Radio system and wooden airplanes....

[1600vw]

I have done a lot of reading on everything needed to do a proper installation of a radio system in a wooden airplane. They offer all sorts of different equipment to hook up a handheld. I believe most of us in these little airplanes use handhelds.

When running or flying a ultralight with a two stroke I never had a problem. Now that I have gone to a wooden airframe with a 4 stroke engine that has a mag I can not even use my radio for feedback or something. I can hear just fine but as soon as I push the button to talk it makes all sorts of noise.

I mounted my antenna all the way back by the tail feathers, on a piece of metal that covers the joint between the horizontal and vertical fin.

What do I need to do to make this work, and when they say shield your ignition wires just how do you go about doing this? Does the P-lead from the mag need to be shielded?

I did own one other wooden plane but it was a two stroke and that handheld worked great. I could talk to people 30 miles away. I was using what looked to be an antenna made to mounted on a car. No ground plane, I mounted this antenna to a piece of plex-a-glass that was a small window in the top of this Bushstyle airplane. If interested here is a video of this plane. If you look you wil see the antenna mounted on the top. That is a cover for a recovery chute to deploy out of. No chute so I mounted my antenna to it and screwed it shut so it would never open.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBGro7gJfy8

The system I use today is that same system, I left the antenna on that bird when I sold it but the radio and PTT button and helmet are now in the plane I fly today, and it works like crap and use to work so good.

H.A.S.