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Intercom

pgroell

Well Known Member
Friend
Hello all,

i'm slowly looking at how my panel will look. I will install a stereo intercom, has somebody any infos about the following brands :

- Softcomm [font=Arial,Helvetica,Univers,Zurich BT][size=-1]ATC-2PS
- Sigtronics Sport 200S
- Flighttech ITC

or any other you're happy with.

Thanks

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DRE and PS Engineering

My number 1 and 2 choices would be a DRE 244e, than the PS Engineering PM1000 (now PM1200) or PM3000 (stereo).

DRE went out of business recently, but you should be able to find a new 244e still in stock. I would not hesitate to buy one today. Don't know why DRE went under; they where best rated by Aviation Consumer. They where a small family business. I bought mine at Oshkosh, so I met the principles. They made a top quality product and probably made min profit. That's too bad, it's a great product. Also top of the line is PS Engineering. PS Engineering has been around for a while. I have owned both DRE and PS-Eng. They are pretty close. However if the out of production thing bothers you about DRE, than the PS-Eng is first choice IMHO.

You get what you pay for, especially with an intercom. Some intercoms are very cheap and do it by cutting corners. Yes they are VOX (voice activated) but they have one VOX control. What that means is when you the pilot speaks, BOTH mics open and let more background noise in. Same with the passenger, they speak, both mics open. Also the filters and amplifiers give the sound quality or lack thereof.

You can tell the DRE or PS Engineering and other high end units have separate VOX circuits, because they have individual volume and squelch controls for each the pilot and the passenger.

Stereo? If you are going for stereo you want a stereo intercom, one that has left and right channels for stereo aux music input and stereo headsets. The lower priced so called "stereo" intercoms sometimes are really mono inside. The top line units also have more power and better music intercom control, such as how the the music fades back in very gradually after time when the radio or crew communications stops. I think a true stereo intercom is a must for music, but if you're on a budget, not picky and not going to buy stereo headsets, you can save cash with mono unit. Also there are more wires for a stereo intercom. If you are not going to use it than mono is fine.


I have used the DRE, PS-Eng, Sigtronics and Flightcom. The old Sigtronic's I used where very basic panel units we had in rental planes I gave flight instruction in. They worked is all I can say, nothing special, but that was a long time ago. The Flightcom was a portable unit I had in my RV-4. It was pretty mediocre and got rid of it for a panel mounted PM3000. No comparison. Also the nice thing about the PS Engineering was you set the squelch and forgot it. Never used a Softcomm or Flighttech. Never heard of Flighttech? Again you get what you pay for.

I don't care about "voice recorders" ATC read back features or cell phone inputs. Some headsets have those features built-in if they turn you on.

You may like a $150 intercom, but you will love a $450 intercom. I am all for budgets, but the intercom is such a basic thing you use all the time, I think going top shelf is money well spent. However if you don't fly with passengers much or music, than who cares, you don't even need an intercom.

One brand top brand is NAT - Northern Airborne Technology Ltd.; NAT makes top of the line TSO'ed commercial communication units, you might find in EMS or sightseeing helicopters or corporate turboprop aircraft for example. The AA80 is their general aviation unit. The AA83/82 is the stereo one. Sometimes you see the mono ones on eBay. If I saw a stereo NAT for sale I'd buy it. Not sure they these units are still in current production.

Dave Clark's top of the line intercom looks good. Never used one, but they show up on eBay sometimes. They have high quality specs. However looking good is not the same as sounding good. They also make a low cost unit that is on par with the ones you mentioned.

The above is my opinion and does not reflect the opinion of management. :D The best thing to do is go try them in a plane, which is easier said than done. You have to hear the quality of sound. The "secret technology" of an intercom is how it keeps from clipping voice at the ends, sound quality and ability to pass voice with out passing the noise. They are not all the same. Some are rich and some are tinny. You can't go wrong with the ones I mentioned. Considering DRE is not in production and NAT is kind of rare or the models I mentioned out of production, PS-Engineering would be my first choice for a new unit (1000/1200/3000). PS-Engineering does makes an entry level unit, the PM501. That would be a great intercom if you are on a budget.
 
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I switched over to the PS Engineering PM1000II so my passenger has his/her own volume and squelch controls. I love it. Took a guy flying yesterday who has a Softcom. He's ordering a PS Engineering today.
 
Individual controls..

Mel said:
I switched over to the PS Engineering PM1000II so my passenger has his/her own volume and squelch controls. I love it. Took a guy flying yesterday who has a Softcom. He's ordering a PS Engineering today.


Like Mel, I wanted this feature, and my Tiger came with an older PM1000 unit.
The individual volume/squelch controls are nice, and don't seem to be available on many other manufacturer's units.

pm1000_big.jpg


VS. the less controls versions...

sport200.jpg


I picked up a nice condition PM1000 non-stereo intercom on e-bay for $60... OK since I don't listen to music while flying.... :)

gil in Tucson
 
Can this be done with a PM1000II?

I'm a little behind the curve on what can & can't be done with intercoms and switching between radios.
I'll have a Garmin 300XL GPS/COM and an SL30 NAV/COM.

Question:

Can both the pilot & co-pilot have a separate COM source switch to select either of the COM's and be able to TX /RX without the other hearing unless they are on the same COM?

I hope that makes sense. :eek:
 
Intercom can't do it, but an audio panel can

7A_@ABI said:
I'm a little behind the curve on what can & can't be done with intercoms and switching between radios.
I'll have a Garmin 300XL GPS/COM and an SL30 NAV/COM.

Question:

Can both the pilot & co-pilot have a separate COM source switch to select either of the COM's and be able to TX /RX without the other hearing unless they are on the same COM?

I hope that makes sense. :eek:
If you have TWO full up Com's, I highly recommend you buy an audio panel, however there are two and half ways to go.

You can make a little switch set up to select the transmitter you want to use and than merge the two radios audios together. There are several ways to do that and a recent thread on the subject. Bottom line you can avoid the audio panel altogether but takes a little clever wiring and switching. Basically its a poor-mans audio panel. You will absolutly need to have a MIC selector switch and you can do that with a toggle. The audio can be handled as well but you will not have as much control as you would with a dedicated audio panel.


Second: PS engineering makes a cool little simple audio panel with an intercom built in, two birds one stone deal: http://www.ps-engineering.com/pma4000.shtml

Its mono but takes music input. Mono music is OK, its fine if you are not a "audiophile". Frankly a little plane is not the ideal environment to listen to must stereo or mono. PS engineering has other audio panels with LOTS MORE Capability ( http://www.ps-engineering.com/audio.shtml ). They also cost a good bit, but they do match your Garmin avionics. Garmin makes audio panels, but I think PS engineering makes them for them? Not sure but they look almost the same. You could go with Garmin. Since you have NAV ident's to deal with and two Com's, I go with an audio panel.

Part 2.5: Buy a used king, collins or narco audio panel on eBay ($75-$150). However with your top notch panel you probably don't want an ugly miss matched old component? Audio panels are really not that much different than they where 20 years ago, but the form, fit and function is a little slicker. The new audio panels as mentioned also have built-in intercoms of good quality. So if you buy an old used audio panel you would need to buy and intercom to go with it. By the time you buy both you might be close to the price of new audio panel w/ intercom? Just my opinion.
 
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Some do...

7A_@ABI said:
....

Can both the pilot & co-pilot have a separate COM source switch to select either of the COM's and be able to TX /RX without the other hearing unless they are on the same COM?

I hope that makes sense. :eek:

George didn't quite answer this bit on pilot and co-pilot having the option of independent transmitters.

This is possible, but only the high end full up audio panels have it.

The PS Eng. PMA6000 does.... check the TX switch on the right...

pma6000.jpg


The Garmin does too, but apparently only in a Pilot-comm1 and Co-pilot-comm2 arrangement... big button, bottom row, right of center...

cf-lg.jpg


The King KMA 28 does too...

001kma28.jpg


...but the older, more common KMA 24 does not...

001kma24.jpg


Check the number of functions on the TX switch if you really need this feature... look for COMM 1/2 and COMM 2/1

gil in Tucson
 
Options a'many!

Thanks, George & Gil You guys are always loaded with good info.

You've given me a lot to think about. The audio panel may eat up too much panel & $$ for me. And, you've got me to thinking if I 'really' need for the pilot & co-pilot to have the flexibility with the COMM. I probably wouldn't need this on a regular basis....just hoping for the flip of a switch to make things happen w/o an audio panel.
I'll probably just stick to the KISS method. ;)

Anyway, thanks for the replies & I'll do some more pondering.

Sam
 
I've been running with 2 coms for 14 years. No audio panel, no problem.
 
The PM 1000 II is a great intercom, but if you want Stereo, the PM 3000 is the way to go. It has an input jack so you can plug in your MP3 player, or what have you for music or radio.

Roberta
 
Pascal,

To me the bigger issue is how to hook up all the other inputs into your system.

I elected to go with the Sigtronics 200S but that was just the beginning.

With both an EFIS and EMS that output audio signals and two stereo inputs (iPod and XM radio from the GPS) figuring out how to connect them is a big issue.

Using an audio panel is one option but costly. Since I also installed an iCom radio the solution was easy. Connect the mono feeds to the iCom and use either a plug to switch between the two stereo inputs or the best solution is to buy a stereo balance control and use it to mix the two inputs and feed the intercom.

Here is a simple diagram of what I'm talking about:
 
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Nice schematics

N941WR said:
Here is a simple diagram of what I'm talking about:
That is the great part of the Icom A200, the Aux audio inputs. Helping another builder I found out that Garmin do not provide aux input. Garmins have so many other cool features they left that out I guess. I agree with your comments that Audio panels are expensive. Mel did two transmitters with out an audio panel with some home made switching.
 
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