This is a question: Anyone notice Rf attenuation or decreased reception range with a rocket that uses a nosecone mounted tracker in a black filament wound nosecone?
Reason I ask is I've heard that carbon black might be used as a pigment in the epoxy to give it the black color. Might be some Rf attenuation there even if carbon fiber filaments weren't used in making the nosecone..
I have a black 4 inch diameter NC for a project and one for a 38mm MD rocket. I might have to take more time for a range check before flying.
I've had the misfortune of signal loss due to metallic paint with a 70cm GPS tracker in two rockets. The one fortunately landed within sight and the other had a deployment failure and was lost for 18 months.
Very sick feeling when no signal is heard and am trying to avoid that situation. In fact, the one that landed within sight went a little over 10,000' AGL and Mach 1 on an L1400. It's the only GPS tracker flight that
I've ever seen under chute. All the dozen or so other flights were small screamers that totally disappeared that were only seen to have performed well when I walked up to them and saw the recovery systems deployed
properly while lying on the ground after the flight.
Kurt Savegnago
Reason I ask is I've heard that carbon black might be used as a pigment in the epoxy to give it the black color. Might be some Rf attenuation there even if carbon fiber filaments weren't used in making the nosecone..
I have a black 4 inch diameter NC for a project and one for a 38mm MD rocket. I might have to take more time for a range check before flying.
I've had the misfortune of signal loss due to metallic paint with a 70cm GPS tracker in two rockets. The one fortunately landed within sight and the other had a deployment failure and was lost for 18 months.
Very sick feeling when no signal is heard and am trying to avoid that situation. In fact, the one that landed within sight went a little over 10,000' AGL and Mach 1 on an L1400. It's the only GPS tracker flight that
I've ever seen under chute. All the dozen or so other flights were small screamers that totally disappeared that were only seen to have performed well when I walked up to them and saw the recovery systems deployed
properly while lying on the ground after the flight.
Kurt Savegnago