[ArVeeNiner]

I have a panel mounted Zaon MRX traffic alert system and I also have the antenna extender. For those of you who have a panel mounted unit and an antennal internal to the airplane, how did you mount the antenna?

My first thought is to drill a hole in the skin just under the windshield (slider installation) and then mount the antenna somehow. The coax connection on the stub antenna is at a right angle so you can't just simple push it up through the hole and secure it. The exender has a few inches of stiff cable that has suction cups on it in order to stick it to the canopy I assume. See it here: http://www.zaon.aero/component/option,com_wrapper/Itemid,65/

So, I thought I might pop it through the hole and then fashion some sort of bracket to hold the stiff area near the suction cups. I could just pop the antenna vertically through the hole and leave the stiff part of the extender and suction cups beneath the skin but I'm not sure that the stub would stick out the hole sufficiently. I guess I could look at routing the cable from beneath the panel.

Yes, using an external antenna is probably the best solution but I want to avoid that expense.

Anyway, just looking for better ideas.

Thanks

 

[Leland]

MRX antenna mounting

Kelly, I mounted the MRX on the front glareshield with its stub-antenna attached. I wanted the MRX display to be fully forward so that my presbyoptic eyes could more readily focus from distance to the display. I wired the output signals into my headset panel jack with resistive splitters. It works just fine.
Leland
RV9A at Livermore

 

[petehowell]

top of panel

I just ran coax to a $15 stub antenna on top of the panel. It seems to work great and works as a gunsight for the passenger.....

You can see it here as Fiona takes control of the RV:

 

[ArVeeNiner]

Load required?

I just ran coax to a $15 stub antenna on top of the panel. It seems to work great and works as a gunsight for the passenger.....

You can see it here as Fiona takes control of the RV:

That's a great idea but I thought that there was some sort of attuator required for this. Zaon sells a $150 cable for this. How did you get it to work with the $15 antenna? Are the sexes of the cable ends correct? Is that the older Surecheck model I see in your panel? Maybe those had a different requirement.

 

[petehowell]

Hi Kelly

It is the older Surecheck Trafficscope. I just made a short Rg-400 cable with a BNC connector on each end to fit the antenna and the the connector on the Surecheck VRX. The unit is RX only so it should not need any load on the cable.

That said - The MRX might be different. This works well with just a bit of a blind spot directly behind the plane

 

[ArVeeNiner]

The unit is RX only so it should not need any load on the cable.

My thoughts exactly Pete. It's a passive unit so what is there to attenuate? But, they insist that we buy the expensive cable for the MRX. I bought the unit a few years ago and had hoped that there would be a better solution when I finally was ready to button everything up but no such luck I guess.

 

[mikerkba]

On he belly just forward of left wing root

My MRX worked pretty well as a portable so. When I installed the unit permanently on the lower edge, centered on the pilots instrument panel (e.g. in front of the stick), despite Zaon's repeated instructions not to mount an antenna on the top side of the aircraft, I did. I figured, it it works there as a portable, the permanent mount should too -- and out of the slip stream as a bonus. Sadly, the MRX did not work well with the antenna top side. Much worse performance than when used as a portable -- with very erratic readings of non-signals. Perhaps too much interference from the EFIS or VP200, I don't know.

I made a longer cable and installed the antenna on the belly just forward of the left wing intersection, staying 36 inches from the transponder antenna, and found that the MRX works pretty well, about as well as it did as a portable.

My recommendation, keep the MRX as a portable. Wait for better traffic detection/reporting equipment which will be along in the next year or so.

Mike

 

[Mel]

My MRX external antenna is mounted on the bottom of the fuselage 1/2 way between the trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the horizontal stab. I did use Zaon supplied antenna and coax. It works great. It even sees traffic above and straight ahead where you might expect a "blind" spot.

 

[FrankK90989]

Roll bar brace. found the backwards fittings (sma-RP) on "fleebay" about $2.00. The RP means reverse polarity.

 

[ArVeeNiner]

AHA! That's it!!! That's a great location.

Just to clarify, did you use the extension cable from Zaon and reverse it? I don't see the rigid section in your picture. Do you have an RP fitting on both ends of that cable?

 

[FrankK90989]

I ordered both a male & female SMA-RP, and used a 3' chunk of RG-174U. (small stuff about 1/8") Wear your magnifiers. The antenna end fitting has long threads to simplify the clamp.

 

[NYTOM]

How is it mounted?

My MRX external antenna is mounted on the bottom of the fuselage 1/2 way between the trailing edge of the wing and the leading edge of the horizontal stab. I did use Zaon supplied antenna and coax. It works great. It even sees traffic above and straight ahead where you might expect a "blind" spot.

Mel did you mount it inside the hull and let it stick out the bottom or mount a connector on the bottom through the skin and attach the supplied antenna to it. I'm thinking about rain beating the connector or maybe some kid helping themselves to a free antenna.

 

[Mel]

The antenna I used is offered by Zaon. It is a standard transponder antenna and mounts just like any other transponder antenna. The antenna mounts to the belly skin and the connector is inside.
This is NOT the little "rubber duck" antenna that is used on the glare shield.

 

[NYTOM]

Now I'm getting it.

Thanks Mel. I thought that maybe you had figured a way to use the rubber one. I like the location since its getting kind of crowded up front with Com's and the Txp. I'll check out Zoan's site.