Ham Radio In The Airplane

"Jim Weir" wrote in message
...
I don't know. I've never used a handheld. I've got a Kenwood 231 mounted
like
an airplane radio in the stack and plumbed through the audio panel to the
headsets.


Are the mike inputs and audio outputs compatible with the aviation headset
impedance?

I'm a lapsed ham and am considering 2M Aero mobile. I find I know NOTHING
about the
present day equipment. When I was active, everything had nice filaments to
keep stuff warm G

I'd like to find a piece of 2 meter gear that is generally plug and play.
I'll stick a 19 inch on the belly
of my aircraft, and take to the airwaves----AFTER I retake the exams.

I let an advanced class license lapse. (*&^^%$

Thanks

Paul Anton
ex WA6NXL WA7ESD HL9VL

"Paul"
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-
-"Jim Weir" wrote in message
.. .
- I don't know. I've never used a handheld. I've got a Kenwood 231 mounted
-like
- an airplane radio in the stack and plumbed through the audio panel to the
- headsets.
-
-
-Are the mike inputs and audio outputs compatible with the aviation headset
-impedance?

Not really. The standard aircraft mic simulates an old carbon element. You get
roughly half a volt to a volt p-p across something like 300 ohms. A standard
dynamic input to a ham rig is a few millivolts across a couple of dozen ohms. A
standard electret input is a couple of tenths of a volt across 2K or so.

The standard aircraft earphone wants a volt or two p-p across 150 ohms. The
normal ham rig output is speaker level (a couple of volts into 8 ohms).

The point is, there IS no ham radio standard, while the aircraft headset
standard is quite well defined. You can't just hook the aircraft headset into
the ham rig on a PNP basis. You always wind up dicking around with voltage and
impedance shifters to make it play well.

Jim

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

In rec.aviation.owning Jim Weir wrote:
"Paul"
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-
-"Jim Weir" wrote in message
.. .
- I don't know. I've never used a handheld. I've got a Kenwood 231 mounted
-like
- an airplane radio in the stack and plumbed through the audio panel to the
- headsets.
-
-
-Are the mike inputs and audio outputs compatible with the aviation headset
-impedance?

Not really. The standard aircraft mic simulates an old carbon element. You get
roughly half a volt to a volt p-p across something like 300 ohms. A standard
dynamic input to a ham rig is a few millivolts across a couple of dozen ohms. A
standard electret input is a couple of tenths of a volt across 2K or so.

The standard aircraft earphone wants a volt or two p-p across 150 ohms. The
normal ham rig output is speaker level (a couple of volts into 8 ohms).

The point is, there IS no ham radio standard, while the aircraft headset
standard is quite well defined. You can't just hook the aircraft headset into
the ham rig on a PNP basis. You always wind up dicking around with voltage and
impedance shifters to make it play well.

Jim

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

FWIW, the July QST Hints & Kinks column had this discussion with a simple
circuit to use an aviation headset with a ham rig.

--
Jim Pennino

On Sun, 6 Jul 2003 16:32:41 +0000 (UTC), Jim Pennino
wrote:

In rec.aviation.owning Jim Weir wrote:
"Paul"
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-
-"Jim Weir" wrote in message
.. .
- I don't know. I've never used a handheld. I've got a Kenwood 231 mounted
-like
- an airplane radio in the stack and plumbed through the audio panel to the
- headsets.
-
-
-Are the mike inputs and audio outputs compatible with the aviation headset
-impedance?

Not really. The standard aircraft mic simulates an old carbon element. You get
roughly half a volt to a volt p-p across something like 300 ohms. A standard
dynamic input to a ham rig is a few millivolts across a couple of dozen ohms. A
standard electret input is a couple of tenths of a volt across 2K or so.

The standard aircraft earphone wants a volt or two p-p across 150 ohms. The
normal ham rig output is speaker level (a couple of volts into 8 ohms).

The point is, there IS no ham radio standard, while the aircraft headset
standard is quite well defined. You can't just hook the aircraft headset into
the ham rig on a PNP basis. You always wind up dicking around with voltage and
impedance shifters to make it play well.

Jim

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

FWIW, the July QST Hints & Kinks column had this discussion with a simple
circuit to use an aviation headset with a ham rig.

It's far, far simpeler to just get one of the little ear pieces with
the small lapel mike. Probably cheaper in the long run ...

They are inexpensive so why bother messing around with a good head set
when you don't have to.

Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)

Because there are those of us who see clipping a handheld to a window with a
rubber duckie is not the way we want to do things. Why buy a $300 headset and
an audio panel to get the best possible audio into your aircraft transceiver if
you aren't willing to do the same thing for your ham rig?

It really ain't rocket science, and besides, somewhere I read that "fostering
advancement of the state of the radio art" had a place in Part 97.

Jim


-
-They are inexpensive so why bother messing around with a good head set
-when you don't have to.
-
-Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
-www.rogerhalstead.com
-N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)


Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

Jim Weir writes:

Because there are those of us who see clipping a handheld to a window with a
rubber duckie is not the way we want to do things. Why buy a $300 headset and
an audio panel to get the best possible audio into your aircraft transceiver if
you aren't willing to do the same thing for your ham rig?

It really ain't rocket science, and besides, somewhere I read that "fostering
advancement of the state of the radio art" had a place in Part 97.

Yep.

I just got done adapting an IC207H VHF/UHF rig to a King KMA28 audio
panel. It wasn't rocket science by any stretch of the imagination. In
fact, about four or five passive components in a small aluminum
enclosure is all it took. At some point I might want to add sidetone,
which will involve a few more components. But either way, it's
pretty simple.

-jav w6vms

On Mon, 07 Jul 2003 06:36:47 -0700, Jim Weir wrote:

Because there are those of us who see clipping a handheld to a window with a
rubber duckie is not the way we want to do things. Why buy a $300 headset and
an audio panel to get the best possible audio into your aircraft transceiver if
you aren't willing to do the same thing for your ham rig?

Lord, no! :-)) I guess you'll have to define "best possible audio"
Jim. I want "communications" quality where the band width is tailored
to the best for getting information across on both the aircraft and
ham rigs. Now and example of what I don't want is something that
sounds like one of those expensive Heil mikes used for contesting.


The lapel mike has excellent quality along with noise canceling and
works great which was a real surprise when I compare it to the prices
some of the guys spend on mikes. No, the earpiece doesn't sound like
hi-fi, but then again, I can't hear anything above 8K anyway. In the
airplane I'm lucky to hear anything above 4K with the extra noise.
The ANRs do help out there. I can hear the higher frequency sounds
much better while wearing them.

To top it off there is no discernable aircraft sound picked up by the
mike.

It's the little Kenwood combo. I tried the speaker mikes from Yaesu,
Icom, and Kenwood, but never found one I liked, or that had half way
decent sound.

Probably the best sounding one was the Icom compact headset with the
boom mike, but then I had to remember to turn off the VOX. I called
approach on 146.52 more than once using that setup. What I didn't
like was the little head band that went over the top. It really
wasn't long enough and even with the big Telex head set on the little
one felt like it was falling off. It never did, but it always felt
that way.

So far I've found the little Kenwood to be easy to use/convenient,
comfortable, and sound good, which gives me little incentive to try
and wire it in.

Now, when I get the G-III together it'll have either a duoband VHF/UHF
FM rig, or a VHF/UHF all mode rig in the panel and that will be wired
in through the audio panel.

Actually, I'd like to put that little Yaesu 100 watt HF/VHF/UHF all
mode rig in the G-III...but haven't figured out how to make a trailing
wire work in a plastic airplane. I'd also have to wire in an auto
retrieve to prevent aerobatics and landing with the thing extended, or
I'd probably use it as an arresting hook over the power lines just
short of the field.

Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
www.rogerhalstead.com
N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)

It really ain't rocket science, and besides, somewhere I read that "fostering
advancement of the state of the radio art" had a place in Part 97.

Jim


-
-They are inexpensive so why bother messing around with a good head set
-when you don't have to.
-
-Roger Halstead (K8RI EN73 & ARRL Life Member)
-www.rogerhalstead.com
-N833R World's oldest Debonair? (S# CD-2)


Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com