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Pilottonny

Well Known Member
Hey Guy?s,

I am installing my Avmap in the instrument panel of my RV-9A. I made it removable from the panel, to allow me to take it home for programming or updating. This also gives me extra access to the panel, through the hole where the Avmap normally sits.

I plan on installing the antenna under the cowl (as many do) and need no more than 1,05 m of cable for that. The original Avmap antenna comes with 5 m of cable, though! :( Now, you could roll it up and put it away somewhere under the panel, but that excess cable would probably weigh more than the antenna with the 1,05 m cable, that I actually need. I contacted the Avmap dealer in Belgium, but he could only offer me an antenna with a custom length of cable, if I order a 100 of them :eek:

Have others been able to cut the cable and put on a new plug? What type of plug is it? :confused:

Is there a supplier that can supply an antenna with custom cable length?
I was going to buy another antenna anyway, so that I can still use the Avmap in rental planes, while I am still building my plane. But maybe I should just shorten the cable of my existing antenna.

Looking forward to hear from your experiences,

Regards, Tonny.
 
Tonny,

I have installed my AVMap unit as you describe but I chose to put antenna on top of glare screen. Was not sure if temps would get too high under cowl since there are electronics in the antenna and these units are not built to mil-spec. temps. I just coiled up the extra cable since I wasn't sure if the unit required extra line length for proper operation or not. The antenna is small enough that I don't even notice it when flying.

Bill
 
Tonny,

Although I'm using a Garmin 496, like Bill above, I mounted both the GPS and XM antenna on the glare shield.

I covered the glare shield with black loop Velcro and then stuck the antennas to that. Along with a pen and anything else I wish to.

The Antennas are not in the way, the wiring was easy, and I have never had any type of reception issues.

BTW, I still have a bunch of Velcro left and am selling it off, if you would like some email me. The Velcro is Velcro brand and is a fabric that feels like felt, not 1" strips.
 
Tony,

I ordered a second GPS antenna from a company on eBay that specializes in GPS antennas. I think there are several people / companies selling them and I only paid $25.00 dollars if I remember correctly. I bought one with the shortest cable available, 9 feet and made sure the magnets in the antenna unit were removable since I didn?t want it affecting my whiskey compass. I installed the antenna under the cowl and I left the cable intact and just looped the extra cable up and tied it to a rib behind the sub panel.



 
Joe,

Thanks for the reply, your setup is exactly how I want to do it. I will check the internet and see if I can find a similar one.

BTW, what is the firewall insulator that you are using? I need to order some as well. I would like it a darker colour, at the bottom where you ca see it from the cockpit, but I guess it will be easy enough to spray some black/grey paint on it.

Regards, Tonny.
 
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