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wing-tip antenna

J

jacksel

Well Known Member
Has anyone installed an antenna in the fiberglass wing-tip? I'm planning to do that for the VOR/ILS antenna and I've heard you should avoid "metalic paints" over these areas, but I can't find any specific guidance.
 
I have the wingtip NAV antenna in my RV8 and it works very well. I've received VOR signals as far as 80 miles, and it receives LOC/GS signals well too. However, I don't have metallic paint, so don't know how that affects operation. Call Bob Archer and ask.
 
I've also had very good luck with a wingtip (Archer) VOR/ILS antenna. Key is to follow his installation directions. Not doing so will likely result in marginal performance.

Bob
 
I?ve got an Archer NAV antenna in one wing tip, and an Archer COM antenna in the other wing tip (used for COM 2). The paint is a metallic gold. The NAV antenna works perfectly for NAV and GS, with signal reception of 75 nm or more. The COM antenna is marginal, and my performance testing suggests that it is worse with the paint than it was before the aircraft was painted. My reception range before paint was over 75 nm, except for a very small range of azimuths where the station was off the other wing. Transmission range before paint was somewhere between 45 nm and 75 nm (the ground station at 45 nm answered on all azimuths, but they did not answer at 75 nm).

After paint, my COM reception range is roughly 45 nm, and the transmission range is much lower than that (I have not properly tested this).

I eventually cobbled together an ugly antenna cable hack so that I can quickly connect COM 2 to the #1 antenna (on the belly) if COM 1 ever dies. Thus I only really use COM 2 to pick up ATIS while keeping ATC on COM 1.
 
Metallic paint has no metal at all. It is manufactured with synthetic flake. Mica and such. No issues to worry about.
 
I originally installed both Archer wing-tip antennas. Nav in left tip and Comm in the right tip. The Nav antenna works great but I found the Comm antenna to be unacceptable and quickly replaced it with a good belly-mount Comm antenna!
 
I believe the problem with COM antennae in the wing tips is that COM signals are vertically polarized. Hard to do that with a ~24-inch quarter wavelength signal in the confines of a wingtip. NAV signals are horizontally polarized, so no problem with them.
 
Does anyone have photos of a Bob Archer NAV antenna that is working well, including how the wires are routed?

I have one installed - actually two, but only one side is hooked up - and I can't say it works perfectly. I have to be within about 30 miles to pickup anything and I have to be fairly high. For instance I can't receive the Centex VOR from Lakeway (which is only 12nm away) below 2100 MSL, not good considering minimums for the VOR approach are 1920.

I tried to follow the drawing/writeup included with the antenna, but I must have done something wrong. I think I've ruled out issues with the coax between the radio and the wingtip, so I'm thinking it has something to do with either the coax connections to the antenna or the routing of the nav/strobe wiring. A picture of a working installation might show what I messed up.

Of course VOR reception may not matter much longer, and GPS approaches with the 430W work perfectly fine, but it just bothers me that I can't pickup VORs.
 
Double check that the "ground" side of the antenna has a good electrical connection to the metal wing skin. And of course the coax shield is connected to that side of the antenna, as shown in the instructions.
 
Does anyone have photos of a Bob Archer NAV antenna that is working well, including how the wires are routed?
Click to expand...

Posting Pictures is no fun on this site, so per my Link below you can see several photos of my wingtip antenna. It has been performing great from all angles on VORs and Localizer/Glide slope etc. I have LED nav/strobes and HID wingtip Landing lights. Routed per instructions it works great.

Thx

http://www.704ch.com/2013/01/wing-tips-and-last-antenna.html
 
archer antenna

my archer antenna receives VOR at 80 nm at 9K! ILS is good with a slight hesitation when approaching from LHS to the beam because of fuselage blanking from RHS install but very workable. I recommend it.
 
704CH said:
Posting Pictures is no fun on this site, so per my Link below you can see several photos of my wingtip antenna. It has been performing great from all angles on VORs and Localizer/Glide slope etc. I have LED nav/strobes and HID wingtip Landing lights. Routed per instructions it works great.

Thx

http://www.704ch.com/2013/01/wing-tips-and-last-antenna.html
Click to expand...

Thanks Chad. I just noticed your reply. Posts can scroll off the first page pretty quick around here!

Hmmm. My installation appears at first blush to be about the same as yours. I sandwiched the ground side of the antenna between the nutplates and the fiberglass, just like you did. My airplane is not yet painted and it's my assumption this is a reasonable ground attach. Anyway, the instructions permit it. The wire routing is also very similar. There must be some subtle difference. I'll take pictures next time I take that wing tip off.

For what it's worth, I do get good localizer and glide slope performance. So ILS approaches have been reliable.
 
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