Show me your WAAS antenna

[moespeeds]

My 8 is navy/yellow, and the shop wants to mount the WAAS antenna outside the cockpit, in front of the windshield. Not happy about a big white Puck out there. Can't be painted.

Where's it mounted on your 8?

 

[Foghorn]

Mine is under the cowling. 200 hrs with no issues. You can also mount it on the turtle deck just behind the rear seat.

 

[Carl Froehlich]

Here. It meets all the Garmin rules as well. If needed, easy to run the coax under the canopy rail - holes are already there.

Side note - SkyView GPS antenna mounted on the glare shield (same place as the other builds). Antenna is covered with some dark gray cloth to eliminate glare.

Carl

 

[PhatRV]

I have two WAAS antenna.

The Garmin antenna is inside the cowling, forward of the firewall. The rationale is the Garmin unit uses the heavy RG cable and I wanted to use the shortest cable to the G5 backup unit at the panel.

The Dynon antenna is next to the slider rail, just behind the canopy rear cross bar.

I don't have any issue with the reception.

 

[jbDC9]

No pics of mine, but it's mounted the same as Carl's on the rear turtledeck. Easy install and no issues with reception.

 

[RV7A Flyer]

...the shop wants to mount the WAAS antenna outside the cockpit, in front of the windshield.

So tell them no. It's Experimental, you can pretty much do what you want...have them install everything but the antenna, then do that yourself.

 

[Carl Froehlich]

My 8 is navy/yellow, and the shop wants to mount the WAAS antenna outside the cockpit, in front of the windshield. Not happy about a big white Puck out there. Can't be painted.

I suspect the new guy in your avionics shop (the one that drew the short straw to work on an experimental) could care less about the end product. Instead his/her metric is whatever is easier.

As has been suggested, put it wherever you want. It is worth your time to read the install instructions - such things as the overpriced GTN-650 has specific minimum and maximum GPS antenna coax runs.

Carl

 

[wirejock]

Dynon

Mine is under the cowl. The tray was installed with nutplates so it can be removed for access.

 

[Mikeyb]

Under the windscreen option

 

[MacCool]

Mine is under the cowling. 200 hrs with no issues.

Me too. It was originally put there for the Garmin 430W....I left it there for the IFD440 when I upgraded the navigator. No GPS issues with either device.

 

[RV8JD]

This topic has been covered in many threads and posts.

My previous RV-8 has a Garmin GPS antenna on the turtledeck under the canopy. Works well, as you would expect.

My current RV-8 has the Dynon SV-GPS-2020 GPS ANTENNA/RECEIVER MODULE mounted under the cowl. It has good reception and have not had an issue. Don't mount it too close to the firewall to avoid blocking issues.

Screenshot of my typical GPS fix status, which is good. The Dynon manual explains acceptable and unacceptable reception results.

 

[Scott Hersha]

WAAS Antenna

I have two of them…….



They both work just fine….

 

[Carl Froehlich]

I have two of them…….

View attachment 53656

They both work just fine….

Don’t try this with a Garmin (GTN-650) GPS antenna.

Carl

 

[izzybear]

GTN/WAAS antenna

Don’t try this with a Garmin (GTN-650) GPS antenna.

Carl

Carl,
Can you elaborate? I have seen others mount their WAAS antenna on the glare shield of the RV-8 and I am considering the same location for my GTN-650 antenna, so I am interested in potential issues.
Thanks,
Jim

 

[Carl Froehlich]

Carl,
Can you elaborate? I have seen others mount their WAAS antenna on the glare shield of the RV-8 and I am considering the same location for my GTN-650 antenna, so I am interested in potential issues.
Thanks,
Jim

There is a known problem with the GTN-650. The GTN-650 creates RFI when transmitting on the comm that kills the GPS signals at the GTN-650 antenna.

Read the install manual - it specifies minimum coax runs to the GTN-650 GPS antenna. This adds enough signal attenuation to reduce the impact of this RFI.

There is not issue with the SkyView antenna on the glare shield when using the GTN-650.

On the RV-8 I find the “just aft of the rear seat” location to be perfect. On the RV-10 I’ll need to rethink location, but there are several options other than the glare shield.

Carl

 

[ksdflying]

I suspect the new guy in your avionics shop (the one that drew the short straw to work on an experimental) could care less about the end product. Instead his/her metric is whatever is easier.

As has been suggested, put it wherever you want. It is worth your time to read the install instructions - such things as the overpriced GTN-650 has specific minimum and maximum GPS antenna coax runs.

Carl

LOL
Not more true of words!!! Haha! Right on. ESPECIALLY the 650 bit! Ha!

 

[ksdflying]

Mine is under the cowling. 200 hrs with no issues. You can also mount it on the turtle deck just behind the rear seat.

I second this. Make sure you have at minimum the 6ft length. Put mine on a ground plane on the firewall, 400 hours and zero issue....(with 650xi GPS).