Icom A210 Misunderstanding??

[Brantel]

Originally Posted by alpinelakespilot2000

Yes, can someone find this thread?

About the middel of page 2 of this thread:

http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...302#post170302

[Brantel]

Originally Posted by alpinelakespilot2000

Paul-

Just for clarification... Do you hear both frequencies at the same time or is that if someone is talking on the primary frequency, the primary frequence overrides completely whatever you were listening to on the secondary frequency?

Steve

I think all will agree that it does not give you both at the same time but will constantly check (at some poll rate) for a transmition on the standby and if it hears something, it switches to the standby until the transmition is over then it flips back to the active and starts polling the standby again.

Problem is if there is a constant transmition on the standby or active, once it flips to that, it stays there and does not move on or at least that is what I think everyone is saying.

So from what I gather it goes like this:

Say you have approach on active and atis on standby and you enable dual watch, the unit will start out on active and then go to standby and spit out the atis but will never go back to the active channel as long as the atis is transmitting. In this case you could miss a call from approach.

If you have non constant transmitting freqs on both active and standby, this would not be a problem and would seem like you are getting both at once unless they both are transmitting at the same time and in this case, the first one to transmit would win.

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Originally Posted by Brantel

I think all will agree that it does not give you both at the same time but will constantly check (at some poll rate) for a transmition on the standby and if it hears something, it switches to the standby until the transmition is over then it flips back to the active and starts polling the standby again.

Problem is if there is a constant transmition on the standby or active, once it flips to that, it stays there and does not move on or at least that is what I think everyone is saying.

Brian-Thanks for the link to that old thread. In that older thread, however, Paul seems to imply in Post #20 that he CAN hear both frequencies at once, hence my confusion.

[Brantel]

Originally Posted by alpinelakespilot2000

Brian-Thanks for the link to that old thread. In that older thread, however, Paul seems to imply in Post #20 that he CAN hear both frequencies at once, hence my confusion.

If that is true, I am confused as well. Someone with this thing installed needs to go out and clarify this.

I really like this radio other than this issue if it truly is an issue. If not, my plane will have one....(Depending on how the MGL radio works out)

[Greg Reese]

I may have confused the issue with my ATIS example in the Stby position. Bottom line: It "listens" to two freqs. Whichever freq it "hears" something on first is what it listens to until the transmission is complete. So if it hears something on stby thats what you hear till its complete. In the meantime if someone transmitted to you on the Primary: YOU MISSED IT! It has ONE receiver. But the freqs look cool when they dance across the screen!!

Greg Reese
Unhappy A210 owner.

[Norman CYYJ]

The frequencies might look cool dancing around but that is sure uncool way to design a dual watch radio. Without a second receiver in the radio it is almost impossible to monitor two frequencies at the same time.

[tomwebster]

Most scanners have priority on one channel . They switch back and
forth and stop on any active channel. They keep checking
on the priority channel. When traffic comes on the priority
channel, they leave the active channel and switch to the
priority channel. They do this with one receiver.
Tom

[Ironflight]

Hmmm....much discussion since lunchtime!

I'll play with it more the next time I'm up....until then, I've told you all that I know...

Paul

[carguy614]

I Think the 210 is still a good choice. I LOVE mine. The only issue is a constant carrier override on the standby if you tune ATIS/ASOS as your standby freq. It is the only way I see a single receiver monitoring 2 freqs can work. Think of it operating as a 2 channel scanner with the selected freq as the priority channel.
The trade is, you can't really use dual watch with the standby tuned to a constant carrier signal such as AWOS/ASOS/ATIS. So...Listen to ATIS, and tune UNICOM or other selected freq as your DW standby. It works real good in my situation, as I am in the Wilmington NC TRSA ring, and the little field we all use out here is UNICOM (60J), but inside that ring. So, I use 122.8 as a primary at my field, when airborne, I contact ILM for flight following, Squawk ILM code, and monitor 122.8 for local traffic. In this case it is just as good as having 2 radios. That being said, if you are based at Delta airspace, it may be better to use 2 discrete receivers. You will be exposed to more constant carrier situations at bigger fields.
Hope this helps clarify your choice of radio...
Regards....Chris

[Michael Coates XCOM]

Hi Guys the XCOM really can monitor 2 frequencies at once. The click is put into the standby channel so you can easliy know what channel you are listening to. We tested the 210 recently and i posted the info on how in monitors. It's not Dual Watch as we have in the XCOM, it wont go back to the primary channel unless the secondary stops transmitting, i will find the old post and put in this thread. Thanks Michael