mikem
May 15th 06, 12:38 AM
B A R R Y wrote:
> Folks,
>
> My co-owner an I are thinking of doing some USCG Aux. stuff. To do
> this, we need a marine band antenna on the bottom of the aircraft. We
> already have an existing antenna connector and internal cable on the
> bottom that is unused. We'd like to simply add the proper antenna and
> cable, and use a marine handheld in the observer's (right seat) hands.
>
> Questions:
>
> Can we cut a wire VHF-Air antenna that we already own to work with a
> marine band (higher than VHF-Air) handheld?
Yes, a Motorla or GE two-way radio wire whip antenna mounted in the
center of a removable 4" inspection cover works. Cut the whip to 17.2".
I have one cut to 19.5" (2M Ham Band) on my Skylane, and it has been
there for going on 20 years.
>
> Other suggestions?
>
> Can we have a local avionics tech simply add a BNC to the right side
> of the panel to use with the handheld and a BNC->BNC patch cord?
Yes, that works, but you will have a hard time hearing the 2" speaker
in the handheld, especially if you are wearing aircraft headphones. If
you have an AUX/ENTERTAINMENT input on your audio panel or intercom,
wire the earphone jack on the HT to the aircraft audio system. The
ambient noise in the cockpit may also make your transmitted audio hard
to understand. If so, turn down the MIC gain in the HT, and then speak
close/loud into the HT.
MikeM
> Folks,
>
> My co-owner an I are thinking of doing some USCG Aux. stuff. To do
> this, we need a marine band antenna on the bottom of the aircraft. We
> already have an existing antenna connector and internal cable on the
> bottom that is unused. We'd like to simply add the proper antenna and
> cable, and use a marine handheld in the observer's (right seat) hands.
>
> Questions:
>
> Can we cut a wire VHF-Air antenna that we already own to work with a
> marine band (higher than VHF-Air) handheld?
Yes, a Motorla or GE two-way radio wire whip antenna mounted in the
center of a removable 4" inspection cover works. Cut the whip to 17.2".
I have one cut to 19.5" (2M Ham Band) on my Skylane, and it has been
there for going on 20 years.
>
> Other suggestions?
>
> Can we have a local avionics tech simply add a BNC to the right side
> of the panel to use with the handheld and a BNC->BNC patch cord?
Yes, that works, but you will have a hard time hearing the 2" speaker
in the handheld, especially if you are wearing aircraft headphones. If
you have an AUX/ENTERTAINMENT input on your audio panel or intercom,
wire the earphone jack on the HT to the aircraft audio system. The
ambient noise in the cockpit may also make your transmitted audio hard
to understand. If so, turn down the MIC gain in the HT, and then speak
close/loud into the HT.
MikeM