This whole "antenna UP" thing just doesn't sit well with me. Next time you have a large group of fliers, watch how they hold their transmitters. A LOT of them hold the Tx low - and if they point the antenna UP, they are pointing it right at the airplane.

Even if they hold it more "conventionally" the least amount of signal is going "skyward"

I point mine to the right. This way, the strongest signal (which comes from the side of the antenna) is always going toward the plane.

Now, before anyone says it...

I have some friends who lost control of a plane on landing. They reported it to the manufacturer and the manufacturer told them that they had their antenna pointed in the wrong direction. They said, "Because the antenna was pointed to the right, and you were landing from the right, your antenna was pointed at the plane"

So, basically they were saying that it was operator error... B. S.

That is a crock - and I told them so. This was clearly the manufacturer's way of hiding the fact that their system failed.

And here's why: Since that incident, I have watched these guys fly. They all hold their transmitters low AND they face the oncoming plane as it is landing!

So, if anything, they are pointing the antenna right at the plane NOW, whereas when their antenna was to the right, they were NOT.

I have always had my antenna to the right and that's where I will always keep it!