T

todehnal

Well Known Member
Does anyone have any experience with the Garmin SL 40? Since this is what we will have to use, if we go with the RV-12 E-LSA, I thought it might be nice to know something about this comm. I know that it has built in 2 place intercom, but is it any good? Is it mono, or stero? Is there any provisions for misic or cell input? Can a freq be selected from the GPS? In other words, what do we get with an SL 40? There are some other pretty neat comms out there! Also, I think that the comm business,for Garmin, is just a sideline, not their root business.

Thanks for your input

Tom
 
todehnal said:
Does anyone have any experience with the Garmin SL 40? Since this is what we will have to use, if we go with the RV-12 E-LSA, I thought it might be nice to know something about this comm. I know that it has built in 2 place intercom, but is it any good? Is it mono, or stero? Is there any provisions for misic or cell input? Can a freq be selected from the GPS? In other words, what do we get with an SL 40? There are some other pretty neat comms out there! Also, I think that the comm business,for Garmin, is just a sideline, not their root business.

Thanks for your input

Tom
Click to expand...

Hi Tom,

The SL-40 is a very good Com and widely supported by EFIS manufacturers. The intercom is OK, but the -12 ships with one anyway so its use is not needed. Yes, a freq may be sent from a GPS as well. Don't be fooled, Garmin sells a ton of these radios and takes them seriously.
 
Great COMM, standard user interface (knobs / buttons), good display. Haven't used internal intercomm due to its limitations and used a PS3000 stereo instead.

TODR
 
Which Intercom?

Paul the Overlord said:
The intercom is OK, but the -12 ships with one anyway so its use is not needed.
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul! Glad to here that the 12 comes with a stand alone intercom.
Do you know which intercom is shipped with the kit? I have been unsuccesful in determining that from Van's site.

Thanks again

Tom
 
Also with the SL-40 you can select one frequency and monitor another.
Rich
 
Bulletproof

I had one in my last plane. It was there for 6 troublefree years. The monitor feature is priceless. The intercom is ok but you're not able to input music unless you use something like the PS Engineering Muse. I used the built in intercom for a couple of years but ended up putting a dedicated intercom in its place.

I loved the SL-40 so much that it's in the panel of my RV project. I know that I will have no regrets and neither will you.
 
The SL-40 also uses the same tray as the SL-30 NAV/COM. If you ever want to upgrade to a NAV/COM it makes the process a *lot* easier.

The SL-40 is an awesome com. I really like how it interfaces with the GPSMAP 496. The 496 will automatically send the SL-40 the frequencies of the airport you have dialed into your GPS. You can then hit the 'recall' button on the SL-40 and scroll through all of the applicable frequencies, i.e. tower, ground, approach, etc. It's a very handy feature to have.
 
The SL-40 Comm is one of the best standalone Comm radio available in the market today...so no worries there. Becker is every bit as good, but most others aren't. In closing, you just won't do much better!

I believe the Van's RV-12 has a Flightcomm intercom in it complete with music input, but I'm not 100% sure.

Cheers,
Stein
 
SL-40

Best darn stand alone radio you can buy! I have them in all my airplanes
(six of them) and will be happy to have another.
 
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