Icom A210 Misunderstanding??

[Greg Reese]

Was I the only one at Oshkosh that misunderstooded the Icom claim that the A210 would listen/monitor two freqs at once? After installing /using it and talking with their tech support, the real story is in the semantics. It can monitor two freqs at once but you can only listen to one freq at a time. It has one receiver, not two. Example: Primary freq set to tower. Stby is on ATIS. Dual selected (button pushed). All you hesr is ATIS. Not tower. Its still a nice radio but its not an SL40/60 product that really can "hear" 2 freqs at once. Anyone else find this disappointing?

[Radomir]

hm.. SL-40 doesn't pipe both freqs into headphones at same time either... but I may be missing something?

[rocketbob]

The other thing the Icom does is turns off dual watch once you transmit. That was one thing that turned me off the Icom. XCOM had a booth at OSH and was running a nice show special. The XCOM dual watch stays on until you turn it off. On the XCOM if you have atis on standby and tower on active, if tower transmits it blocks out atis until tower is complete. There are intermittent clicks inserted into atis to let you know you are listening to the standby freq. I put it in my rocket panel and am not flying yet but on the ground it seems to work very well.

[lostpilot28]

Originally Posted by Radomir

hm.. SL-40 doesn't pipe both freqs into headphones at same time either... but I may be missing something?

From Garmin's website:
"The SL40's frequency-monitoring function gives you the ability to monitor ATIS or the 121.5 emergency frequency without leaving your assigned ATC channel. This allows you to listen to standby frequencies while giving priority to the active channel, meaning you'll never miss a transmission."

I take this to mean that you can listen to the standby freq, but if a transmission comes in on the first selected freq the standby will cut off. So, in essence I would think that you can listen to the standby frequency. I thought the same was true for iCom's A210.

[Brantel]

I think someone previously posted about this issue and the A210. If I remember correctly they were stating that if you had a continuous carrier (like an atis) on the standby freq, it would lock onto the standby and never come back.

If this is true, it pretty much makes this feature useless.

[Jamie]

The SL-40/SL-30 'ticks' aren't really there for the user (although it is handy for users). There's only one receiver in the unit. The radio is quickly switching back to the primary frequency to make sure that no radio transmission is taking place. If there is a transmission taking place it will give priority to the primary frequency. But functionally yes, it's like having two radios and I really can't imagine a scenario (except a failed radio and only two places to put frequencies as opposed to 4 in the case of two flip-flop radios) where two radios would be better. I really enjoy using my SL-40 and when I build my next airplane it will have the same radio.

[RVG8tor]

Originally Posted by Brantel

I think someone previously posted about this issue and the A210. If I remember correctly they were stating that if you had a continuous carrier (like an atis) on the standby freq, it would lock onto the standby and never come back.

If this is true, it pretty much makes this feature useless.

I bought the A210 but am a long way from installation. I am disappointed that it does not work the STBY feature as we thought. The XCOM discussion stated you hear a click to let you know you are listening to STBY Freq, I am just guessing, but maybe the click is used to break the steady transmission so that the primary freq can override the stby. Seems this design would work to break up the steady reception of something like and ATIS and give the primary a chance to take over. I am hoping if enough complain there might be some type of patch ICOM can make to the 210 so the feature works the same. I am not sure if there is a way to field up date the software in the radio or if this would mean sending them back to the factory. No big deal to me though, I would be on ATIS for a short period then back to monitor 121.5.

If anyone knows or finds the real answer to the click in the stby freq of the XCOM I would be curious to know.

Cheers

[alpinelakespilot2000]

Originally Posted by Brantel

I think someone previously posted about this issue and the A210. If I remember correctly they were stating that if you had a continuous carrier (like an atis) on the standby freq, it would lock onto the standby and never come back.

Yes, can someone find this thread? I remeber seeing it but just now searched and didn't find it. The original poster of the that thread had the same concern as the original poster of this thread, but I seem to remember others posting that the concern was either unfounded or not a big deal in real practice.

[Ironflight]

I haven't really noticed this to be a problem yet in flying with my 210. Not saying that I have really studied how it is working, but I rarely listen to an ATIS or AWOS more than one to two cycles - I usually have a CTAF and an approach control frequency up at the same time, and the dual watch sure seems to let me hear them both. Since it is my #2 Comm, I really haven't taken the time to explore it much, so don't take these as authoritative comments...and I sure do love the display!

Paul

[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

Updated: (Thanks Brian for the link with the original thread on this issue)....

I'm especially curious about Paul's experience because Michael XCOM on the thread below suggests that you can't hear two frequencies at once or that the primary will not over-ride the secondary:
http://www.vansairforce.com/communit...302#post170302