Ant Connector Question

Bluelabel · #1 11-18-2015, 02:34 PM

I hate asking stupid questions... but I tried to go right to the source and the only email address I could find for Sport Craft Antennas bounced and the phone number doesn?t answer...
I?ll keep this short.
We have a Bob Archer wing Tip VOR antenna installed in our RV-10. We are close to final assembly. At the moment I have the coax coiled up on the wing with enough to run into the plane and to the Garmin in one continuous feed. This, however is really making it difficult to finish a few things off as we can?t close any panels up until the plane goes to the airport and we put on the wings.
I know that NOT having a connector in the feed would be BETTER. But? the question is, if we put a coupling inline (could do BNC, or F Con. whatever would be most solid. I have the tools to do virtually any connector), will it REALLY degrade the signal? to a point I would notice?
IF we went ahead and ran the wire in the plane and had a connection point at the wing root, it would really make life right now easier. HOWEVER, this will be an IFR plane and I like ILS approaches? so, I don?t want to shoot myself in the foot.
Thanks for your time.

Walt · #2 11-18-2015, 03:00 PM

One extra BNC connection in the VOR cable won't make much difference, just do it.

RV3bpilot · #3 11-18-2015, 03:00 PM

A BNC will work good but with each connector you will lose some performance like you said. I don't know how much signal loss there will be but I have heard 15% or so per connector.

RV3bpilot · #4 11-18-2015, 03:04 PM

BOB ARCHER 310-316-8796 bobsantennas@earthlink.net ANTENNAE

ChiefPilot · #5 11-18-2015, 03:15 PM

I have several connections and a splitter between the Archer antenna in my wingtop and the KX155 it is connected to. I can still get the ODI VOR from > 100nm when above 10K, and out to about 70nm when as low as 4000ft.

The signal loss from the additional connector is more academic than practical; the service volume of a high/low/terminal VOR along with your receiver will likely be a bigger influence.

RV7A Flyer · #6 11-18-2015, 03:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluelabel

I hate asking stupid questions... but I tried to go right to the source and the only email address I could find for Sport Craft Antennas bounced and the phone number doesn?t answer...
I?ll keep this short.
We have a Bob Archer wing Tip VOR antenna installed in our RV-10. We are close to final assembly. At the moment I have the coax coiled up on the wing with enough to run into the plane and to the Garmin in one continuous feed. This, however is really making it difficult to finish a few things off as we can?t close any panels up until the plane goes to the airport and we put on the wings.
I know that NOT having a connector in the feed would be BETTER. But? the question is, if we put a coupling inline (could do BNC, or F Con. whatever would be most solid. I have the tools to do virtually any connector), will it REALLY degrade the signal? to a point I would notice?
IF we went ahead and ran the wire in the plane and had a connection point at the wing root, it would really make life right now easier. HOWEVER, this will be an IFR plane and I like ILS approaches? so, I don?t want to shoot myself in the foot.
Thanks for your time.

Hmmm...what seems to be the issue preventing you from closing things up? I just connected everything on the panel, ran the wires to the wing root area and coiled them up. Then, when putting the wings on, pull them through the conduit. No need for connectors and it didn't hinder or slow anything.

krw5927 · #7 11-18-2015, 05:10 PM

I have a connector in line with my Archer VOR antenna. The connector is inside the fuselage, and is a BNC-BNC bulkhead connector passing through the outboard seat rib (one bay inboard of the passenger side wall). The antenna gets great reception and has been problem-free. That is, once I figured out I needed to use an insulated/isolated bulkhead connector.

The first bulkhead connector I had was not insulated, so the braid of the RG400 cable was well grounded to the airframe at the seat rib. In my test flights, I immediately suspected the bulkhead connector as a problem when I could get almost no VOR reception and just a bunch of noise on the audio output. Swapping it for the insulated connector fixed the problem, and it's been great since.

az_gila · #8 11-18-2015, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RV3bpilot

A BNC will work good but with each connector you will lose some performance like you said. I don't know how much signal loss there will be but I have heard 15% or so per connector.

I hope it's not 15%

Amphenol specifies 2.3% loss (0.2 dB) for it's BNC connectors and that's at 3 GHz.

Just install the correct connector specified for the co-ax you are using.

n82rb · #9 11-18-2015, 08:04 PM

unless someone else is handling bob's antennas here is why the links are bouncing.

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...d.php?t=122315

bob burns
N82RB

Bluelabel · #10 11-18-2015, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RV7A Flyer

Hmmm...what seems to be the issue preventing you from closing things up? I just connected everything on the panel, ran the wires to the wing root area and coiled them up. Then, when putting the wings on, pull them through the conduit. No need for connectors and it didn't hinder or slow anything.

The coax is soldered on to the antenna and run through the wing with a coil to run to the panel. It's literally the last thing to connect.