ADSB antenna + cockatoos

[Robert.M]

The other morning the winged vandals (cockatoos and not one or two, about ten of them) thought that my FR24 antenna and cable (LMR400) would be a great playground toy!

Having a scheduled blackout gave me an opportunity to do a bit of maintenance, including replacing the destroyed DIY airband antenna. Having got the mast down, I spotted three nicks but then I found the whopper of a nick! Thankfully the braid wasn't damaged too much.

I've since added a heap of self amalgamating tape to the damaged sections (help to keep water out) and used some outer casing from 1m of RG213 cable to give it a little protection.

The replacement DIY airband antenna was just a very quick (against all the textbooks) and crude design. It is poor with MEL CTR and CTAF (YSWG) but seems to do well for ACARS.

Anyone got any suggestions for both the cockatoo issue and the DIY airband antenna?

Sorry for the long post! Will post two pics shortly.

Before


After


Set-up