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[PaulHesp]

Just installing radio gear into boat. The boat kit instructs to "cut down the steel whip aerial to length", but doesn't way what length. Perhaps this should suit the frequency of radio gear used?

Can anyone tell me if I should use a whip aerial for the Radio Link 2.4GHz set? Rx has a stubby little bit of aerial attached (about 70mm long)

[HS93 (RIP)]

do not cut or alter the aerial on any 2.4 ghz radio they are very Finley tuned and you will loose all your range, the kit is talking about 27 or 40 mhz which is totally different


peter

[Netleyned]

do not cut or alter the aerial on any 2.4 ghz radio they are very Finley tuned and you will loose all your range, the kit is talking about 27 or 40 mhz which is totally different


peter

Do NOT connect it to the whip aerial either. Extra length does not mean extra range.
Quite the reverse in fact.

Ned

[dodgy geezer]

All the aerials we work with are dimensionally critical, and I don't think it's a good idea to play with any of them unless you have kit like SWR meters available.

The kit sounds like it's giving rather old fashioned instructions which were commoner in the 1960s-80s, when people were still used to making their own radio sets. In those days you might measure the length of the wire aerial you had on your 27mHz receiver, and if you had an 18" whip aerial, you might cut 18" off that wire and solder the remaining stub to your whip - thus giving you the same length as you originally had.

I never did this as I didn't want to run the risk of altering things, and it's pointless to do with 2.4ghz (as well as being much more dangerous, as HS93 points out). Good point by Netleyned, too. Incidentally, the actual aerial on your 2.4ghz is the little 30mm unsleeved bit at the end...

[PaulHesp]

Thanks for the advice guys- I'll leave the existing aerial well alone!