Jun 21 2010

ADS-B antenna

Today the ADS-B antenna installation was finalized.  Installation requires two things…. a ground plane (done) and somehow attaching the antenna to the fuselage.  It finally occurred to me, I didnt need to dish out the 1″ thick interior foam to fit the 1/2″ long antenna studs, I just extended the studs with some threaded brass bushing made on the lath.  This made installation MUCH easier as I now can easily access the nuts without cutting up the interior.

I talked to the manufacture of the CuPro-CoteTM paint.  He said others have used it for ground planes and it works great.  If you plan to use it, paint it in THIN layers since excess acrylic binder (if you paint it thick) actually reduced the conductivity.

Five patchs of copper tape was cut in a sort of “E” so there would be more edge surface contact area for the paint and attached to the bottom.  

Then the entire surface was given a second coat with part of the tap left unpainted so a wire could be soldered to the tab the then covered with a patch of BID for protection.  I don’t know if I need the extra wire connecting the sections as the resistance of the surface after a second coat of paint from the hell hole to the nose (about 7 ft”) was only 8 ohms. 

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