VOR Dropping Out

[RoundTwo]

This morning I was setting up to practice a DME arc but when switching over from GPS to VOR, the G3X was saying NO VOR. After attempting to fix it, we abandoned the arc and turned away, and then the VOR showed up. We started again, went back to get set up a bit differently, got on the arc and bingo, nothing. We switched over to VOR 2 and the same thing.

Do the VOR blades ever die?

We didn’t troubleshoot with the station off of the right wing, just the left, so I’m assuming it’s just the left blade. 
Would there be any reason you can’t swap left for right to see if the problem follows the antenna?

Chuck

[hammdo]

I had 2 issues with mine. I have the towel antenna and after having the splitter replaced and the kx-155 validated, It was better but was still losing signal. I had the 50 year old antenna/assembly replace with new and finally the signal was very strong. I still have the old wiring/cable too…

May be something to check…

-Don

[PT20J]

1 hour ago, RoundTwo said:

Would there be any reason you can’t swap left for right to see if the problem follows the antenna?

If by left and right you mean the blades on either side of the vertical stabilizer, they are two halves of the same antenna, not separate antennas. There should be a coax from the antenna to the panel and a splitter behind the panel somewhere to feed both radios from the antenna. 

[RoundTwo]

18 minutes ago, PT20J said:

If by left and right you mean the blades on either side of the vertical stabilizer, they are two halves of the same antenna, not separate antennas. There should be a coax from the antenna to the panel and a splitter behind the panel somewhere to feed both radios from the antenna. 

Correct, the physical blades, one on each side. Since I am losing VOR signal when the station is directly off the left wing, +/- 20° fore and aft, I’m thinking the left half of the antenna may be bad and I lose signal when the right half is in the shadow of the vertical stab. I’m assuming each half has a BNC connector on it and if they are interchangeable, I’ll swap halves and see if my problem moves to the right side.

Interestingly enough, I successfully flew this same exact DME arc on Wednesday the 12th and didn’t have any signal problems.

[PT20J]

They do each have BNC connectors and a short cable to a combiner, so you could try swapping them. 

[skykrawler]

I think the towel hanger is a balun antenna