Fairchild Club Forum

'When I rebuilt the Rearwin I installed a Microair 760 as the
reviews of it were good. How wrong I was! The thing was
appalling and has now ceased to work.

However, it was always stuggling with the environment. The
cockpit is noisy and the inbuilt intercom picked that up all the
time. Transmit and receive were very variable and it was almost
impossible to squelch properly.

I need to get a new transciever and I am not made of money so
the budget is about 12-1300 bucks. That way I can also afford a
separate intercom.

I would like to know good or bad reports on the Becker AR-4201
Com or the King KY 97A which seem to be the two I can afford.

I also have issues on where I can fit it but all advice is, as ever,
gratefully recieved.

Regards,

Melvyn Hiscock'

'Giday Melvyn. I've always had good experience with PS Engineering's intercom
system and the VAL 760 radio seems to get good reports too at around $600.
Ebay quite often has good and reliable deals. There are two VAL's on ebay right
now. One used and about a half dozen dreamers are on the fence at about $350
and it ends in 11 hours. There's also a new one with a buy it now price of only
$550. with about 4 wannabe's on the fenceat about $331. Bidding ends in 3.5 days.

David Stroud Ottawa, Canada
C-FDWS Christavia
Fairchild 51 under construction

----- Original Message -----
From: Melvyn Hiscock
To: fairchildclub@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 6:36 PM
Subject: [fairchildclub] Comms advice


When I rebuilt the Rearwin I installed a Microair 760 as the
reviews of it were good. How wrong I was! The thing was
appalling and has now ceased to work.

However, it was always stuggling with the environment. The
cockpit is noisy and the inbuilt intercom picked that up all the
time. Transmit and receive were very variable and it was almost
impossible to squelch properly.

I need to get a new transciever and I am not made of money so
the budget is about 12-1300 bucks. That way I can also afford a
separate intercom.

I would like to know good or bad reports on the Becker AR-4201
Com or the King KY 97A which seem to be the two I can afford.

I also have issues on where I can fit it but all advice is, as ever,
gratefully recieved.

Regards,

Melvyn Hiscock






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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

'

'Gentlemen, I have had a 760 Microair Transceiver in my open
cockpit PT 19 since August of 2000. It has worked

Flawlessly since then serving as a intercom as well as a com radio. Bob
Haas EAA Warbird #95826.



_____

From: fairchildclub@yahoogroups.com [mailto:fairchildclub@yahoogroups.com]
On Behalf Of Melvyn Hiscock
Sent: Monday, November 06, 2006 6:36 PM
To: fairchildclub@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [fairchildclub] Comms advice



When I rebuilt the Rearwin I installed a Microair 760 as the
reviews of it were good. How wrong I was! The thing was
appalling and has now ceased to work.

However, it was always stuggling with the environment. The
cockpit is noisy and the inbuilt intercom picked that up all the
time. Transmit and receive were very variable and it was almost
impossible to squelch properly.

I need to get a new transciever and I am not made of money so
the budget is about 12-1300 bucks. That way I can also afford a
separate intercom.

I would like to know good or bad reports on the Becker AR-4201
Com or the King KY 97A which seem to be the two I can afford.

I also have issues on where I can fit it but all advice is, as ever,
gratefully recieved.

Regards,

Melvyn Hiscock





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]'

'--- In fairchildclub@yahoogroups.com, "Melvyn Hiscock"
wrote:

>
> When I rebuilt the Rearwin I installed a Microair 760 as the
> reviews of it were good. How wrong I was! The thing was
> appalling and has now ceased to work.
>
> However, it was always stuggling with the environment. The
> cockpit is noisy and the inbuilt intercom picked that up all the
> time. Transmit and receive were very variable and it was almost
> impossible to squelch properly.
>
> I need to get a new transciever and I am not made of money so
> the budget is about 12-1300 bucks. That way I can also afford a
> separate intercom.
>
> I would like to know good or bad reports on the Becker AR-4201
> Com or the King KY 97A which seem to be the two I can afford.
>
> I also have issues on where I can fit it but all advice is, as

ever,

> gratefully recieved.
>
> Regards,
>
> Melvyn Hiscock

I have used a 760 it has worked great. I would trouble shoot the
antenna co-ax, antenna and make very sure the antenna ground plane
is of the correct size and grounded to the airframe. I would also
send the unit to AUS for a funtional check. It will only cost you
shipping. Its a better first step than trashing to radio and
purchasing another. You may end up with the same problems with a new
radio if the problem is with the installation. 99 out or a 100 radio
isuues are not the radio itself. But thats just my exsperience.'

'Thanks for your comments guys.

It is interesting to see that some of you have positive experience
with the M760. I wonder if they are different over here or if they
have changed them. I have yet to meet anyone over here with a good
word for them and that includes my radio guy who has tried one out of
the aeroplane and it still sucked.

They are voltage sensitive and I found the hot mike intercom terrible
in the Rearwin. Having no squelch meant it picked up engine noise but
the format of the mike in the headset meant it picked up only the
very high frequencies and was uncomfortable on long flights.

I also found that the radio squelch did nothing for most of its
rotation and then was very bunched. Or it was to begin with.

The first problems were with range. Getting ten to fifteen miles was
a problem. Changes in antenna and grounding were tried. The last
thing was when I was two miles from the airfield and getting nothing
but broken signal from them and they were getting nothing from me
only transmit noise. I was about to go to France and wanted it
working so that I could speak when crossing the channel.

I had previously spoken to Microair in Australia and they were,
initially, helpful. Later they put me in touch with their guy in the
UK I sent him the radio and he told me it was all fine and checked
out OK in all departments. Well, I apprectiated this might be down to
installation until the radio came back and it was clear that there
had been a lot of adjustment going on. Several holes in labels had
been punched through to get to the trim pots.

Putting it back into the aeroplane was interesting. With no changes
there it worked fine. For about a week. Squelch was good and range
fine. Then it started slipping again. I then heard this is a known
problem on some radios. Apparently there are some made before certain
serial numbers that have problems. The crystal is not heat protected
and since they are also voltage sensitive they can drift badly. This
certainly appears to be what was happening with mine.

At that point I called in the radio tech and we started hearing more
and more things about them. The local microlight club has six Ikarus
C42 microlights. They originally came with M760s fitted but these
were changed to Filser radios because of problems with the M760s. The
microilight club have had a lot of problems with them.

I spoke to a guy a few weeks back who said he had three of them, they
were all paperweights.

I have also operated with an ordinary Icom handheld wired into the
same antenna and it is far superior to anything I ever managed with
the M760.

In the end it was not the Microair's fault it blew up, I had a
voltage regulator fail, but I wrote to the UK service guy and asked
what could be done to make it more stable and ensure the squelch
worked and got no reply. I think they have simply had too many
returned over here.

Offhand I can think of six people I have spoken to that would not
have one near their airplane and I have given up. Luckily someone has
offered to sponsor a new one for me and so I can get something that
is likely to work better. let's face it, if a handheld Icom works
fine. . .

I am glad to hear that someone is getting on well with one but watch
that voltage and beware the range may suffer.

I had a good mail from Russ Williams and he has recommended the
Garmin. Very wide voltage range!!

Melvyn Hiscock'