Archer Nav & Aeroled Wiring

[Dbro172]

So i'm installing the archer NAV antenna in my right wingtip and run into two concerns.

1. The instructions are very adamant on routing the wingtip lighting wires across the antenna. I have Aeroled nav/strobe combo which uses very minimal wiring. It's only like a 20 ga. four conductor shielded wire and a ground. My concern is that this antenna is assuming some much more substantial wiring here, maybe associated with a whelen type setup or something???. I routed what wire i do have across the antenna as described, but i cant see this doing much. Thoughts?

2. Since my wingtips utilize clickbonds, i have no nutplates to sandwich the nav antenna between, which would have been intended to ground the antenna to the wing. However, my antenna is fastened to the wingtip with countersunk screws and locknuts, so i Installed grounding wires at three different fasteners, which will be secured to the end rib. Continuity checks are excelent from antenna to wing. Think this will do the trick?

 

[BobTurner]

1. RF is really a sort of black art as far as I'm concerned. Thickness and number of wires don't matter, mostly it's the length. I would follow the instructions. Having said that, I will say that I did not! But I have a -10 and the wingtip is much larger. I was able to move the antenna aft, well behind all wires.
I would be a bit concerned about high power LED's so close. Some of these have switching power supplies that generate a lot of RF noise. Easy to listen to the nav, lights on and off, and see if there's an issue.
2. I would be a bit concerned here - your grounding wires to the rib will look like part of the antenna. DC measurements mean nothing. I think it's okay as long as they are short enough. This means short compared to the shortest wavelength of interest, which would be 35" if you're using it for glide slope (105" if just for VOR/Localizer). So I think if the ground wires are 3" or 4" long, or less, you should be okay.

 

[Dbro172]

1. RF is really a sort of black art as far as I'm concerned. Thickness and number of wires don't matter, mostly it's the length. I would follow the instructions. Having said that, I will say that I did not! But I have a -10 and the wingtip is much larger. I was able to move the antenna aft, well behind all wires.
I would be a bit concerned about high power LED's so close. Some of these have switching power supplies that generate a lot of RF noise. Easy to listen to the nav, lights on and off, and see if there's an issue.
2. I would be a bit concerned here - your grounding wires to the rib will look like part of the antenna. DC measurements mean nothing. I think it's okay as long as they are short enough. This means short compared to the shortest wavelength of interest, which would be 35" if you're using it for glide slope (105" if just for VOR/Localizer). So I think if the ground wires are 3" or 4" long, or less, you should be okay.

Thanks Bob, I suspected it may come down to good ol trial and error here. I'm in pretty much per plan with the exception of the grounds, which will be very short. This was an oversight on my part when i decided to go with the clickbond wingtip fasteners. Hopefully it works, worst case could scrap it for a whisker... How would you report the performance of your wingtip NAV/GS?

 

[BobTurner]

I like it a lot. Strong signals for localizer and glide slope. VOR is good, except if the station is off my right wing (my antenna is in the left tip), then it's not quite as strong. External antenna is slightly better, but the truth is VOR is a backup 99% of the time, so the Archer is fine with me.