Receiver Whip Antennas
well . .glitch, bobble, lockout. . whatever. . I do NOT like being scared like that!!!
Since the reciever setup passes a 400 foot antenna down range test with ease (LONG walk), and 300 feet with engine running. . .I am surmising that perhaps the "spikes" from the ignition at FULL throttle caused the problem. My ignition battery is about 10" from my receiver, though forward with no other RX system wiring near it. . .but perhaps, under full load the wiring gave off enough of an electromagnetic pulse (I'd just gone from 16 gauge to 22 gauge wire on the ignition battery leads) to drive the receiver into interference. This is what you get when you try to move all the major HEAVY stuff back as far as possible, and run out of room. I think I'll take my Fluke 98 dual trace scope and see if I can localize inductive spikes from the ignition wiring .. I'm waiting on some new landing gear to arrive anyway. . may as well see what I can find out when it gets here. it woudl be nice for everyone to know hwo this works, and how to alleviate these spikes. . if going up a size or two in wiring reduces ignition noise on the primary side, maybe it will help everyon in the fute to go that route .. you never know.
I'll keep looking for the REAL problem, but thanks again everyone for the input on the antennas . definitely worth a look. . .