I’ve got a carbon hull, corabon deck, mostly carbon internal reinforcement.
How do I get tolerable radio reception???
:-(((
A.
Maybe run the antenna up the backstay? The good news is, you lose sight of a Footy before you generally run out of range…at least that’s true at my age!
Bill
Not quite as ancient as you but still listed as a venerable relic by Her Majesty.
Eyesight probably worse.
No standing rigging. EXTREMELY SECRET rotating masts. Radio range about 2 metres. Thinking of balloon or kite. Any improvements anybody?
A.
Oh- By the way-
enclosing your aerial in a carbon tube renders it useless. It seems that you’ve found that a carbon box the shape of a boat does the same.
Perhaps one of the tubular antenna holders that the car guys use, installed so it extends from the back of the stern so it clears your top-secret dodads?
Bill
The electric boat racers usually mount the antenna stalk vertically to the transom. there’s no reason why you couldn’t do that with a sailboat.
Boy of a borblem when the boom overhangs the transom Tomohawk.
I doesn’t need to be adsolutely vertical, Angus
cheers
Tomohawk! Because of the AWFULLY SECRET MAST and the INCREIBLY SECRET BOOM, we have sheeting to the end of the boom - harder work fot the servo I know! So the main is sheeted to the end of the bumkin. Receipe for snarl-ups with aerial. Any more ideas?
A.
How about a short stiff springy wire antanea immediately in front of and close as possible to the mast (similar to antanea seen on some RC cars)
ps. When did Colwin Bay get sold to England? Someone may report you to the Welsh nationalists. . . :zbeer:
Sorry…Colwyn Bay
Walrs ceased to exist in 1286 when the Welsh vassels revolted against their (voluntary) leige lord, the King of England, and their foefs were automatically forfeit. Being slightly less theoretical, the accent of the costal strip up to Comwy is a Manchester/Liverpool cross. To all intents and purposes (apart from Plaid Cymru) this is England.
A.
Seriously Hijball, do you, or does anyone else know how far from a carbon structure the antenna needs to be to get reasobable reception?
I read about Faraday cages at school but I don’t really know anything about them.
A
I would just put the aerial through the deck neat the mast then.
Counsel of despertion Tomohawk but I suspect that’s where we’ll end up. Having gone to huge lengths to eliminate the in-rig crap of the average Footy so that the only above deck control lines/adjusters are the two sheets, it seems a huge pity to put an aerial in an aerodynmically crap positiion. Perhaps we use a wooden or foam deck.
Any comments?
A.
Have you tried running it along the top surface of the deck? Try taping it to the outside and test.
Maybe it could be disguised somehow slightly above the deck. A safety rail perhaps.
The other thought I had was, are you sure this radio gear works well at all? It could be operating on the edge and the carbon is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Don’t know, good luck.
PS Post some picture of your sail please. 
Pictures of the whole weird rig will be available shirtly. Secrecy is miostly to prevebt embarassment if it really doesn’t wotk. I’ve alreadt christened the boat Dingo!
A.
Looks like that was a good bottle Angus… 
Have you actually range checked Angus? Surprisingly our range can be significantly increased by having a short length of the end of the arial vertical above the deck. No need in many cases to have the whole length of the arial out there. Maybe run your arial to the bow and draw the last 2 or 3 inches through a hole and up a tube…
I run my arial around the underside of the deck to exit 1/4" from my aluminium mast and tape the remaining inches up the mast. Will carbon be any worse than aluminium? I get excellent reception like this on 75mHz.
Weird thing is… In Great Britain when you run a 35mHz arial down a carbon fibre boom on a glider… you crash… all but guaranteed. Yet here in the USA when you run a 72mHz arial down a carbon fibre boom on a glider all is well. I almost wet myself when I saw glider guys doing this!
Are you using 27mHz or 40mHz out of interest?
Graham
cant you wrap an areal round the outszide of a boad - similar to areals in the chassis of cars
how 'bout off the bow? it might look alittle funny, but hey! if it works right? [lol] i fly model airplanes, as well as be an uber sailing addict, and in planes we trail the antenna off the a** end of the plane. what if, you led the antenna up the mast, and then stuck it out and an angle from the top?
yay rotating masts! i’m glad i’m not the only one!