Receiver Antenna Repair

Over time it's very possible that your receiver's antenna will become damaged. Despite how well you manage to try and take care of it, crashes, rollovers, and just the general rigors of driving off-road can damage your receiver's antenna. If you've noticed radio glitching, or a shortened range, one of the first things you should check is the receiver's antenna. If the wire is cut, frayed, or damaged, it should be replaced with a new one.

Replacing the receiver antenna isn't difficult, but does require some soldering skills. First of all you need is a soldering iron and a little patience, coupled with steady hands. You'll also need some replacement antenna wire. This from Futaba will work well, but will need to be trimmed some for use in a land-based RC truck. The longer length just isn't very practical.

While it's best to match the length used on the receiver originally, sometimes that just isn't possible. So if you don't know what the original length was, you'll want to use around 27 inches of wire for 27 MHz. If you're receiver operates in the 75 MHz range, you'll want to use around 20 inches.

In the example below, we will be replacing a torn antenna on a Traxxas receiver. Other receivers will be similar in nature.

First you'll need to remove the plastic housing of the receiver. Usually this involves removing four screws from the underside of the receiver, although some receivers use plastic tabs instead of screws.

Once case halves have been separated, the plastic housing can be completely removed. This fully exposes the circuit board itself.

The antenna will be soldered on to the board, usually on the underside. Simply heat up the solder with your iron and pull the old antenna loose. Be careful when heating the solder and don't allow it to run down and contact another solder joint on the board.

The end of the receiver wire that is to be attached to the receiver should be stripped around 1/8 of an inch. Then all that's required to install the new antenna is for you to heat the solder joint up again, which will allow it to secure the new antenna wire.

If you pulled off some of the old solder with the old antenna, it may be necessary for you to apply a little more solder to make a joint joint. However use as little as possible, as you don't need a huge glob of solder on the board.Again, keep your solder confined to the single joint you are working with.

Once the new antenna is in place, simply put the housing back around the circuit board and secure it back together with the screws you removed earlier. Most receivers have a rubber grommet around the antenna to protect it from becoming damaged on the receiver housing. Make sure you install that onto the new wire as well.

For more information regarding this repair, you can read this article at RC Central.