RF interference from 'metallic' paints.

Another observation: I flew a Big Red Bee 900 MHz in a plastic nose cone painted with Rustoleum "Metallic" (silver). Now, the payload bay for the tracker is mostly in the unpainted shoulder, so perhaps the paint effect was thus minimal. I received packets all the way to 10,000' apogee and then to 4'000 horizontal to last reported position before touchdown.

Buckeye said:

Another observation: I flew a Big Red Bee 900 MHz in a plastic nose cone painted with Rustoleum "Metallic" (silver). Now, the payload bay for the tracker is mostly in the unpainted shoulder, so perhaps the paint effect was thus minimal. I received packets all the way to 10,000' apogee and then to 4'000 horizontal to last reported position before touchdown.

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Means the paint had minimal effects on the 33cm band/900Mhz and 250mW output. Did you do a ground range test prior to flying that way in the past? If not, you lucked out but it's working so you should be in good shape. Kurt

Chris_H said:

Cool. Thanks, Kurt.


Are those LED's in the charge terminals just there for testing the electronics?

Are you planning on stuffing the L2050 into that rocket? Is it a 3" diameter? Even at 3" diameter, wouldn't that configuration be kinda scary with that motor, having 2 breaks above the end of the case on a skinny rocket? I have that 54 / 4000 motor casing, it is one of the things I have been thinking about quite a bit in the past few months, in rocketry projects.

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Yes on the LED's and 3". I doctored a Wildman Rocket. Bought from Tim along with extra tubing when the rocket was on sale many moons ago. The sustainer is two pieces of tubing with a substantial coupler with Cotronics Duralco 4525b epoxy so it's solid. I did use a coupler thrust block in the upper sustainer as there is no switchband to carry the ebay loads. I had to notch the tubes if you look closely at the switch. I'll not do that again although I did it with a Dominator 4 shortly built thereafter. (Too much trouble but the keyswitch is partially recessed so it does look a bit cleaner.) The rocket went to 10k on a Loki L1400 in the 2800ns case. I was concerned but the thing went arrow straight though I used a liberal forward CG as I've read that Barrowman equations can be a little off with long-necked rockets. : https://argoshpr.ch/joomla1/articles/pdf/sentinel39-galejs.pdf

I have little doubt the construction could handle an M motor. I used the Duralco 4525b, a longer motor tube too and 5 centering rings all slathered in with 4525b. Actually overkill for the then available L motors but I was young and stupid. There is one break at apogee and one break at the nosecone.

Actually, I think there are people who have successfully flown the L2050 and M1378 in true minimum diameter projects. They go high. Kurt