Help with Archer antenna

[rwarre]

I discovered that I am not getting VOR reception and after reading several posts decided to tackle the problem. I removed my wing tip and removed most of the metal shielding from the under the archer antenna and realigned the wires as per the drawing. After testing, I still have no VOR reception. I discovered through the painting process that I have paint dust on the metal antenna and didn't know if that would affect anything. Suggestions for troubleshooting would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[rv7charlie]

Does 'discover' mean that it quit working, or that you just discovered that it never worked?

No experience with that antenna, but do have a bit of troubleshooting experience.

1. do you know that the receiver is ok? If no, then try to beg/borrow a known-good run of coax & antenna. Hook them up to the back of the radio (most 'off the shelf' VOR antennas are 'balanced' meaning no connection to the airframe is required) & try to tune a nearby VOR. If it works, you've got a coax or antenna problem. If not, you've got a radio (or tray) problem.

(If you have a powerful VOR nearby, almost anything will work as an antenna.)

2. If step 1 says the radio is good, then the next step is again, substitution. Temporarily replace the coax & try again. Works= bad coax, still dead = bad antenna or defective installation.

From what I remember reading about the the Archer antenna, it is dirt simple, but installation does need to be done correctly & it isn't exactly intuitive.

Charlie

[RV8iator]

Make sure you don't have paint between the end of the wing and the wing tip. I was talking to Bob Archer last and he said there have been several instances of folks having working antenna's and the painting the plane and they quit working. I just went thru getting my glide slope to work and it was all a grounding issue.
If you mount it like the instructions say, it will work.

[Bill.Peyton]

First, to answer your question, paint on the antenna should not affect the performance unless it contains a lot of metallic material.
Second, did this antenna and radio combination ever work?
Troubleshooting will be different for each case.
If it worked at one time and now it does not, then go to the last thing you did that might have changed it. If the plane was painted were the wires disconnected to do so? Are they connected back correctly? Use an ohm meter to measure the resistance from the radio tray antenna center conductor to the wing center conductor with the antenna disconnected, it should read close to zero ohms (a short). If it does not, it is your coax/connectors. Measure the resistance across the coax from the shield to the center conductor without the radio in the tray and with the antenna completely disconnected. If it shows a short then it is your coax.
If it never worked, have the radio checked out first, or swap with a known good one.

If all else fails, find an avionics shop with a signal generator and let them locate the problem, which should not take longer than an hour max.