Author Topic: ATOM Station Antennas  (Read 2088 times)

PaulSS

ATOM Station Antennas
« on: April 11, 2021, 05:43:44 pm »
If I mount the ATOM antennas:     PAW--------ADSB-------Flarm       is 93cm going to be enough between the two outer antennas?

I don't think the ADSB matters too much as (a)it is receive only and (b)is far enough separated by frequency; unlike the other two which are much closer in frequency.

exfirepro

Re: ATOM Station Antennas
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2021, 09:10:18 pm »
Hi Paul,

I appreciate your need to keep your installation discrete and to a modest scale for domestic reasons. In this respect 93cm should be absolutely fine as long as the PAW and FLARM are at opposite ends.

For comparison, I just measured the ‘Trident’ unit which belongs at Balado (it is sitting here awaiting agreement on an appropriate opportunity to reinstall it). It was originally built with the P3i in the centre because that allowed me to mount the P3i about 30cm higher on the mast than the other two. In that configuration, the FLARM and P3i are only 70cm apart and it ran extremely successfully for several months in that configuration before I had to remove it (they demolished the tower it was mounted on to erect a new Clubhouse).

I am considering reconfiguring the order of the antennas to PAW - ADSB - FLARM, utilising the total overall spacing of 120cm before I reinstall it in its new location to see if that improves performance to any measurable degree by further reducing any possibility of interaction between them.

Best Regards

Peter

PaulSS

Re: ATOM Station Antennas
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2021, 10:14:13 pm »
Thanks Peter  :)  Yes, I am considering how I can hide things behind chimney breasts etc but have bought some hardware and think it may be approved by The Ultimate Power. I'll need to mount the directional 4/5G antenna on the same mast (or else we're all buggered because there'll be no Internet) but my ATOM thingies will sit at the top, while the Mr Poynting will sit a little lower.

Now all I've got to figure out is getting all the coax cables under a slate tiled roof, while minimising the coax length. My box of ATOM tricks and my router will all end up living in the loft. Thank goodness for Google Mesh  ;D

exfirepro

Re: ATOM Station Antennas
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2021, 10:31:53 pm »
Hi Paul,

All understood. I have still to get my own antennas moved outside. Permission received from SWMBO but recently starting to get comments like ‘I didn’t realise they were going to be that big’, so I might have to scale my ‘ideals’ back a bit. I’m still deliberating the best option.

Re taking the coax in, you can get some excellent roof vents designed to match into tiled and slated roofs. It should be fairly straightforward to fit one of these (or have one fitted) in place of a slate. It can be pre-drilled to provide fairly discreet coax access while maintaining the integrity of the roof. Ideally run the coax in from the outside, then cut to length and fit the connectors inside afterwards (if you can) to keep the hole sizes to the minimum. Alternatively, depending on construction, you can often manage to feed the cables up through under a slate. If you are using an aerial fitter they will have done it all before.

Regards

Peter
« Last Edit: April 11, 2021, 10:35:28 pm by exfirepro »