Antenna Location

[rdsafe]

On page 34 in the upper left-hand corner of the recent issue or Kitplanes (Sept. /14) the photo shows a antenna mounted to the glare shield. I e-mailed Sonex tech-support and got this reply - "That is the antenna that comes with the Ameri-King ELT. We “T” in to it and use if for both COM and ELT."

Have others used this combination and does it work well for you? I'm concerned about the COM end.

All the best, rdsafe

[Sonex541]

Well when I purchased my Sonex a few years ago , my Elt and com shared the same antenna , when I had my annual inspection , the inspector made me change it and add a new com antenna and a new coax , , it worked fine like that ur he said it should never ever be used like that ,and would not sign off on it till I had the new com antenna installed , , so for 80 bucks I mounted a new com antenna on the belly and it is clearer than before ,
Adam Simmons
Sonex 541

[Bryan Cotton]

It would seem like a bad practice to me. I used to support avionics at work and a big part of radio is having a good RF path between the radio and antenna, or good VWSR if you read some of the avionics stuff. I am not sure how the ELT would like to be transmitted into with power - it has no receiver.

[hickej]

My experience with the Jabiru and the MGL V6 was that I needed to move the antenna well away from the engine to get decent reception. I moved it to the top of the turtle deck behind the ELT. It is working great.
Jim Hicke

[jaywa]

About 750 mm behind your head on the turtle deck to reduce bad EMF'S on your brain , BUT also close enough so that you can reach it if you have to, is the conventional wisdom