AKBill
En-Route
Here is a question for the radio technicians. Lets say you have two com's in the plane. Is there any harm done if you have both com's tuned to the same channel and transmit on one?
Question for the Radio Technicians
- Thread starter AKBill
- Start date
denverpilot
Tied Down
Generally no. It’s the same thing as talking on a pair of handheld radios with one in your left hand and the other in your right. Or a handheld in the cockpit.
Theoretically some receivers can be damaged by putting a LOT of RF into them from a nearby transmitter, but it’d take a lot of RF.
Don’t plug the coax from one radio into another, in other words.
On a test bench anything transmitting into something else is usually padded with a good quality attenuator even when we radio nerds THINK the power is low enough. It’s a safety habit like putting on a seat belt. It has benefits for keeping the transmitter seeing a 50 ohm load or close to it in testing radios with broken RF paths and it keeps spikes and other weirdness from wiping out sensitive test gear.
More likely the worst you’ll do is hearing damage... if your headset speaker can be heard at all by your mic. Audio feedback squeal. Turn the volume down.
Theoretically some receivers can be damaged by putting a LOT of RF into them from a nearby transmitter, but it’d take a lot of RF.
Don’t plug the coax from one radio into another, in other words.
On a test bench anything transmitting into something else is usually padded with a good quality attenuator even when we radio nerds THINK the power is low enough. It’s a safety habit like putting on a seat belt. It has benefits for keeping the transmitter seeing a 50 ohm load or close to it in testing radios with broken RF paths and it keeps spikes and other weirdness from wiping out sensitive test gear.
More likely the worst you’ll do is hearing damage... if your headset speaker can be heard at all by your mic. Audio feedback squeal. Turn the volume down.
AKBill
En-Route
Thanks for the reply. I keep radios on separate frequencies and was just wondering if damage could occur.
I always keep a handheld with separate set of head phones plugged in, but not on. Just in case I have a com failure. I have had 2 com failures in 22+ years flying and feel better with the hand held in the flight bag. No unplugging one head set from the intercom and plugging it into another radio. Just change head sets and turn the hand held on