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Bill Cannon

Member
Hi all,

I am installing two ci 122s on an RV 10 bottom with a backer plate with nutplates. I have the nutplates riveted to the backer but the backer is not yet riveted to fuselage so I can repair if need be.

Here's what I'm looking at. The clearance hole for the bnc female (antenna) is slightly off center when the antenna is mounted. The female does not touch the edge of the hole in either the fuse or the backer. When I attach a male to the female :D, the male just barely touches the backer. Not enough to put any stress on the connection it seems but there is contact. Should I enlarge the hole in the backer so this doesn't happen or let it be? It would be easy enough to enlarge but it seems as though the idea is for the antenna plate to contact the metal skin. The antenna plate seems as though it has contact with the outer elements of the coax through the female being mounted to the antenna plate anyway. Short question to sum it up....is this contact ok?

Thanks,

Bill
 
As long as it doesn't prevent you from fully seating the BNC connector, and as long as you can remove the antenna from under the aircraft with the connector connected, the contact won't hurt any thing, but I would recommend enlarging the hole slightly to prevent the contact anyway.
 
Sparky and anyone else,

Thanks. I'll do that. While I'm on, another question. I have a tight mate on the flat bottom, do you think I should prime the inner side of the skin and backer or should I leave those alodine only? My thought is that it can't hurt to have the inner skin bare riveted to the bare backer to provide ground through the screws for back up I guess. Or maybe that is redundancy that is not needed.

Thanks for your thoughts,

Bill
 
To ensure the best possible ground plane, I recommend leaving the mating surfaces alodined, but not primed.
 
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