PS Engineering Report

Glad to see someone from PS Engineering stop in. Just took a long cross
country with the family and have a PIREP on the PMA7000B, and one suggestion
from the wife.

My installation consisted of the PMA7000B, two inputs on the left side of
the panel - one for UNSWITCHED audio (traffic device) and one for a PHONE.
ENTERTAINMENT1 was put by the cigarette lighter, and also a HOOK toggle
switch so Pilot or Copilot position can use the phone. In the back there is
an ENTERTAINMENT2 jack along with two headphone/mic jacks.

On the first couple short trips to check out the unit all was fine. At the
beginning of the long cross country COM3 (phone) upper button was active and
the mic button for COM3 was blinking. The intercom was not working properly
in ALL/CREW mode. I tried to reset the unit repeatedly but there was no
change. That's when I noticed that the HOOK switch was in the up position
(usually down) and may have gotten moved by the wife's knee. I put it down,
no change. I then, just luck and out of ideas, held in the COM3 button for
a few seconds and it cleared up. I never really got an explanation of how
the HOOK switch works and haven't used a phone with it yet. After that all
was well. (After looking at the manual I see it was doing as it was
supposed to do, it was in full duplex mode, in the Copilot position)

The wife used the audio panel more than I did it seems. And she loved it.
She often went back and forth between CREW and and ISO to talk (yell, hehe)
to the kids. This is where I'll mention her suggestion: she'd like those
little metal switches to have something rubber or plastic on the ends. Sort
of like airliners have those little condom looking things on their landing
light switches, etc. I guess the only thing I wasn't sure I liked was that
whenever she'd go into the ISO position, ENT1 would cut out for me. I had a
bunch of Phil Hendrie (www.philhendrieshow.com , best show on radio) MP3's
in my Ipaq and was listening to them and would get interrupted. Being that
I didn't read the manual much, if at all, I didn't know until messing around
with the buttons that I could hear both ATC and ENT1 just by pushing in the
ICS button. I did that during slow ATC times, and just made ATC louder but
ENT1 lower but still listenable.

Volume levels. This is hard to guage as I had an ANR headset, the wife had
the same headset but the non-ANR/mono version, and the kids have a couple
cheapos. To me the volume was plenty loud with the inner knob at about 10
to 11 o'clock (40% I'd guess) position. I had the outer knob way up, like 3
o'clock position. The wife couldn't hear ENT1 as well as I could, but
everything else fine. ENT2 was the dvd player for the kids, and they were
happy with the volume. I'd hear ENT2 bleeding through, along with the kids
voices, but at a very very low level, the wife couldn't hear either. Also
the sound coming through ENT1, while decent, had some noise coming through
as well. A low buzzing sound that would repeat over and over to the beat of
my tail rotating beacon, that kind of rhythm. But it had nothing to do with
the beacon or any lights, or the DME, as I'd turn things off to try to
figure out where it was coming from. This is a C182, so it wasn't some twin
engine harmonic thing either. Along with that was a steady high pitch tone.
This audio was coming through an Ipaq running Anywhere Map and Real Audio
player playing the file. Also there is a Bluetooth GPS feeding the Ipaq,
it's possible the noise was mostly coming from one or both of those units.

Next time I'm at the avionics shop that installed this I'm going to have a
couple things looked at: 1) the manual says in the ISO mode the pilot
should hear ENT1 at a muted level, I wasn't hearing it at all. 2) the bleed
through of ENT2 and back passengers to the pilot position, and 3) installing
a remote switch for Karaoke mode for the back passengers. They didn't
complain about it, but I assume anytime the kids spoke ENT2 would mute, just
like us in the front and ENT1, but we have the ICS button to take care of
that, they don't. I'd also put second ENT2 input on the other headset jack,
don't ask, it's a kid thing.

Otherwise we're very happy with this unit. The wife said it's the best
money we've put into the airplane. After the fact we're glad we held off on
the PS Engineering DVD player. I'm sure it's also a great product, but
probably not functional for us. Why have the control of the DVD or CD in
the front when the passengers in the back will be the only ones using it.
On this trip we used a portable CD player and a laptop with DVD to keep em
busy back there. We'll probably get one of those portable DVD players and a
case that attaches it to the seat back. That way they have a screen, the
controls, and even a remote control. Up front we just want audio, wife
wouldn't mind video at times, but where to put it?

Question for the PSE rep, I'd like the PXE7300, but now seeing how ENT1 and
ENT2 work, would only the pilot/copilot be able to hear it? Same question
for your DVD unit (cant find name online at avionics shops and your website
is down). If it's wired for the back passengers, can the front still hear
it? Thanks for a great product!

Chris