Tonight I decided it was time to finally try my hand at some coax. I got Josie to help me temporarily install the transponder and ADS-B receiver antennas, so I could work on the coax for those. I started with the transponder, which is the easier of the two, since it has a pretty short run. I actually spent some time trying to decide how to route it, eventually settling for running it under the avionics shelf and then through a bulkhead lightening hole.
Now, I did do a coax crimp or two when I did the Sportair electrical workshop…which was maybe six years ago. So I did take a few minutes to go read up on the trim lengths again before getting to work, and in general I probably took about five times as long as necessary to get the terminations done. and in the end, all I did was that one cable for the transponder, but hey, it’s something…
A look at the cable going through he bulkhead. The white thing mounted on the side of the lightening hole is what the cable will be secured to when final-installed. Obviously I don’t want it chafing on the edge of that hole, and I also want to make sure it stays clear of the rudder cable:
A look at the overall routing from above. So far, the only place the cable is supported is at that lightening hole, but I think I want to add something at the forward edge of the shelf as well – I still need to decide exactly how I want to handle that. But at the moment the cable is just sort of dangling in midair, which I don’t think is really satisfactory, especially given the proximity to the rudder cable:
So maybe I can figure out how to secure that next time out. Then I guess I can look at the longer, more convoluted coax run for the ADS-B antenna. That one will have to be terminated and crimped inside the fuselage, which will make things a little bit more fun…