External Antenna for Handheld NAV/COM

[avrojockey]

Originally Posted by jim etcheverry

I had one of these in all of my planes. No need for another antenna. Aircraft Spruce and other have these.

I saw this and liked the idea but what antenna would you connect it to COM or NAV? I?m asking because the Yaesu does COM/VOR/LOC/GS. Preference would be to NAV but if I can hook up to COM and have that ability without degrading NAV performance in a COM antenna that would be win-win.

Thanks! Tim

[okdonn]

Originally Posted by avrojockey

I saw this and liked the idea but what antenna would you connect it to COM or NAV? I?m asking because the Yaesu does COM/VOR/LOC/GS. Preference would be to NAV but if I can hook up to COM and have that ability without degrading NAV performance in a COM antenna that would be win-win.

Thanks! Tim

My older Yaesu (Vertex) does Com and Nav, but only has one antenna connection. It uses the one antenna for both. A transmitter is far more dependent on a good match than a receiving antenna is, so I conect mine to a Com antenna mounted on the outside of the aircraft. I can tell very little if any difference in using it vs the panel mounted King. Note that I don't do Omni Nav anymore - only GPS (iFly).

[BobTurner]

Originally Posted by avrojockey

I saw this and liked the idea but what antenna would you connect it to COM or NAV? I?m asking because the Yaesu does COM/VOR/LOC/GS. Preference would be to NAV but if I can hook up to COM and have that ability without degrading NAV performance in a COM antenna that would be win-win.

Thanks! Tim

As I mentioned earlier, nav signals are horizontally polarized, com signals are vertical. Whichever antenna you choose, nav or com, the other is likely to be very compromised. I suggest go for the com, but also have a portable gps for navigation.

[gmcjetpilot]

Originally Posted by BobTurner

As I mentioned earlier, nav signals are horizontally polarized, com signals are vertical. Whichever antenna you choose, nav or com, the other is likely to be very compromised. I suggest go for the com, but also have a portable gps for navigation.

Ditto, you can use your existing Com antenna if you have a break you can access, remove from the panel mount radio to handheld. You could rely on rubber ducky antenna for limited range. NORDO just squawk 7600 and fly last assigned, expected filed route and higher of..... or get to VFR and land (or something like that ha ha). Personally I avoid single engine single pilot hard IFR, a little over/under-cast penetration or approach to higher mins is the IFR flying I do.

[Jake14]

I only have 1 Com radio in the panel so carry a Sporty's handheld com. It works well out to at least 20 miles with the standard attached antenna. More important is to have the adapter for the headset plugs on the handheld so you don't have to try and hear it over the engine noise.

As far as cheap EFIS backup in case of power failure, I have an iPad mini and also carry an older one for a spare, both with FlyQ They talk to a Stratux (with backup batt) which provides traffic, weather and attitude as well as built-in maps and geo-referenced plates. All that redundancy seemed like a good deal for the price of a couple of iPads