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VOR Reception

M

minnimo65757

I'm New Here
I built a RV7A and built the wingtip antennas for my VOR receivers. I used RG58 coax cable to connect them but I can't get reception from a VOR until I am close to the station. I believe I installed the antennas per the instructions but there could be something I missed. Anyone else that has put them in their wingtips and has good luck with reception let me know how you installed yours. Or anyone that has had the same problem as I have how did you solve the issue.
 
i have archers and used 58 cable. i get reception out to about 80 miles on both planes. installed per instructions while following tips on this site, like getting the bar under nut plate rivets.
 
I have & built an RV7 with Archer antenna, used RG58, have GTN650 Xi - wonderful reception at 50+ miles VOR or Loc only or with GS. Home made Mkr Bcn antenna (RG58) in other tip - Excellent results.
 
I have one in each wingtip and had one with good reception (50+) and the other one was not so good. In my case, it was the routing of the wingtip light wires and connecting coax. Once routed per the Archer instructions I now get 80+ on the original not so good one.
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A coax can be bad but still give the expected DC continuity test results. It can behave quite differently at VHF than at DC.

Coax and antenna can be tested with suitable RF test equipment but, without access to test equipment, a temporary substitution of a replacement coax may give useful test data.

Edit to add -

Some antennas will show a DC short but they are not a short at the design frequency. A short at the antenna terminals may not indicate a fault. It depends on the antenna design e,g. a folded dipole or any antenna with an internal balun will indicate a DC short.

An antenna system needs to be tested at the design frequency not at DC.
 
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Sounds like a broken lead. I had a wire break off my RAMI antenna on the tail (cat whiskers). I could only hear VORs max 5 miles away and it had a lot of electrical noise. A stray strand of braid or center conductor can short it out. RG58 works, but if you built your own plane, RG58 belongs in the garbage, use RG-400

Never bothered looking into it until IFR training.

If you can't hear a VOR at its published maximum distance (for the altitude you're at), then something is wrong. For the "new service volume" VORs, you indeed can receive 70 miles away (GTN 650).

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dgarrelt63303 said:
I have one in each wingtip and had one with good reception (50+) and the other one was not so good. In my case, it was the routing of the wingtip light wires and connecting coax. Once routed per the Archer instructions I now get 80+ on the original not so good one.
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+1

This important detail is often skipped with less than optimal results. That Archer guy was pretty smart; best to follow his guidance.
 
The routing is critical to keep it away from other noisy components.

I initially had RG58 with "pretty good" results - later I replaced it with RG400 and got much better results.
 
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