was in the latest version, need to check, what version are you running?

Thx
Lee

[bnmont]

Hi Lee,
Software:- Pilotaware OGN latest downloaded 22 August
Pilotaware  24th Sept download

Regards