Aerial positions

[John.Riley]

I have a wood and fabric single seat Bi-plane. I was going to fit the RTL-SDR aerial inside the fuselage. I have a 8" aluminium disc which has my comms aerial on, mounted on the bottom surface of the fuselage, do you think I could mount the Pilotaware aerial a couple of inches from my comms aerial. This would save me fitting another metal plate.

Thanks for any observations.

John

[Admin]

Hi John,

Please take a look at this ...
http://forum.pilotaware.com/index.php/topic,400.0.html

before mounting the antenna close to the comms antenna, I would experiment (before drilling) to see if there is any noise generated when it is so close.
BTW, you only need to put a ground plane if you use a monopole, a dipole (end / centre fed) will not require a ground plane

Thx
Lee

[Ian Melville]

John, I am pretty sure that the close location of the second antenna will affect the performance of both, how much is anyone guess. It may be noise as Lee has mention, but also the polar shape of the antenna will be changed.

I am not fully up to speed with Ham stuff these days, but I think the rule was that they must a one wavelength apart.

[exfirepro]

John,

As Ian rightly says, transmitting aerials in particular should be as widely spaced as practicable to prevent distortion of signal pattern and minimise the potential for induced radio frequency (rf) interference in the other system. Better to consider one of the new vertical dipoles for your PAW P3i transmit/receive. With a wood and fabric aircraft this can be easily fitted inside your bodywork and clear of radio 'obstructions' - namely you and the engine.

Regards

Peter

[John.Riley]

I thought the PilotAware Classic came with a monopole, but it seems it comes with a Dipole. So mounting that inside the fuselage well away from my comms aerial should be fine.

Many thanks for the advice, keep up the good work.

PS, I guess flying into the Rally this year might show my iPad mini screen being a bit cluttered.

[exfirepro]

Hopefully, but we will all be safer!!!

Peter