GPS Antenna Hacking

Ok we have discovered a small (or rather heavy) problem with our grand plan. Most of the avionics equipment onboard the plane is both tiny and light (eg. GPS reciever ~ 12g). Not so with the $30 GPS antenna I purchased of eBay. With a moulded plastic case and metal base with magnets this was both large (see pic) and heavy (~90g). The aim of the project is to get the avionics equipment under 100g, so an antenna taking up 90% of this allowance was just not on.




So onto the hacking: In the second pic you can see the antenna with the case removed. Next I removed the heavy metal base (with built in magnets). The cable on the antenna was 5m in length (about 4.9m too long). After some fine soldering work we end up with figure 3 - much smaller and only ~17g. This is not really the way to do things for mass production, but as a stopgap meaure works nicely. Hopefully the antenna is still operations - I will know later today.