Amen Dana. There is alot of talk about building an antenna. I got mine for 5 bucks and the CopperState Fly in at the fly mart. Cable from Radio Shack, and I can get about a 200 mile radius. I mounted it to the turtle deck with some aluminum foil around the bracket. 15 dollars total.
Lee Van Dyke I know there are a lot of roll your own people on the KRNet and all the best to all you:-), however I used a simple store bought whip antenna and it worked great. For my VOR I used a wingtip mounted Bob Archer antenna, see: http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/archer_antennas.php It worked great as I rode many an ILS down using this antenna. Look at Model 6 on the above page if you want a plug and play version for the com in a KR.
