my arial got chopped

[Matt]

in the racing @ todays states, i took a hit with another car and my arial was chopped a little - i lost about 1.5 centimeters off it.

with my AM radio gear experience, the arials are tuned to a specific length and any cutting will put the arial out of tune and cause all sorts of probs....

but i have 40mhz FM. is this radio band as sensitive to arial length? will this 1.5 centimete cut of the tip of the arial cause me radio probs??

matt

[remotebandit]

sorry matt but ive never heard anything bout that and to be honest i wouldnt even worry bout 1.5cm , shit mate , how many aerials ive snapped ( and trimmed ) and also how many times ive just soldered some wire to an existing receiver , ive never had 1 issue what so ever .

Simple solution is to just take it out and check the range , i think your worrying about nothing there mate .

Adam .

[slylux]

yeh . u might lose 10% of the range .. but most radios have how long range 200 m plus ?? how far is the race track futhers point , 30m ??

if it aint broke , dont bother fixing

[Matt]

thanks for the replys so far fellas, but im kinda hoping for a definative answer. chopping an AM arial is quite bad as they are cut to a "tuned length".

[James]

you wont loose ANY range. relax. :)

[remotebandit]

lol , i also reckon your stressing a bit much Matt but dont worry what the books say , 1.5cm is not going to affect it at all , jesus ive had over 5cm crimpped with no issues on planes , mate if you want to get tech , then lets talk about people that wind their antenna wire round itself or the top of the straw , that will cause other issues as well but were only talking extreme distances and i can assure you your car will be way too far to see it till it ranges out .

[JD]

yea i don;t see how 1 cm or 2 will affect anything...

[azzachaz]

But losing an inch is a lot for our Matt ;)

[Matt]

ok.

but are you guys aware that ariel lengths are tuned? they dont just give 30cm of wire because its a nice round number :p its all properly tuned. chop a length off an AM radio and there goes your range (and the introduction of more glitching)

[JD]

how can you tune a wavelength to a length of wire?

[remotebandit]

solder 1.5cm back to whats left if you are that worried

I mean no disrespect but its that simple if your that worried . Desolder it from the receiver end and extend it from there so that you still get a clean end to thread through the tubing out of the shell .

[JD]

ok, i worked out that 40Mhz has a wavelength of 7.5 m. Thats a large wavelength, i don;t see how a cm is gunna do anything, and someone explain to me the tuning to the wire thing.

[justo316]

I'm pretty sure back in physics (12 years ago) the length of antenna was directly proportional to being able to receive a certain wavelength radio signal. Or maybe it was amplitude....I don't remember and I too can't be bothered googling :P

But yeah, I think the only thing it reduces is strength (ie range), and maybe gains the ability to pick up new signals which may interfere. Take it for a run with some other rcs and see what happens if you're that worried.

[azzachaz]

Matt is right but 1.5cm is too little so worry about in real terms.

Take it somewhere and test the range before you go and race again.

[BAGES]

Matto its completely stuffed - and I can say that having absolutely no clue on the topic - best you rip all that gear out and send it to me asap :-) ha ha ha ha ah aha ahaaa