B

Brambo

Well Known Member
I recently finished installing a new Garmin SL-30 Nav/Com. The com side works fine, but I am unable to get any Nav reception form the local VOR. At first I thought it was because the aircraft is still in the garage, but today I wheeled the old boy out into the street to see if I could get any reception. The VOR (BLD) is only about 4 miles away on a hill so I figured reception should be pretty good. Unfortunately, the Nav continued to say "flagged", which according to the manual means no reception.

Since the radio seems to work, my initial thought is that there is a problem with the antenna. My question is: how can I troubleshoot the antenna wiring? As you can probably guess I'm somewhat "electrically challenged". Any suggestions on how to proceed from here would be very welcome.
 
I wouldn't condem it until airborne. Did you check to see if you could hear the morse identifier?
 
As noted above see if you can hear the identifier.

Also what are you using for an HSI?

If an EFIS you probably need to program your SL 30 for RS232 if a steam guage program it for analog. If you have already done this then double check your wiring between the SL 30 and HSI.

Also consider it may be an HSI problem and not the SL30.

If none of this works don't spend a lot of time or money on it till it also, as Don mentions, doesn't work in the air. 4 miles is a long way on the ground.
 
I would suspect antenna cable ...

The SL-30 is very good at reception with a good antenna and cable ... even on the ground.

If you can, disconnect the antenna cable and verify that there continuity from end to end **AND** that the center wire is not shorted to any other in the connectors. Wiring problems can occur if you have a bad crimp.

James
 
SL-30 Installation Manual??

Anyone have the installation manual for the SL-30 in .pdf format? I think I need to set mine to RS232 also... but I didn't do the initial install.
 
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