Helical Mounting Question

[azure]

I'm putting together a ground station fabricated out of a metal case that would also serve to house and protect my CW 1.3 helical when transporting it. My power distribution, receivers, and diversity would be installed inside the case, with antenna connectors going to the CP and Helical antennae mounts on the outside of the case. My idea is to then mount the whole apparatus to the top of a tripod when in use.

My question is this: If I created a mount that attached my helical antenna to the case (as pictured below) when I'm flying, would I create multipathing (or other interference) problems by doing so?

[sircana]

No problem at all with the Helical. However, if you are using also a Skew Planar Wheel, try to install it on top of the case, with free space around the 360º.

[azure]

No problem at all with the Helical. However, if you are using also a Skew Planar Wheel, try to install it on top of the case, with free space around the 360º.

Thanks for the quick response. I was going to mount the SPW on a PVC mast about 250mm above the case. Would that be okay?

[sircana]

Just perfect. Could you please post some pics once finished? :-)

[azure]

Yes, absolutely. Your handiwork is phenomenal, BTW. I can't wait to get it all up and running.

[azure]

Here are some pics, as promised. I had an old case laying around and used it to house everything. The result looks like some goofy, Robbie the Robot plasma gun / science project. But despite that, it works well for both flying and transporting the Helical and SPWs safely. I'm using the antennas with an Oracle diversity; a great combination, that's working really well.

[sircana]

Here are some pics, as promised. I had an old case laying around and used it to house everything. The result looks like some goofy, Robbie the Robot plasma gun / science project. But despite that, it works well for both flying and transporting the Helical and SPWs safely. I'm using the antennas with an Oracle diversity; a great combination, that's working really well.

Wow!!! Cool!!!

Just one question: why do you have the SPW so elevated? I don't believe you would lose range if you install it directly without the rigid cable.

[azure]

Despite it being CP, I figured getting the SPW up and away from any case reflections couldn't hurt, and plus it allowed for a completely unobstructed 360º view. And it's not a rigid cable... it's actually just a tubular PVC mast with a flexible RG316 cable held against it with some shrink tubing. If you look closely at the 2nd pic, you can see where the cable feeds into the case. I used a T-nut on the case, in conjunction with a set screw embedded into the end of the PVC tube, so the whole thing just screws on and off easily for transport.