Cool and cheap antenna mod!

[sportygreg]

I hated leaving my rx antenna wrapped around the skids-then I saw a coil antenna being sold at one site for about $13.00. I decided to make my own for free-You use a common drinking straw and a piece of dowel that fits inside it. The dowel keeps the straw stiff to wrap the wire around it-cut the straw slightly longer than the skid supports and make notches in the ends of the straw. Once the wire is wrapped and secured with a drop of ca glue you remove the dowel then secure notched ends of straw to skid supports with ca. The straw adds almost no weight and antenna length is the same-see attatched photo.I painted the ends black to make it look better.

[vcampos]

Thanks for the creative mod. It will come in handy.

Thats a pretty cool antenna mod, does anyone else have any ideas regarding the clean look?

Thanks C_Chopper

[thecheat]

how's the range and how far apart are the coils?

[sportygreg]

The coils are as close as they need to be to fit the length of the straw. The range is reduced a little but I fly in my garage or backyard so range is not a problem.The commercial coil antenna they sell is the same length but uses thin copper wire-a base or top loaded antenna uses the same principal.You could use a longer straw and increase the surface area for more range-Wrapping the antenna around the skids like a lot of people do is no more efficient than the straw idea and carbon fiber or metal struts could cause interference.The mod is cheap enough to try and see what the range is with your radio and receiver and reversible if you are not satisfied with the range.It's better than paying $13.00 for basically the same thing!

[turco]

Hey sportygreg

thats how i do my antennas i wrap it around a pencil loose then shrink wrap it and slide the pencil out. Works great for me no problems to report if in a crash the shrinkwrap get creased or bent i do it again. the wire slides out easily ready to be wraped again

keep it in the air
Turco