I got the above radio in my plane, and its terrible in terms of long distance communication, i have to be within 10 miles of the tower for them to hear me, i cant talk to FSS Radio during a trip, they always come back "broken and unreadable"

The radio was new about 2 years ago, same radio style has been in plane since before i owned it, not sure why they took out the kings!!

anyone have any suggestions?

Make a boat anchor out of the thing.

Gump

LetsflyAK,
Some of us down here in the lower 48 really like Sarah- Thanks for sharing!

As for your radios I'm afraid Gump is right. I know I am stating the obvious, it depends on your budget, but you need a radio you can depend on. Even a used King is better than what you have! You may be able to pick up a refurbished one but King has tubes and I'd go Garmin if it were me.
Good Luck

Depending on your flying... VFR vs IFR. If you want strictly a Comm with no Nav to mess with, I've had real good luck, and not too bad a squeeze on the wallet with the Icom A-200's and Val 700's (if you don't mind the toggle switches). And they're dirt simple to install and hook into an intercom system.

What I have now in the Mighty Cessna is the McCoy conversion of the KX-175. Paid $1,200 for it on eBay outright, and it does everything I want and need in a Comm radio.

Gump

Can't diagnose the problem from here, but be sure you check out your antenna and cable before you buy a new radio. They could be the culprit.
tom

I have a TX760D radio and have been fighting the what sounds like same problem for years. Gump hit the nail, it really is a boat anchor. Ordered a new Garmin SL40 this week.
Good Luck.

Which King has tubes?

a64pilot wrote:Which King has tubes?

Dam twice in one day
Correction:
I was thinking King Xponder because I had to have mine replaced and it definitely had a tube. I assumed the radio's were the tubes as well.
The King 155 NAV/Comm is solid state.

Mauleaviator wrote:

a64pilot wrote:Which King has tubes?

Dam twice in one day
Correction:
I was thinking King Xponder because I had to have mine replaced and it definitely had a tube. I assumed the radio's were the tubes as well.
The King 155 NAV/Comm is solid state.

Correct. The popular King KT-76A transponder has a single tube. The klystron tube has a cavity and is what constitutes the output stage. It's a reliable unit, but does consume a bit more power than the newer fully solid state units like the Garmin.

Many of the King radios don't have tubes (KX-155, 165, 125 etc).

I wouldn't recommend Trimble, Terra, and ARC radios. If you need a radio to fit in a 2 1/4" hole, look at the Becker.

bumper

looks like it was my antenna...plonked down $800 at the local avionics shop (also fixed a broken wire) and he replaced the antenna, i can talk with no problems now....

I jumped on here to do a search on this very radio because it's in a plane I'm looking at buying. It has the Terra 760D radio/intercom and Terra 250D transponder. Any other input on this set up. The airplane is an experimental LSA.

A friend of mine's Pacer had the Terra side-by-side "two-pack" and it seemed to work just fine. The built-in intercom even worked well, with the addition of external volume knobs.

Eric

They don't call them "Terrible Terra's" without reason. In reality the only Terra products that had any reliability were the TPX720 "blue brick" hand held transceiver and the TRT250/250D small-pack transponder (but that's only because the transponder was built by somebody else for Terra). Trimble bought Terra a few years ago and ended the product line. We are the better for it.

Good new radio choices to replace a terrible Terra:
Straight com: Garmin (ni IIMorrow) SL-40 or Icom IC-A210 are hard to beat for solid-state ruggedness. For nav/com the SL-30 is the bomb.

Good used Radio choices to replace a terrible Terra:
Straight Com: King KY-196/197 and the ilk.
Nav/Com: KX155/165

I know this is an old thread, but I'm looking for old "almost junk" Terra radios for a few parts. They would have to have the digital fluorescent display, although nothing (including the display) need work. Valid model numbers would be:

TX760D
TN200D
TRT250D
TDF100D

If anyone has any of these they'd be willing to let go really cheap for parts, please let me know.

Thanks!
-BIll