Help on Comant antenna mounting

High all,

I got a RV-6, witch i purchased already built. I am doing a panel upgrade and I'm at the point of putting in the Comant rabbit ears antenna and would like to put it under the rear fuselage with the "ears" protruding out under the horizontal stabs. I don't have a clue on how to due it. Anybody have any suggestions, can i pit them further up so not to protrude from fuselage side. But eould this mess with the reception?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Scott

doubler

I put .032 doublers inside the mounting area of the antenna.
Make sure it is well grounded

reconaviator said:

High all,

I got a RV-6, witch i purchased already built. I am doing a panel upgrade and I'm at the point of putting in the Comant rabbit ears antenna and would like to put it under the rear fuselage with the "ears" protruding out under the horizontal stabs. I don't have a clue on how to due it. Anybody have any suggestions, can i pit them further up so not to protrude from fuselage side. But eould this mess with the reception?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Scott

Click to expand...

Scott, are you referring to the "cat's whisker" type VOR/ILS antenna as shown here:



If so, you can mount it as you suggested but keep in mind that it should be mounted with the whiskers pointed forward for optimum performance, which can be a bit of a hazard considering where you want to mount it. It can be mounted with the whiskers pointed aft, and most folks do this for obvious reasons. Performance wise it shouldn't make too much difference. Another choice might be to mount it on top of the vertical stab. You would need to remove the fiberglass fairing and add nutplates for screws so that the fairing would be removable to service the antenna. The hockey puck in the center is probably going to be wider than the fairing, so you would have to notch the fairing for clearance.

Another alternative (and a much better one in my opinion) would be to mount a Bob Archer VOR/ILS antenna in a wingtip, if you can. This would require that you remove one of the wingtips to install the antenna. Again you would substitute nutplates and screws for the rivets that hold the wingtip in place. You would also need a way to route your antenna coax through the wing, but you may already have provisions for this. I would highly recommend that you go this route if at all possible.

By the way, the cat's whisker is a dipole antenna which just means you don't need a ground plane so no requirement to ground it.

Gents,

Thanks for the inputs. Ya, Pat thats the antenna. I already purchased it. I think I'll go with under the empenange (i know, spelling). Do you think I can mount it more forward so the "whiskers" are covered by the fuselage, or would the fuselage bland out the signal?

Scott