Friday, April 17, 2020

Canard NAV antenna alternative


My canard (built by the previous builder) didn't have the copper foil tapes for the glide slope or NAV antennas but I need them.   I looked at a variety of commercially available antennas but their form factor wasn't the best for installing in the cavity above the canard.   I made a prototype using 16 gauge wire, two elements 23" long and a MABA-011094 balun transformer.   The wire has a couple of inches in the center that connect to the balun with very small wire, then there's four turns around a 1" PVC pipe, then a few inches extend outward. It seems to work pretty well (can pick up FTW and AFW ATIS from T67) without fine tuning yet.   At 23" for each element, should be more sensitive to the lower VHF band.  I'm going to try to make a smaller, lighter one and verify the resonant frequency of the antenna and tune/trim if necessary.




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