- Joined
- Mar 11, 2017
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2 days ago, a line of heavy thunderstorms passed through our area, and tons of rain fell. Unfortunately, my airplane has to live outside unsheltered for the time being. She got wet, but no hail damage. (I mention this just in case anyone thinks it might be related to water ingress) Yesterday, I went flying, the comm worked fine. Announced on the CTAF, and heard a few others do the same. Called up Oke City approach, and had no trouble at all.
Went flying again today. Got the AWOS, taxiied out monitoring the CTAF, and got a brief hello-goodbye from another airplane on the field. Once in the air, tried to call Oke City again, and got no response. Tried several times, no change. Tried the tower at KPWA, no dice. I did not know whether I was being heard or not. On returning to the field, I dialed in the AWOS, but it was broken and unreadable at about 10 miles out. Finally, about 3 miles out, it came in clear. This was the only thing I was able to receive all during the flight, except for the brief exchange of pleasantries just before takeoff. I did get a couple of broken/garbled snippets of communication when tuned to KPWA tower, but very quick and unintelligible.
Upon landing, my home field AWOS was loud and clear. My instructor went and got his handheld, and said he could hear me loud and clear on the CTAF, but I could not hear him, even when he was only 50 ft away.
I've read a few threads here about similar problems, and would like to hear some input from any and all who might have an idea of what the problem might be. Odd thing is how sudden the problem started. It was as though the wheels left the runway and poof!, I could not receive. My first thought is an antenna problem. The antenna is old, and the surface is dull and chalky, but I have no idea yet what it looks like under the base .
Adding a pic so you can see the antenna...
Went flying again today. Got the AWOS, taxiied out monitoring the CTAF, and got a brief hello-goodbye from another airplane on the field. Once in the air, tried to call Oke City again, and got no response. Tried several times, no change. Tried the tower at KPWA, no dice. I did not know whether I was being heard or not. On returning to the field, I dialed in the AWOS, but it was broken and unreadable at about 10 miles out. Finally, about 3 miles out, it came in clear. This was the only thing I was able to receive all during the flight, except for the brief exchange of pleasantries just before takeoff. I did get a couple of broken/garbled snippets of communication when tuned to KPWA tower, but very quick and unintelligible.
Upon landing, my home field AWOS was loud and clear. My instructor went and got his handheld, and said he could hear me loud and clear on the CTAF, but I could not hear him, even when he was only 50 ft away.
I've read a few threads here about similar problems, and would like to hear some input from any and all who might have an idea of what the problem might be. Odd thing is how sudden the problem started. It was as though the wheels left the runway and poof!, I could not receive. My first thought is an antenna problem. The antenna is old, and the surface is dull and chalky, but I have no idea yet what it looks like under the base .
Adding a pic so you can see the antenna...
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