second PowerFlarm antenna

On Sunday, November 1, 2015 at 1:10:20 AM UTC-5, bumper wrote:
On Saturday, October 31, 2015 at 12:32:19 PM UTC-7, wrote:

The antenna referenced by Bumper has some data.
The specified VSWR of 1.2 at 1030 to 1090 MHZ looks very good.
But you need to know the VSWR at 916MHz.

3U

Don, at Delta Pop, was willing to work with me and provided a low drag transponder antenna with no male mounting screw thread. My idea being to use his antenna with threaded female mounting holes to which I'll add frangible brass thread. (Frangible in that the threaded rod will be grooved to more easily break proud of the antenna base. This will make the antenna "break away" so, if I get the theaded studs right, no damage will be done to glider or antenna in a trailer bonking incident. The broken threaded rod would then be easily removed, replaced and the antenna re-mounted. This project is on my middle burner.

With a reasonable amount of interest, Don may be willing to make his antenna centered on 915 Mhz - and with frangible mount if desired. Note that the antenna base is flat, and for mounting on most modern gliders will need to be mounted temporarily with cling wrap or other release agent so base gaps can be caulked with white silicone* or white epoxy putty (A-B, kind used for pool/boat repair), then removed and re-installed. Hole for coax fitting also slightly enlarged to facilitate break-away function with minimal risk of damage.

*silicone caulk smooths in nicely with wet finger.

Bumper, silicone is something you do not want to use on a glider for this purpose. If you ever need repainting or repair, it is next to impossible to get proper paint adhesion to an area where silicone was previously applied. Silicone is next to impossible to remove completely. 3M has multiple polyurethane based product that are much more expensive but do not cause this problem and produce equal or better results.


Andrzej