Mounting a Tracker to Your Shock Cord

I will preface this with it is not my idea or design. I have seen many old timers do this.

I use a Com-Spec tracker and I often just tape it to the shock cord.


A standard Com-Spec Tracker.


The first step I perform is to deal the casing with electrical tape. I usually use standard black tape, but the orange / red is a better contrast to the casing and antenna.


Another image of the case sealed.


The next step is to tape the body and antenna to the shock cord. I put the body up to have the casing absorb the force against the bulkhead. I through a couple revolution of tape around the body and shock cord. The last step is to attache the antenna to the shock cord in 4 locations.

I have never had one come off or damaged.

Chuck, we do the same thing on most flights but we don't tape the antenna. For large rockets that we can see the whole flight we use the provided case, but for smaller rockets where the case is too large to fit in the airframe or ones that fly out-of-sight (15K+) we don't use the case. We still wrap the tracker to the shock cord with electrical tape. On those flights we attach the tracker to the drogue harness, not the main...

It's nice to get a signal increase when you get a separation event at apogee even though you can't see the rocket.

Interesting idea. I have also used one on the top section and one on the bottom with dual deployment.

Hey Chuck

I don't tape the antenna either, use to, but the antenna got pulled out of the PCB once and was a Bitch to repair. Now I just let it dangle.

Thank you CW!!! This is really helpful!

dlb said:

Hey Chuck

I don't tape the antenna either, use to, but the antenna got pulled out of the PCB once and was a Bitch to repair. Now I just let it dangle.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I have done both. I can see how that could happen.

What if you used twist ties to secure the antenna to the shock cord?

I slide my tracker and antenna into a nomex sleeve then attach it to a bulkhead or nose cone.

I like that!!!

The other thing I will add to this, the tape that you use is also a factor. I only use 3M Super 33. I also flip the tracker over, so that the cord is flat against the case. I will always use a very liberal amount of tape and as I am wrapping the tape, stretch tape to ensure best strength from the tape.

Also, tape the battery to the actual tracker before you put it in the case.

I have never tracked "just the tracker" (of my own)