Aerial positions

[Mig29fuk]

This weekend I installed PAW in my old Wood/Metal/Rag single seat.
Cant vouch for the longevity of my placements but ended up doing the following.
Mouse GPS placed within the wooden ribbed wing itself via inspection cover. Velcro attachment to bottom surface.
ADS-B Aerial mounted vertically, again within the wing via inspection panel. Velcro and Tie wrap.
PAW Aerial is a 868MHz 'Puk' aerial mounted on the centre aluminium panel covering parasol wing attachment. It's biased towards the front and has good omni direction when in flying attitude.
All leads are fed in down each separate vertical cabane to ensure no interfernce. Pi 2 then velcroed to the very small panel area I have available.
Performance is great with multiple ADS-B 'hits' and 9+ satellites instantly.
The only aerial visible but only just is the Puk.

Puk Aerial from RF Solutions. https://www.rfsolutions.co.uk/antennas-c8/miniture-puk-sma-antenna-433-868mhz-p137
I experimented with this during Beta testing and the old *** Tx/RX (like the Scottish play...cannot be mentioned by name) with improved results.
It would be a good option for faster aircraft and gives a small footprint and is easy to fit.

Just need to identify a PAW in the area!

Regards
Gerry

[Keithvinning]

Gerry

Thanks for this post. let us know how you get on. I hope many more will tell us what they are doing so that we can sort the good from the bad and even get some standard installations

Keith

[John Parker]

My Eurostar fitment. Both under the belly and work well. The antenna coax is continuous with the center core protruding out to the correct length. I bought two cheap antennas from eBay for the antenna covers only. 

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/t31.0-8/13120030_10206696573952363_2182834121081826806_o.jpg

[John Parker]

I made this with the old pigtail unit as this a two piece unit. Most you cant take apart. I drilled it out to take the center sheath/antenna. The shield is then sandwiched between the two part with a crimped ring connector

[Keithvinning]

Hi john
Very much the same as I have on my sportscruiser. Without the covers the 50 ohm coax on its own gets bent in the airflow so reduces its efficiency.
It will be interesting to see what range you get. It should be 20k + probably better looking behind than in front. Interesting to see how you get on.
We're the holes already there

Keith

[exfirepro]

Puk Aerial from RF Solutions. https://www.rfsolutions.co.uk/antennas-c8/miniture-puk-sma-antenna-433-868mhz-p137
I experimented with this during Beta testing and the old *** Tx/RX (like the Scottish play...cannot be mentioned by name) with improved results.

Regards
Gerry

Hi Gerry,

Had a look at the RF Solutions website last night and thought I'd order one of your PUK aerials to test against my FLARM dipole - just out of interest. All OK until I got to checkout and discovered their delivery charges. Next day delivery via FedEx to anywhere in UK (England) £9 - a bit steep for a £14 antenna, but what the heck...

Then I noticed the (England) bit so checked further down the list, when I was flabbergasted to find separate delivery charges for UK (Scotland)... I live in Edinburgh, not the North Pole, but RF Solutions want £19 for a 4-7 day minimum delivery service. I am absolutely appalled. I thought UK meant United Kingdom? I can accept that remote areas of the Scottish Highlands cost more to deliver to but the Capital City???

Here's one UK citizen who definitely won't be buying from them unless they are prepared to modify their delivery pricing. Don't worry, I WILL be taking this up with them

Sorry for the rant

Regards

Peter

[JCurtis]

I was flabbergasted to find separate delivery charges for UK (Scotland)... I live in Edinburgh, not the North Pole, but RF Solutions want £19 for a 4-7 day minimum delivery service. I am absolutely appalled. I thought UK meant United Kingdom? I can accept that remote areas of the Scottish Highlands cost more to deliver to but the Capital City?

Sorry for the rant

I get "remote area" surcharges for some parts of the UK too with UPS, I remember one shipment to north Scotland (but still on the mainland) attracting a 50% surcharge. I've had them too for bits of the EU and even in the USA.

I ship all over the world and just take the hit on these additional fees when they crop up, it's pretty shocking this company has such a pricing structure for shipping. It will be interesting to know he outcome of your discussions.

[Ray McKeown]

Well, I was interested in trying the PUK aerial but the delivery charge to Belfast (UK Northern Ireland) is £29.00 !  So RF solutions certainly won't be getting my business.

Ray

[tnowak]

It is how on-line trading companies make their money!

Royal Mail First Class post in a jiffy bag should cost around GBP 2.50......
TonyN

[Paul_Sengupta]

Have a look on the bay of Es instead. There are RF SOLUTION antennas there for 5 or 6 quid including UK postage if you don't want to wait for one to be posted from China.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=868Mhz+antenna&LH_PrefLoc=1&_sop=12

[Ray McKeown]

I  contacted RF solutions to complain about high delivery charge to Belfast (£29)   and got this response.....
Good morning,

We are very sorry the charge is high this is what our couriers charge for shipping to Ireland.
 
You are more than welcome to arrange your own courier or purchase the antennas from one of our distributors such as RS components who are a worldwide distributor if you prefer.

 If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best Regards

Technical Support

RF Solutions Ltd



So.....went on to the RS components  site,   product id = ANT-PUKDB   and cost is £16.82 and free postage!

Ray

[exfirepro]

Hi Paul,

Looked for the PUK antenna on the Bay of Ees last night, but most suppliers had already added a tenner per antenna to the factory price and I didn't fancy the potentially dodgy Chinese ones!!

Ray,

I just got a very similar reply from RF Solutions (except 'Scotland' instead of 'Ireland' obviously), but with the addition of  ' ...such as RS components who are a worldwide distributor and offer free of charge delivery.' (Maybe they weren't sure if this applies to Ireland )

I replied thanking them but still suggesting they review their delivery policy - especially for small orders and have now ordered from RS Components as they suggested.

Others reading this please note - like many online sites, you still have to add VAT to RS online prices - as you stay Ray, still only £16.82 including free postage.

Regards

Peter

[Admin]

Hi All,

Just noticing the traffic here regarding this Antenna type.

I would like to note, we have not done any field trials using this antenna type.
We have done extensive testing with the pilotawarehardware.com options of :-
1. Monopole (metal plane as groundplane)
2. Dipole (End-Fed), used internally on coaming, and externally on 3m rg-174 extension
3. Dipole (Centre-Fed), used internally, could also be used externally, but no testing of this.

So I would very much appreciate any results to be posted on this PUK antenna type.

The testing conditions we have been using are as follows :-
1. Ground-To-Air, ground station using End-Fed Dipole, having good LOS clearance at 6-8ft off the ground where possible
2. Air-To-Air, other aircraft using one of the known good installations listed above.

In testing we want to know the Tx/Rx range in all directions, eg head-on, side-on and to the rear.
PilotAware will record a track file during flight which I am very happy to post process in order to see the results of testflight,
the track file needs to be supplied from both PilotAware systems in order to calculate the Tx/Rx effectively.

At some point, I would look to provide a program to post process the .trk file yourself to do some analysis.

Many Thx
Lee

[John Parker]

We're the holes already there

Keith

Yes. I just made them slightly larger though