| Tom, Yes. Being electgronica;;y challenged I had a dreadful time with and my new KX125, using the embedded Lancari antennae, installed by the original builder about 20 years ago. in the vertical and horizontal tail.. The enclosed antennae results were nil or weak, persistently. Then I tried mounting an external type whip but mounted inside, vertically, behind the hydraulic pump bulkhead; poor for straight ahead stations or airports. Finally bit the bullet and mounted an AVT-14 (bent whip) through a hole in the bottom of the fuselage, with the antenna base inside, resting on a reflecting plate of aluminum foil just spray-glued of the inside skin. Only the whip sticks down. No more com problems. For the omni, I stuck a Advanced Aircraft Electronics bipole flexible ribbon antenna up against the fuselage top skin right behind the canolpy; no ground plane needed. Seems to work okay for nav, but didn't for com.
Terrence L235/320 N211AL On Feb 23, 2011, at 8:09 AM, TOM GARDINER wrote: Folks I am experiencing a dreadful time getting my COM radios to perform to their full (or even half) potential in my LNC2. I have two Bob Archer's mounted in the tailcone and in the proper orientation with a VSWR of around 1.5 with RG 400 cable. The antennas are fed by two Garmin 430s with a measured output of 8 watts each. The thing is that ATC and my flying friends report a consistently weak signal and the same applies on reception on my end. My airplane has the carbon tail and I built the seat bench using carbon on foam (bad idea in hindsight). I have tried another type of antenna that is a dipole with a balun mounted in the center of the baggage section in a vertical orientation but with little or no improvement in results. I am beginning to suspect the Lancair supplied Gray epoxy primer which I understand contains aluminum oxide in the base I am now considering mounting an external antenna but thought I would ask if anybody had experienced similar issues and subsequently corrected them. Any help/advice would be very much appreciated Thanks Tom LNC2 24 hrs
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