I have revised the title of this post in hopes of attracting more attention & getting help. Thanks to anyone who responds.
I have a very large layout parts of which are 70 ft. long. It is controlled by 12 DCS communication channels distributed over 3 TIU's. The TIU'S are not co-located. They are as much as 45 ft. apart and at times I experience poor communication between the remote and the TIU's. I have read Barry Broskowitz's remedy of sticking the installed antenna through the case of the TIU and Gunrunner John's admonition that any actual extension of the antenna should be tuned to 1 wavelength of the antenna frequency.
Since my TIU's are mounted horizontally just below the layout there is no room to stick the existing antenna in a vertical configuration through the top of the TIU case. I have also seen Barry's discussion of a rubber duck antenna which I can envision as a solution to my problem if it can be mounted on the front face of the layout and stick above it. My questions are: (1) Can a cable be attached to the existing TIU antenna and run to the rubber duck antenna? (2) If so should the extension cable be soldered directly to the existing antenna or should a hardware interface be used?(what hardware?) or (3) Should the rubber duck antenna replace the existing antenna with the extension cable soldered directly to the TIU board? (4) What are the specifications of the rubber duck antenna and extension cable? (brand & parts numbers would be helpful) Thanks in advance for suggestions & opinions.
