SoCalPlaneDoc
New member
From the day I first flew my -3, the radio (then a Narco Mk12D) had an annoying sound of static when receiving. Never a total loss of comm but annoying nevertheless. I had the avionics shop check and all they could say is the radio was fine so thinking it might be the antenna I installed a second one on the belly.. didn't make a difference. Installing a new radio at that time was too pricey for me, and since the radio checked out fine, I went ahead and flew it home (Dallas area to Southern California). No real issues but very annoying.
I kind of got used to it but eventually wanted IFR so out with the Narco and in with a Garmin stack. 430W, SL30, GTX345, HSI, Audio Panel... I was looking forward to the same crisp clean radio comms that my Skylane had.. you guessed it, no change to the static problem. Not better. not worse.
There's 2 well-known and reputable shops on my home airport, neither is any help.
So I'm thinking there's something in the charging system.. still has generator and 3 unit regulator. The static does seem to change with change in RPM so maybe the generator needs work? It had new bearings and brushes installed when I first got it. and it had the problem at that time so.. I dunno.. I'm now thinking about changing the regulator to a solid state unit (If I can find one), but at this point its shotgun diagnostics..
I would love to find someone that is an expert in this area that can nail the problem. At this point all I get is "Maybe it's the <fill in the blank>"
I've heard recordings of my transmissions... perfect. only happen on receive. It's gotta be something on the engine generating electrical noise. (btw, mag switching has no effect)
I have a friend that has a spectrum analyzer that will sniff around the engine but I think all that would do is confirm its something on the engine, not tell me exactly where it's coming from..
I kind of got used to it but eventually wanted IFR so out with the Narco and in with a Garmin stack. 430W, SL30, GTX345, HSI, Audio Panel... I was looking forward to the same crisp clean radio comms that my Skylane had.. you guessed it, no change to the static problem. Not better. not worse.
There's 2 well-known and reputable shops on my home airport, neither is any help.
So I'm thinking there's something in the charging system.. still has generator and 3 unit regulator. The static does seem to change with change in RPM so maybe the generator needs work? It had new bearings and brushes installed when I first got it. and it had the problem at that time so.. I dunno.. I'm now thinking about changing the regulator to a solid state unit (If I can find one), but at this point its shotgun diagnostics..
I would love to find someone that is an expert in this area that can nail the problem. At this point all I get is "Maybe it's the <fill in the blank>"
I've heard recordings of my transmissions... perfect. only happen on receive. It's gotta be something on the engine generating electrical noise. (btw, mag switching has no effect)
I have a friend that has a spectrum analyzer that will sniff around the engine but I think all that would do is confirm its something on the engine, not tell me exactly where it's coming from..
