Navcoms

[JOhnH]

I have a couple of old MX300 Navcoms that are showing their age. Sometimes they are clear and sometimes they have a good bit of static. Occasionally ATC tells us we are bleeding over. There was one time when we couldn't get a response from ground so we switched radios and they answered us and said they had been trying to contact us but we couldn't hear them. That never happened again. I hate intermittent problems.

I am considering a GNS430w anyway. Should I just go ahead and get two and ditch both the MX300s? Would I need two GI 106s to go with them.

Or should I fix the better of the two MX300s and buy one GNS430w?

I am told that since I have the old Cessna audio panel I will need to upgrade that too. (GMA 340?).

I am looking at about $28,000 worth of avionics here. It may be time to think about a new (old) airplane, even though I just put a new 180hp engine in this 1977 172n (after the old engine blew up in flight) and I really like this airplane.

I guess I am just hashing stuff out in my head, but I would appreciate any helpful advice.

 

[SCCutler]

Before you go buying new radios, you might want to actually verify that there's something *wrong* with 'em in the first place. As the MX300s are solid state devices, it is vastly more likely that your problem is outside the boxes anyway.

First and most likely culprit: antennas and connectors. You might take the step of cleaning all of the antenna connectors, starting with the slide-in connections on the back of the radios, and all the way back to the actual antennas themselves.

While you're at it, clean the edge connectors by which the radios make contact with the tray connectors, and dress them with a little contact cleaner / lubricant.

 

[kgruber]

If you have the money, ditch the Cessna radios.

They were junk when they were brand new!

340
430W
SL-30
GTX-330
GI-106A X2

That would be my dream panel