On Thursday, May 10, 2018 at 3:07:15 PM UTC+1, Matt Herron Jr. wrote:
Flarm antennas are a real pain for ships with carbon hulls. Coverage is always poor, especially below. Is there a way to make a perfectly flat and thin antenna that could be taped to the outside of the hull and fed through a small (1/8"?) hole? I am thinking 2 thin wire strands, or foil strips, fed through from the inside, then taped in place with wing tape. I would put one on either side of the nose for good coverage. The wires could even be longer (some wavelength ratio) for better gain. The tiny hole could easily be filled later if the install was reversed.

Any RF engineers out there care to take a shot at this?



It is possible to make a flat antenna with the same radiation pattern as a 1/4 wave dipole.

But, it needs exotic ( read expensive) rf material, and would not be flexible, so hard to fit on the outside of the fuselage. thickness would be about 6-7mm, and would be unaffected by carbon fibre underneath it

It would also be 200-300€