Ham Radio In The Airplane

"Jim Weir" wrote in message ...
No doubt about it...even though it is one of ... sniff ... THOSE intercoms {;-)

Oh well. I managed to pick up my SPO for $25. The only RST intercom I ever got
to use was assembled by a guy who barely knew which end of the iron to hold on to.
(His piloting skills weren't much better by the way), so I'll not judge yours by that
instance.

No, Ron, interfacing it through an intercom or audio panel removes a lot of the
folderol with interfacing it directly to the headset. However, you STILL need
to know the mic voltage and impedance levels (three different kinds in popular
use) for your parTICular ham rig.

Yeah, but it's within the realm of tweaking. I can say that I could drive my FT470
directly from the "to the aircraft radio" side of my SPO.

Of course, the other quick and dirty is to just use ICOM as their aviation and amateur
gear share the same accessories and they've already built a aviation headset converter
box.

If you use your aeronautical-mobile ham radio to order a pizza so that
it's ready for you when you land, is there a geographical limit beyond
which it's considered a commercial transaction?

Don

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

Aviation radios do NOT have to be TSOed. King even sold a line of non-TSOed
radios.

"H. Adam Stevens" wrote in message
...
When using a handheld I just connect an ear plug headset and wear it under
my normal headset.
As far as HF, I worked KJ5CB on 14.347 MHz from my mobile in Austin while
he
was driving a Boeing over the Amazon.
HK3SA was aboard the Amazon Queen on the Amazon River and they even
flashed
lights at each other.
Aeronautical mobiles check into the Maritime Mobile Net on 14.3 MHz
frequently.
I think the problem is connecting non-TSO'd radios to an aircraft's
system,
not operating an aircraft HF radio on a ham frequency.
H.
N502TB, NQ5H

"Cy Galley" wrote in message
news:PrqNa.105458$R73.12132@sccrnsc04...
Why not wire one ear cup for your aviation and the other cup for ham
operations? If there are no connections then you should be able to hear
both. Use a hand held mic for one or the other.
--
Cy Galley - Bellanca Champion Club
Newsletter Editor & EAA TC
www.bellanca-championclub.com
Actively supporting Aeroncas every day
Quarterly newsletters on time
Reasonable document reprints
1-518-731-6800

"Jim Weir" wrote in message
...
There was a question the other day about an amateur radio (or any
other
two-way
radio, for that matter) aboard the airplane. At least for amateur
radio
(part
97) I got an answer back from an old time FCC person who was in this
business
for a whole bunch of years. Names are omitted for reasons of privacy.

Herewith the exchange...my questions, his answers.



97.101(b) says that an amateur station aboard an aircraft must be
"...independent of all other radio equipment...".

I've been having some discussions about this, especially my PERSONAL
discussion because of what I do for a living (manufacture aircraft
electronic devices).

My interpretation of RADIO devices means that I can't run my 2-meter
ham
rig
audio through a RADIO (transceiver) or use the RADIO audio to
modulate
the
rig.

That is about the extent of the "separation". It's not a real
problem for most small aircraft where the aircraft (VHF) radio is AM
and the 2 meter rig is FM. Where it becomes a problem is when the
a/c is equipped with a HF rig and it gets tuned to the ham bands.
More than one ham-licensed air transport pilot has done that and
openly bragged that that's what is necessary to relieve the boredom
of flying a large plane over the ocean.

It does NOT preclude me from using my aircraft headset and
microphone,
even
if that headset and microphone goes through an audio switching device
(audio
panel) to switch select between the aircraft RADIO and the ham rig.

That's how I see it as well.

As a matter of fact, it would seem to me dangerous to design a system
where
I would have to pull the headset plugs out of the aircraft radio and
plug
them in to the ham rig. This, of course, prevents me from monitoring
any
of
the aircraft radios while using the ham rig. Not good, especially in
a
crowded environment where monitoring the aircraft radio is an item of
safety.

Agreed.

I guess the question really is where the aircraft RADIO equipment
stops
and
the rest of the aircraft systems start. Battery? Audio?

The common sense definition of "the radio" would include the COMM
transceiver(s) and any NAVAID devices. Electrical and audio panels
should be excluded.



Jim



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