Van's Air Force
Don't miss anything! Register now for full access to the definitive RV support community.
Painted WAAS GPS antenna?
- Thread starter digidocs
- Start date
Kahuna
Moderatoring
Note: Metallic paint WILL degrade signal. Ive done a lot of testing with this. Even perls will degrade signals.
Bob Kuykendall
Well Known Member
Walt
Well Known Member
I painted my own GA56 which is mounted on the glare shield for my G3X (non waas) GPS with flat black rustoleum "chalk board", still works like a champ. Before/after signal strength showed no difference that I could discern.
However, I would discourage anyone from painting their GA35 used with an IFR navigator.
However, I would discourage anyone from painting their GA35 used with an IFR navigator.
Last edited:
Carl Froehlich
Well Known Member
Don't paint - just cover with a flat black or dark gray piece of cloth. Two airplanes and four cloth covered GPS antennas mounted on top of the glare shields and all work perfectly.
Carl
RVRC
Well Known Member
Made a cover
My wife, the fiberglass queen,
copied what our tech counselor had done. She made a fiberglass form fitted cover and painted the cover with truck bed liner. It fits snug enough to not come off when I go inverted, but slides off easy enough when I need to remove it. I have one over the 430w antenna and one over the AFS GPS antenna. They have both worked very well for 260 hours. Both antennas sit on the glare shield which is covered with black car headliner with 1/8" foam backing.
My wife, the fiberglass queen,
copied what our tech counselor had done. She made a fiberglass form fitted cover and painted the cover with truck bed liner. It fits snug enough to not come off when I go inverted, but slides off easy enough when I need to remove it. I have one over the 430w antenna and one over the AFS GPS antenna. They have both worked very well for 260 hours. Both antennas sit on the glare shield which is covered with black car headliner with 1/8" foam backing.
Last edited:
No metallic
I called Garmin years ago to see if I could buy a black antenna. They were curios as to why, they never thought the antenna would be mounted on a glare shield. The rep suggested I paint it. When I mentioned the "Do not paint" he said "let me say this about that. We paint them!" He then stressed not to use any metallic. 15 years later my flat black antenna is working fine.
I called Garmin years ago to see if I could buy a black antenna. They were curios as to why, they never thought the antenna would be mounted on a glare shield. The rep suggested I paint it. When I mentioned the "Do not paint" he said "let me say this about that. We paint them!" He then stressed not to use any metallic. 15 years later my flat black antenna is working fine.
I sprayed my ebay bought Waas antenna flat black and still have good signal strength. There are lots of antennas mounted under cowls that are looking through the cowl and the paint on the cowl. I'd just read the ingredients on the spray can and make sure there's no metal. If you do spray yours it would be interesting to see what your GPS reception screen looks like before and after spraying and post pictures.
It is important not to mount GPS antennas close together on your glare shield. The will interfere with each other. John
It is important not to mount GPS antennas close together on your glare shield. The will interfere with each other. John
Last edited:
I have both my 430W and my Dynon GPS-2020 antennae mounted on a bracket underneath the cowl, probably about 1" between them, and have seen a) no interference between the antennae, and b) no degradation of performance from the cowl, with or without (pearlescent, DuPont IIRC) paint (on the cowl, not the antennae
).I read the same thing and ended up sanding /painting my GPS anyway (after all there is an experiment in experimental airplane). As many others have reported it's working as good as any GPS I have ever had. I am still puzzled where this recommendation is coming from though. I can see that there are some paints with metal or graphite which would be really bad but what I don't understand is:
1. Why would it make ANY difference if I use that paint e.g. on my cowl or GPS cover rather then on the GPS directly?
2. Why none metal/graphite containing paints would be any problem?
I can see why Dynon would want to be conservative in the sense of "if we didn't test it we don't know" but that's hardly a technical reason. Anybody knows the answer to those questions?
Just curious.
Oliver
hawkeyestof
Well Known Member
GPS antenna
Tried both the Garmin GPS for 430W and Dynon (SkyView) GPS antenna under cowl at firewall - they did not play nice together. Now have both mounted on glare shield with black "bootie" covering. (also tried black panty hose - worked great but fit was a problem.) (must be a joke in there somewhere!) All is well with 150 hours+.
Tried both the Garmin GPS for 430W and Dynon (SkyView) GPS antenna under cowl at firewall - they did not play nice together. Now have both mounted on glare shield with black "bootie" covering. (also tried black panty hose - worked great but fit was a problem.) (must be a joke in there somewhere!) All is well with 150 hours+.
