Shortening PowerFLARM Brick Antenna and GPS cables

On Sep 13, 1:34*pm, "kirk.stant" wrote:
As anyone who has one can testify, the cables on the dipole and GPS antennas that come with a PowerFLARM Brick are absurdly long - you could almost mount the GPS puck on your tail!

Has anyone any experience in shortening these cables and reattaching the connectors, or is there anyone out there who can do this for a reasonable fee?

Kirk
66

Kirk:

I have made all of my cables on my PF Brick shorter. It takes having
the right termination tools and crimpers inorder to do this. Contact
me if you are interested in having yours shortened.

Tom

It's probably a lot easier to open the little black box and take a peak at how the cable is soldered at the antenna end. You could probably cut off the excess at the antenna end a lot easier than crimping new connectors. It's a very simple layout. The inner conductor is soldered to one dipole and the shield is soldered to the opposite one. At least the Flarm antenna was done that way and I'd be surprised if the PCAS antenna was any different.

I haven't looked at the GPS antenna other than to remove the two magnets which are hidden under the sticker.

On Thursday, September 13, 2012 6:21:47 PM UTC-7, (unknown) wrote:
It's probably a lot easier to open the little black box and take a peak at how the cable is soldered at the antenna end. You could probably cut off the excess at the antenna end a lot easier than crimping new connectors. It's a very simple layout. The inner conductor is soldered to one dipole and the shield is soldered to the opposite one. At least the Flarm antenna was done that way and I'd be surprised if the PCAS antenna was any different.

On Thu, 13 Sep 2012 20:08:49 -0700 (PDT), "kirk.stant"
wrote:

Except that voids the seal on the box and the future (?) IGC logger.

I assume Mark is talking about the "black box" around the dipole
antenna where the antenna cable terminates, not anything within the
brick box itself.

Bob

On Thursday, September 13, 2012 6:21:47 PM UTC-7, (unknown) wrote:
It's probably a lot easier to open the little black box and take a peak at how the
cable is soldered at the antenna end. You could probably cut off the
excess at the antenna end a lot easier than crimping new connectors.
It's a very simple layout. The inner conductor is soldered to one
dipole and the shield is soldered to the opposite one. At least the
Flarm antenna was done that way and I'd be surprised if the PCAS
antenna was any different.

Except that voids the seal on the box and the future (?) IGC logger.

I haven't looked at the GPS antenna other than to remove the two magnets
which are hidden under the sticker.

I like the idea of removing the magnets, though - thanks!

Kirk
66

Doh! That makes a lot more sense. Interesting idea.

I need to practice my reading more...

Kirk
66

On Thursday, September 13, 2012 11:08:49 PM UTC-4, kirk.stant wrote:
On Thursday, September 13, 2012 6:21:47 PM UTC-7, (unknown) wrote:

It's probably a lot easier to open the little black box and take a peak at how the cable is soldered at the antenna end. You could probably cut off the excess at the antenna end a lot easier than crimping new connectors. It's a very simple layout. The inner conductor is soldered to one dipole and the shield is soldered to the opposite one. At least the Flarm antenna was done that way and I'd be surprised if the PCAS antenna was any different.



Except that voids the seal on the box and the future (?) IGC logger.



I haven't looked at the GPS antenna other than to remove the two magnets which are hidden under the sticker.



I like the idea of removing the magnets, though - thanks!



Kirk

66

OMG magnets? I need to get them out of there too! Good catch.

-Jim