Challenger Ultralight Aircraft Maintenance

Tip #3 – Poor Radio Reception

My Challenger is equipped with an Icom A-5 hand held radio mounted with a “Ram Mount” on the right hand side of the cockpit. It is connected to an intercom system with push-to-talk switches on the control sticks. The problem was reception. The range was limited to about 5 miles for both transmission and reception. This was not a favourable situation in the busy Kingston aerodrome traffic zone.

In talking with other pilots, they all recommended using a better antenna than the stubby unit that is supplied with the A-5 radio. One name in particular kept coming up – Miracle Antenna from Montreal. In fact, it is produced by another Challenger pilot.

I ordered my Miracle Air Whip antenna for about $70.00 . The improvement was, well, almost miraculous.

The first time I used it to contact the tower while taxiing, I noticed a remarkable improvement in the clarity of the reception. In fact, I am sure the flight service specialist was drinking a coffee at the time, but I could not tell which brand. The range for transmission and reception improved at least ten fold. Now I have to be careful because I can pick up traffic at other airports on the same frequency.

The installation of the antenna was easy. It is a long flexible whip antenna that connects to the Icom A-5 Radio in the same BNC connector as the factory supplied stubby antenna. The Air Whip fit inside the floor of the Challenger nose cone and is held in place with duct tape. Installation time was about 15 minutes because I did not have the flip up nose cone option on that aircraft and I had to stand on my head in the cockpit to tape the antenna in place. (That is standard avionics procedure.)