I have a reciever with an antenna wire that was broken about 3/4" from the reciever case. I stripped the wire and wound the broken ends and soldered them together. I then applied a good amount of vinyl tape the joint.
How far should the range test go before I declare it safe? Are there any considerations that have escaped my conderation?
Thanks,
Sisyphus
If you have any noticeable loss from before, you should be worried. If it broke off that close to the receiver, I would have just put a new antenna on to be sure there were no broken areas still under the insulation. But if you range check OK, and there aren't any disturbed areas left in the insulation to worry about, then you're good to go. You might want to pick up some heat shrink next time you order from someone that carries it, and replace the tape with it. If you should ever have to re-solder that area, the glue from the tape will make a good job almost impossible.
On 4/2/2004 1:53 PM Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:
Just do a normal range test. If the receiver is working properly you should be OK. If any antenna is missing it is probably minimal and should not effect your reception. You did measure the repaired antenna to see if it was ABOUT 39" long, didn't you ?
The only other suggestions I can make are:
Did you clean the solder joint afterwards to prevent corrosion ?
I would substitute some heat shrink tubing or "liquid electrical tape" in place of the vinyl tape. The vinyl tape, beside being bulky, has a good chance of "unraveling" as it ages, which can in turn expose the connection and/or foul/jam the controls.
It should range check the same as before. These receivers are fairly tolerant of an inch or two.
No. That's all you do. Very few of my models have their original antennae in. Mostly I build in a piece of wire into the wings or fuselage of about the right length and solder it to a short pigtail left on the receiver.
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