Can I remove the SMA adapter and solder a wire directly on, to reduce the length of the whole assembly? Or does the SMA connector specifically serve an important role. I want to do this because I am trying to fit it, along with a Raspberry Pi and screen, into a very compact casing.
The SMA connector, the cable, and even the traces on the PCB itself are all impedance-matched (by carefully controlling their spacing and the materials used) to reduce signal reflections. Modifying that by just soldering some stuff together will probably cause an impedance mismatch and you’ll see worse performance. It’ll probably still work to some degree (I mean, you can receive some ADS-B signals with nothing more than a paperclip for an antenna..) but it won’t be as good.
@obj Can I solder the wire part of this cable on, and ditch the connector? It’s just so long, I can’t even bend the wire until after the black wrapping.
Also, I am planning on using it from inside a commercial flight to get my current location, so I don’t need to get any other plane’s location. Though I don’t know how strong the signal that makes it through the fuselage is.
Just use a USB extension then it’s not an issue.
Will be better for reception as well.
Some USB extensions won’t work as they drop the voltage too much.
Just get a 0.5m USB3 extension possibly, they are generally pretty good.
Not that brands mean much for USB extensions, i’ve had look with something branded AINOPE.
The outer braided conductor on a coaxial cable is an essential part of the cable, you can’t just strip it like that.
That said if you’re trying to make a really simple antenna for a very strong signal (like a 250W transponder, 50 meters away..) then pretty much any random bit of wire is going to work. The antenna’s gain will be terrible but it probably won’t matter.
That’s really why I want to have anything packed into a nice, compact box - so it won’t look like a shady Ziploc bag full of wires. I also hope to make it super modular and easy to take apart, so if they ask I can show them that its just a Raspberry Pi, screen, fan, motor controller, and antenna inside.
I made one like that by stripping braid from pigtail’s top 70mm (1/4 wl), and it could receive even moderately strong signals from as far as 62nm. Please see screenshot of Skyaware map in my post quoted below.
