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"Peter Duniho" >"Jim Weir" >news:78dudu4s41dr6r26ln32ri4ididfqabq1r@4ax.com... >> Whatever you choose, just PLEASE do NOT ask for help from professional >avionics >> people in integrating your handheld into an aircraft. Most of us will not >have >> anything to do with handhelds and standard aircraft installations. > >Why not? It was my understanding that a portable radio worked best when it >was possible for the radio to be plugged in to the aircrafts antennas, >rather than trying to use the antenna that comes with the handheld. > >Why would an avionics professional balk at enhancing the performance of a >backup device such as a handheld? Because the "avionics professional" in question sells aircraft intercom kits for a living and doesnt like to spend time answering prospective and existing customer emails about interfacing to products which he doesnt support. There is nothing wrong with connecting a handheld into an aircraft antenna - you get very good performance that way and I have had a little cable loop put into the VHF cable in mine just for this purpose. What you have to watch is that you dont inadvertently plug the RF output of the transceiver into the wrong side of the antenna cable; putting 5W up the back end of your $2000 panel mounted radios wont do them any good :) For this reason I have two different connectors making up the loop; a BNC for the external antenna end (and you plug the handheld transceiver into that one), and an SMA for the other end. The problem with handhelds is that their headset and TX button connections vary. The Icom has two stereo jacks (1 x 3.5mm and 1 x 2.5mm) on approx 0.5" pitch and they sell a converter cable into which you can plug a standard headset, plus a yoke-velcro-mounted transmit button. In addition you can get a cable and DOS-based comms program (a real hack, but it does sort-of work) for easily programming the station memory; this runs through the headset/mike connection also! Anyway, I dont think there is an issue with connecting the handhelds headset connections to the aircrafts intercom, because the most likely time you would use the handheld is in the case of an electrical failure in which case the aircraft intercom wont work either, so your headset will have to connect directly to the handheld. It is possible for the panel mounted radio to fail but the intercom to continue working, but when under pressure to get comms working (while flying the plane etc) I dont think one would fumble around checking out that possibility... I have an ICOM A23, the one with the VOR reception add-on. Peter. -- Return address is invalid to help stop junk mail. E-mail replies to zX80@digiYserve.com but remove the X and the Y. Please do NOT copy usenet posts to email - it is NOT necessary. |
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