Ordered a low-drag Xponder Ant from DeltaPop Aviation (another business with great customer service) and got in the mail 3 days later. I have decided to mount this ant in the tailcone for 2 reasons. 1. If I eventually get a cargo pod, the preferred ant mounting locations would be covered or in the way of the pod when it’s attached to the belly. 2. My transponder is in the tail (remote mounted Garmin GTX 23ES) and I’m using RG400 cable so I’m limited to no more than a 6ft run of cable before dB losses are too great. Yes I could get another version of coax that would potentially double the wire run, but see reason #1 as to why that is kind of moot. The only concern I have with this plan is the ant is now within 3 ft of the transponder which is below the min separation distance called out for in the install manual. I’m hoping that there’s enough aircraft structure between the 2 to make it a non-issue. OK I picker the location and laid out the mounting holes with a little paper template that came with the ant. After drilling and test fitting, I fab’d up a doubler out of some .040 scrap. I located and drilled the mounting holes using the same holes in the skin as a template. I then went back and laid out and drilled AN426-3 rivet holes in the doubler then match drilled them into the tailcone bottom skin. Finished up by deburring and dimpling the doubler.
