Mark,

Here is a summary of changes to be made by the toolmaker on the
mold for the baseplate and ring. I assume the mold for the dome
will be modified in-house at MCA (the 0.004" to be taken off the
sprue gate). The accompanying sketch/drawing shows each of these
4 changes (labelled in circled numbers corresponding to this text).

The intention of all of these changes is to improve how the parts
fit together - and how they fit onto the antennas. Our original
designs used a nominal 0.033" for gaps between parts, taking into
account the tolerances we thought we should use. However, upon
our very satisfactory results of inspecting the first-article
parts MCA produced for us, we feel confident in tightening this
nominal gap to be about 0.015" (in some cases, we are specifying
changes that will take gaps all the way down to as little as
0.010"(R)). If you feel that this is definitely not advisable -
that is, if you have real concerns that the first-article parts
may not be representative of what can be accomplished during
the production runs in the future, please advise us.

Changes:

1. Add 0.075"(R) to o.d. of ring (spec dim. 8.000" on drawings)
This change will affect BOTH the ring-only and baseplate
mold configurations.

2. Add 8 crush ribs that each set in by 0.015" on inside of
ring - surface that mates with the antenna (for centering).
Each rib should extend as high as possible on the inside
edge of the insert boss (above screw hole so that pressure
on surfaces from the screws is distributed). This change
will only affect the 'ring-only' mold configuration.

3. Re-cut the baseplate/ring mold i.d. of lowermost lip (spec
dim. 7.583" on drawings) so that shape is same (radiused)
but the 7.583" dimension is reduced to 7.528" (to make a
tighter fit around the antenna's lowermost edge of ground
plane). That is, reduce this inside overall radius by 0.055"
This change will affect BOTH the ring-only and baseplate
mold configurations.

4. For the baseplate (P/N 0030) mold ONLY (not to be noticable
on the short dome's 'ring' part) - a set of 12 'crush ribs'
[maybe we should call this something else, like "pad"?]
(one at location of each boss on the base plate part). Each
pad will be 0.625" wide and stand out 0.055" from the ring
o.d. (_after_ change item #1 modification has been done). The
outer surfaces of these pads should parallel the ring
(that is, they're curved surfaces not flat). These ribs
should come up as high as possible on the insert boss. This
change will only affect the 'baseplate' mold configuration.

Notes on Changes:

a. Item 1 we expect them to do at no cost to SCIGN; all other
changes differ from design so SCIGN is willing to pay extra)

b. Items 1 & 2 were discussed during meeting of MCA and SCIGN
on 1/5/99 - we've made some slight changes to what we did
talk over, both on item 1 and item 2. Items 3 & 4 were not
decided upon but SCIGN has since decided that these changes
may be needed.

c. If any of these descriptions are inadequately clear, or if
the attached drawing is insuffiently detailed, let me know
and I'll provide more complete description and/or drawings.

d. It would be helpful if the toolmaker could itemize costs
for each change, #1-4, so that we can decide which ones
we'd like them to do.

We think that if we go forward with all the changes requested here,
the secondary operations will be simplified. Once we've decided on
these mold changes, we will review the secondary operations with
you and Yosh again and make sure we give you clear directions on
the secondary operations in particular. We recognize that is needed,
as a follow up to our meeting on 1/5/99. At the very least, for the
short term, we can provide 'sketch' drawings like the attached one
to help specify our requests and changes r.e. the secondary operations.

This note is particular to mold changes, since it seems most pressing
to get these ironed out first.

Thanks again,

Ken