Narco 800 series Nav/Coms
- Thread starter Tom-D
- Start date
Hmm.
I just bought an NCS812 with DME. Looks great, but since it is not installed, I don't yet know. The NCS812 is a derivative of the Mark 12D, which has a very good reputation. I have one Mark 12D, and it is way better than the Garmin 430W as a Comm radio, and has substantially longer range as a Nav.
Everybody makes fun of me for buying a Narco, though. Don't get one if you want to be one of the cool kids. You'll end up eating lunch with the Math Club.
I just bought an NCS812 with DME. Looks great, but since it is not installed, I don't yet know. The NCS812 is a derivative of the Mark 12D, which has a very good reputation. I have one Mark 12D, and it is way better than the Garmin 430W as a Comm radio, and has substantially longer range as a Nav.
Everybody makes fun of me for buying a Narco, though. Don't get one if you want to be one of the cool kids. You'll end up eating lunch with the Math Club.
wsuffa
Touchdown! Greaser!
I have an NCS-812 as my #2. I expect to be pulling it shortly and installing another Garmin box (along with a separate King DME).
The 812 has worked quite well over the years - the audio isn't quite as crisp as the Garmin & the reception is a bit "noisier", but it's served quite well in the 10+ years I've had the plane. No real complaints.
One note: at the time that my unit was built, Narco was hardwiring the unit to unsquelch whenever it was tuned to 121.5. Supposedly there is a fix, but it makes it essentially impossible to leave it tuned to monitor 121.5 all the time (which is highly recommended what with all the TFRs and the DC SFRA). Not a reason to avoid the unit, just something to know about.
The 812 has worked quite well over the years - the audio isn't quite as crisp as the Garmin & the reception is a bit "noisier", but it's served quite well in the 10+ years I've had the plane. No real complaints.
One note: at the time that my unit was built, Narco was hardwiring the unit to unsquelch whenever it was tuned to 121.5. Supposedly there is a fix, but it makes it essentially impossible to leave it tuned to monitor 121.5 all the time (which is highly recommended what with all the TFRs and the DC SFRA). Not a reason to avoid the unit, just something to know about.
Really liked my Narco setup - NCS812 with DME in the indicator and a 12D+ for #2. Wouldn't do again with orphans.
We used to have them in my flying club in the 90's and I hated them. Something always seemed to fail, enough that we had two spares to share in 3 airplanes while others were getting repaired. And once Narco realized the volume of repair work they were missing out on, they made all of them get sent home instead of being repaired locally. No thanks.
