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cessna radios
cessna radios
I am contemplating a 1974 Skyhawk with Cessna RT328 Navcoms , VOR and ADF, al Cessna. An instructor friend of mine says I'll have to throw the radios away. The current owner says they work fine. The aircraft is a thousand miles away. It is a good value unless I have to throw away the avionics. Your opinions please!
Re: cessna radios
You might want to check, but I don't think all RT 328's are 720 channel radios. I think just the RT-328 D/T were. Cessna had the later RT 385 that were digital and 720 channel. You are now required by regulation to have a 720 channel radio if you use it to transmitt. You might want to check on that. However, if they are and they are working, then I don't think you would have to replace them. However, I would not bother putting any money into them on a repair when you have something go wrong. As you probably know, digital flip flops will reduce your work load. Good luck.
Re: cessna radios
The FCC has a website which lists acceptable and not acceptable aircraft radios.
http://wireless.fcc.gov/aviation/goodlst.html
http://wireless.fcc.gov/aviation/badlst.html
Re: cessna radios
I bought a plane with the original cessna radio's, one was a 720 channel and one a 360 channel and the ADF. I knew I had to replace the 360 channel, I fly instruments and one radio, especially old ones won't cut it. So I bought a new slide in replacement (MX-300) for ~$1400. Since then I had to replace the indicator on the ADF, and it works OK, but the ADF is a little weak on the 200 range frequencies. Nevertheless, it makes for listening to AM radio stations when the controllers are boring me with planes at my 12 o'clock (I'm kidding!)
The other thing to consider is the age of the wiring and trays. You may be faced with replacing all your wiring to get rid of the bad grounds, interference, etc or you may be lucky and it will work fine. The GS/LOC and VORs are fine on my plane. I have intermittent reception problems immediately after takeoff. Give it a few minutes and no other problems. I think it is weak connections on the radio's at the pins, that get disturb upon takeoff, but settle back later. It is not reproduceable on the ground so asking a radio tech to look at it would be costly and probably not work. I would get the standard answer, it's time to rewire your electrical system. What do you want for a 30 year old plane!
Re: cessna radios
Contrary to what a lot of people say there is nothing wrong with the ARC radios as long as they are up to FAA regs. I have the RT385 digital stack and they work fine.
Also since they are not popular you kind find replacements cheaper than you can work on them. The only thing I did not like was the Brown face plates. You can change them
all to black for about $20 each. They just look better in Black.There is a company called Aircraft engraverers that sells the face plates.Flip flops are nice. If you really want flip flops you can buy the RT485 for about $600. They slide into the same tray as the RT385. Why would you need flip flops when you have two radios.........
Good luck
Re: cessna radios
That back issue must really be old, nobody does anything for $75 anymore.
I also heard of a shop in the Toronto area that still works on old radios and they are quite reasonable. can't remember the name but do a google or yayoo search on your model number and it might come up. It's common knowledge now that US shops will not touch old radios due to liability and the FAA.
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