Bob Archer antennas

I have found a few threads on the Bob Archer wingtip antennas for both comm and nav. It seems the nav antennas work fine and the comm antennas have mixed reviews.

Does anyone have any experience with tail top SA-002? I have tried contacting Bob Archer via telephone and email with no success.

Jeff

I think in general RV's do not have a tall enough fairing on the vertical stabilizer to effectively use that antenna.
Your comments about the wingtip antennas are correct. Nav performance is acceptable to most; com performance acceptable to some. I will say that you must follow the installation instructions. I have seen some installed where there clearly was no understanding of RF physics.

The late Jim Ayers had the Archer tail top comm antenna in his RV-3. It used a custom fiberglass top to enclose the antenna as Bob Archer intended. Jim reported excellent results with this comm antenna to me.

Nav/GS antennas

I have used the archer nav antenna and am having spotty results so I am interested in trying something else. I am sure this has been tried but does anyone have any experience bending the radials of a standard Nav dipole to fit inside a wing tip?

Most people get "pretty good" results with the Archer. I'd suggest you look carefully at the installation if your results are "spotty".

In point of fact the Archer is half of a standard "cat whisker", bent to fit into the wingtip, with the other half replaced by the metal end rib (it won't work properly without that ground plane).

I installed both the Nav and the Comm antennae in the wing of my 7A.
I am not sure of the distance of the Comm. I could receive I know 50 mile, but that does not mean transmit.

I have had great success using the Nav. I have seen good Navigation 30 miles but I have not been high to give a better testimony.

I bent the Comm. ant. to make it as vertical as possible in the wing tip and then connected it to the metal wing.

The Nav Ant. was installed Horizontal and then connected to the wing also. It made a good ground plane.
I connected my wing tip using the piano hinge method.
Dave

My Archer nav works great as long as it is not being blanked by the wing/fuselage. I have received good VOR signals at 80 miles but on the other side of the plane, not received squat when I was only 20 miles away.

ILS performance is fine since the antenna is not blanked to a signal on the nose.