> ...
> A last thought. Is it possible that whilst breaking and
remaking my connectors for the tests I had done somthing
good?
A Murphy's Law variant says it's much more likely some other
Murphy's Law is the cuplprit. However, if a carefully
refabricated BNC connector changed things from an
amateur-fabricated first-try, then God surely did make
little green apples. :-)
> All of this effort had involved me in two days of work,
but I had learned a lot.
I'm glad to hear you're not too worse for the wear. Flying
experimentation is never a waste. And I do have an aircraft
antenna engineer friend who will absolutely certify all you
reported....in hindsight after having tried it!
> Going back to the Di-pole...
Actually if you want to cure all ills, mount a whip on the
top of the fuselage, ground plane on the inside skin..
Guaranteed "little green apples." Like the Liberty XL, the
type-certificated Europa, with external antennas.
Rather than the technicalities of that, and cute/true story
nevertheless, a friend and I were engaged in lengthy and
serious (!) discussions at the field the other day. On his
dinky, rubber-duck handheld, we hear a guy calling himself,
"Experimental [N-reg #], doing touch-and-goes at a field 20
miles away. "Slams and scrams" we call 'em. So we hear him
on ATC motoring toward our field for more landings, and
nearing the runway in the flare, my friend says hey, that's
a Europa. No, I think it's a Liberty, but not sure. A
what? I explain.
Then on climbout, he says that's sure no Rotax. Well,
because it may be a Liberty. Would have FADEC, too. Get
outta here! So, on downwind, my friend says, he's kind of
really zipping along. There's no big tailwind up there;
show-off guys in Mooneys at times do that. Well, because
it's a Europa in either case. So, he says I'm going to ask
him, after the guy turned final.
I said, maybe you should wait until he's on climbout.
Baloney, he can do final in that plane [prior observation in
landing manners] and talk to me at the same time. The pilot
said she was a Liberty XL2. I went to the car and retrieved
my pocket PC with the FAA database. She was apparently
registered to the Liberty company, and "Experimental" must
have been certification in either the research or
compliance-with-Regs experimental categories, the correct
way for ATC communications here, as with homebuilts too,
though few with a plane like a Europa do that. Well, I
could not see any external comm antenna at that distance as
real proof!
Reg,
Fred F.
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