Used Avionics

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 02:12:32 GMT, Jon Kraus
wrote:

Has anyone had any experience with these radios? Any feedback is much
appreciated. Thanks!!

About $1500 and it slips into the existing tray. The only complaints
we had were that the frequency-memory feature is complicated to use
and it's hard to remember the sequence of buttons. Twice, it froze
until whoever was flying it at the time recycled the avionics power
bus. This was a unit bought in, I think, 2001. We never contacted
Michel because they don't have a Web presence. (They do have a phone.
They're down around Phoenix -- Chandler, I think.)

We eventually redid the panel, replacing the MX170 with a KX125
because that gave us room for an old Apollo GPS that would work with
the STEC autopilot we were installing at the same time. We moved the
Michel to our 1961 C172, which we were selling, figuring the new radio
was a deal sweetner.

Don

Don Tuite wrote:

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 02:12:32 GMT, Jon Kraus
wrote:

Has anyone had any experience with these radios? Any feedback is much
appreciated. Thanks!!

About $1500 and it slips into the existing tray. The only complaints
we had were that the frequency-memory feature is complicated to use
and it's hard to remember the sequence of buttons. Twice, it froze
until whoever was flying it at the time recycled the avionics power
bus. This was a unit bought in, I think, 2001. We never contacted
Michel because they don't have a Web presence. (They do have a phone.
They're down around Phoenix -- Chandler, I think.)


My previous airplane had two MX-300's (the slide in replacement for the Cessna radio), and they worked
fine. I did have a problem with one of them once, and took it to their shop (I'm here in the Phoenix area
and their facility is at SDL) and they took care of it very quickly. This has been a few years, but at the
time, they had a flat rate for repairs - around $75 if I recall. But this would definitely be less convenient if
you have to ship it to them and wait for turnaround.

Mike

I used to have an aircraft with a TKM radio in it. It quit receiving
and I took it to an avionics shop. TKM would not provide any
documentation to the repair shop and said that the radio must be sent
to TKM. TKM did not fix it the first time nor the second time but
finally after three tries with me paying the shipping and three months
down time it FINALLY came back from TKM working. It was not
intermittent it was dead. This is my experience yours may be
different.

On Wed, 12 Oct 2005 02:12:32 GMT, Jon Kraus
wrote:

As stated earlier we are looking to replace our KX-170B (our 2nd
NAV/COM). As I was doing some research I stumbled across the TKM MX-170
http://www.avionix.com/rev-tkm.html

On the surface this looks like a pretty good deal (1.5 AMU's new). I
talked to a gentleman at Pacific Coast Avionics and he said that the TKM
radios used to have some serious reliability issues they have cleaned up
their act and are now a good radio and would recommend them..

The cool thing about this radio is that it just slides right into our
now vacant slot where the 170B used to reside and you are finished. Plug
and Play baby...

Has anyone had any experience with these radios? Any feedback is much
appreciated. Thanks!!

Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201
4443H @ TYQ

John_F wrote:
: I used to have an aircraft with a TKM radio in it. It quit receiving
: and I took it to an avionics shop. TKM would not provide any
: documentation to the repair shop and said that the radio must be sent
: to TKM. TKM did not fix it the first time nor the second time but
: finally after three tries with me paying the shipping and three months
: down time it FINALLY came back from TKM working. It was not
: intermittent it was dead. This is my experience yours may be
: different.

My buddy had a similar experience, only a bit worse. Basically, bought a
mostly-working MX-170 off ebay. It had some issues with the front panel brightness
and a weak receive audio IIRC. Sent it to them. After getting the run-around for
many weeks, and repair estimates that kept getting higher, they basically quoted him
an estimate to repair equal to buying a refurbished unit (1.5 AMU). He said no
thanks, but he'd still have to pay a substantial amount of troubleshooting labor to
get it back. They kept the radio.


-Cory

--

************************************************** ***********************
* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
************************************************** ***********************

About 2 years ago I installed 2 TKM MX300 radios to replace my old ARC
models. Absoulutely no problems so far.
No wiring changes or installation changes was nice. Just slid them in, they
worked.

-Steve

"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...
As stated earlier we are looking to replace our KX-170B (our 2nd
NAV/COM). As I was doing some research I stumbled across the TKM MX-170
http://www.avionix.com/rev-tkm.html

On the surface this looks like a pretty good deal (1.5 AMU's new). I
talked to a gentleman at Pacific Coast Avionics and he said that the TKM
radios used to have some serious reliability issues they have cleaned up
their act and are now a good radio and would recommend them..

The cool thing about this radio is that it just slides right into our
now vacant slot where the 170B used to reside and you are finished. Plug
and Play baby...

Has anyone had any experience with these radios? Any feedback is much
appreciated. Thanks!!

Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201
4443H @ TYQ

I just (within the last 2 months) replaced a KX170B with an MX-170C. The
upgrade was as expected a slide in. After the install I flew an approach
(visual) to check it all out - and it was perfect.

The only problem I had was on my first IFR flight, my squelch refused to cut
out and the radio was useless - had to cancel the flight. After reseating
it in the tray everything was fine. It was at this point I decided toh have
the installation certified and my VOR, localizer and glideslope (KI214) are
all as good as can be expected.

Overall I'm happy with it, my only two nits a
1. Sidetone volume could be higher (even after adjustment it's lower
than my kx170 was)
2.Squelch circuit could be better (seems to cut in an dout on borderline
levels.

Thats all I got for now.

Tom


"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...
As stated earlier we are looking to replace our KX-170B (our 2nd NAV/COM).
As I was doing some research I stumbled across the TKM MX-170
http://www.avionix.com/rev-tkm.html

On the surface this looks like a pretty good deal (1.5 AMU's new). I
talked to a gentleman at Pacific Coast Avionics and he said that the TKM
radios used to have some serious reliability issues they have cleaned up
their act and are now a good radio and would recommend them..

The cool thing about this radio is that it just slides right into our now
vacant slot where the 170B used to reside and you are finished. Plug and
Play baby...

Has anyone had any experience with these radios? Any feedback is much
appreciated. Thanks!!

Jon Kraus
'79 Mooney 201
4443H @ TYQ

I've heard opinions that the tkms don't have the robust construction of
the 155, but don't have personal experience.

I have a KX125 and find it excellent as a low-cost navcom - even
includes a built-in CDI with direct radial readout as an option.

"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...

Our 2nd Nav/Com on our '79 201 is a KX170B. It has went on the fritz and


Perhaps you can get your KX170B fixed economically he

http://www.kx170b.com/

--------------------
Richard Kaplan

www.flyimc.com

We have a KX170B as Nav/Com 2. Damn thing is bullet proof! Picks up VOR's
25 miles farther out than our Narco 12B+, and the needles swing in much
faster. Yeah, it's not a flip-flop dial, which is handy, but I like having
it there for backup. It's been used several times when the Narco went TU.
The only trouble we've had was when the off/on micro switch died. The
Avionics guy didn't have a spare, so he cannibalized one from an old unit.
$35. Still is going strong.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)


"Richard Kaplan" wrote in message
news:1129603637.def259d25cea0d7a5cf8c415c5156f70@t eranews...
"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
...

Our 2nd Nav/Com on our '79 201 is a KX170B. It has went on the fritz and


Perhaps you can get your KX170B fixed economically he

http://www.kx170b.com/

--------------------
Richard Kaplan

www.flyimc.com