Antenna mounting on a wood or composite aircraft

Oh, as it happens most carbon composite gliders have GRP vertical stabilisers for the very reason of low drag antenna mounting.

VS ?

Presumably the turn and slip is electric rather than vacuum?

You could always try some ferrite beads on the wires to the turn and slip indicator to see if that helped?

Start from the grounding of the Com antenna.If no good or intermitent,you get noise and low performance.Line RF filters work as a medicine for bad or unsolved situations.

Hope I can resurrect this thread and will be thankful for advice …..

My new radios worked fine for a while but now I have the squelch turned up to 100% and they are still very noisy ………… I have found the culprit today ……. the turn and slip is producing huge amounts of RF noise a hand held next to the aircraft is swamped if on a weak channel.

My question is does this mean some internal RF filter is no good and the instrument needs overhaul ?

What it does tell me is that my radios are fine I have done all the SWR tests and resistance to ground plane tests and all are good.

Do I need to get a new turn and slip ?

Any advice appreciated.
Thanks

Paul.

Quote……… “the interior antennas, behind the seats, I dont like
I dont like the antennas behind my kidneys”

The antenna is only marginally nearer the back seats than the top external antenna, but the internal antenna has two skins of a fuel tank between it and the rear seat passengers, the top antenna does not.

If you’re affecting the SWR in a significant way by touching the feedline (if it’s coax), there’s something wrong with the installation and the coax shield is radiating.

When using the SWR meter it is very important what is around the cables
or near the antenna

an antenna looking down, near the ground has a different SWR than in flight
If you touch the cable with your hand, you can modify the SWR
if you move the controls, it is possible that you modify the SWR
………….