Wanted to buy, Dittel radio wiring harness

On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 12:29:08 PM UTC-4, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 10:10:11 AM UTC-5, 2G wrote:
On Monday, September 9, 2019 at 6:23:52 AM UTC-7, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
Chuck,

While making or buying a harness is an option, I think that you may be pursuing the wrong approach to your problem.

You have a problem in your glider. You want to set up a bench test rig. This will only determine if the radio itself is ok or not. In my experience the radio itself doesn't fail - especially so with quality brands (Filser, Dittel, Becker, etc) but rather with wiring, power supply, antenna, etc. Bottom line: your intended approach probably won't determine where your problem is within the glider.

My suggestion is to first use the troubleshooting guidelines in my presentation http://aviation.derosaweb.net/presen...s/#transceiver and see where that gets you.

If you think the problem is with the radio then send it in to a qualified repair shop. Addresses and phone numbers are listed in my presentation.

Best of Luck,
John OHM Ω

A handy instrument to have is an SWR meter, and they are pretty cheap. This will show any faults in the antenna lead (the most likely wiring fault).

Tom

Tom - Thanks. Yes, an (V)SWR meter is a handy tool for those technical folks.

To explain - This meter will measure how well your various "antenna system" components (transceiver, BNC connectors, coax wiring, and antenna) are all working together. Any one component of which can cause transmit issues - especially suspect are the BNC connectors.

Simply said, the meter will indicate if things are not right by showing a high numerical reading. Anything above ~1.5 is suspect. The lower the number, 1.0 being best, the more transmit power is actually reaching the antenna.

A (simple testable) effect of having a lousy antenna system is the transceiver will draw much more current than usual which usually shows up by the battery voltage dropping from ~12Vdc to ~10Vdc or worse.

For the receive side nearly anything will work fairly well, at least for close-in transmissions.

Hey, that sounded pretty intelligent! I should add this to my presentation!!!

- John OHM Ω

Thanks John. That's great information.

On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 9:39:04 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 11:10:11 AM UTC-4, 2G wrote:
On Monday, September 9, 2019 at 6:23:52 AM UTC-7, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
Chuck,

While making or buying a harness is an option, I think that you may be pursuing the wrong approach to your problem.

You have a problem in your glider. You want to set up a bench test rig. This will only determine if the radio itself is ok or not. In my experience the radio itself doesn't fail - especially so with quality brands (Filser, Dittel, Becker, etc) but rather with wiring, power supply, antenna, etc. Bottom line: your intended approach probably won't determine where your problem is within the glider.

My suggestion is to first use the troubleshooting guidelines in my presentation http://aviation.derosaweb.net/presen...s/#transceiver and see where that gets you.

If you think the problem is with the radio then send it in to a qualified repair shop. Addresses and phone numbers are listed in my presentation.

Best of Luck,
John OHM Ω

A handy instrument to have is an SWR meter, and they are pretty cheap. This will show any faults in the antenna lead (the most likely wiring fault).

Tom

Thanks Tom, I'll look into it.

Here is some more background on SWR:

http://www.antenna-theory.com/definitions/vswr.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_wave_ratio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSea5FjcTDE

One potential issue is how the antenna lead is connected to the radio. You must be able to disconnect this lead and connect it to the SWR meter. A patch cable then connects the SWR meter to the radio. Also note that an SWR meter, unlike a VSWR meter, will be able to measure transmitted power.

Tom

On Wednesday, September 11, 2019 at 12:11:14 PM UTC-4, 2G wrote:
On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 9:39:04 AM UTC-7, wrote:
On Tuesday, September 10, 2019 at 11:10:11 AM UTC-4, 2G wrote:
On Monday, September 9, 2019 at 6:23:52 AM UTC-7, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
Chuck,

While making or buying a harness is an option, I think that you may be pursuing the wrong approach to your problem.

You have a problem in your glider. You want to set up a bench test rig. This will only determine if the radio itself is ok or not. In my experience the radio itself doesn't fail - especially so with quality brands (Filser, Dittel, Becker, etc) but rather with wiring, power supply, antenna, etc. Bottom line: your intended approach probably won't determine where your problem is within the glider.

My suggestion is to first use the troubleshooting guidelines in my presentation http://aviation.derosaweb.net/presen...s/#transceiver and see where that gets you.

If you think the problem is with the radio then send it in to a qualified repair shop. Addresses and phone numbers are listed in my presentation.

Best of Luck,
John OHM Ω

A handy instrument to have is an SWR meter, and they are pretty cheap.. This will show any faults in the antenna lead (the most likely wiring fault).

Tom

Thanks Tom, I'll look into it.

Here is some more background on SWR:

http://www.antenna-theory.com/definitions/vswr.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_wave_ratio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSea5FjcTDE

One potential issue is how the antenna lead is connected to the radio. You must be able to disconnect this lead and connect it to the SWR meter. A patch cable then connects the SWR meter to the radio. Also note that an SWR meter, unlike a VSWR meter, will be able to measure transmitted power.

Tom

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the information. I checked it against a known good antenna and that wasn't the problem. I got the radio to work yesterday. I think I was plugging the mic into the wrong plug.

On Monday, September 9, 2019 at 9:23:52 AM UTC-4, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
Chuck,

While making or buying a harness is an option, I think that you may be pursuing the wrong approach to your problem.

You have a problem in your glider. You want to set up a bench test rig. This will only determine if the radio itself is ok or not. In my experience the radio itself doesn't fail - especially so with quality brands (Filser, Dittel, Becker, etc) but rather with wiring, power supply, antenna, etc. Bottom line: your intended approach probably won't determine where your problem is within the glider.

My suggestion is to first use the troubleshooting guidelines in my presentation http://aviation.derosaweb.net/presen...s/#transceiver and see where that gets you.

If you think the problem is with the radio then send it in to a qualified repair shop. Addresses and phone numbers are listed in my presentation.

Best of Luck,
John OHM Ω

Hi John,

Thanks for the information. I got the radio to work yesterday. I think I was plugging the mic into the wrong plug. Still need to do some more testing. Thanks for your help and very informative literature.