GNS 430W startup/default to 121.5?

[RV7A Flyer]

On turning Master power on yesterday, I heard a brief "whoop-whoop" of an ELT for a few sweeps in my headset, Com 1 (the 430) selected, then it went away. Did it again very briefly right after engine start (the 430 drops off-line while the engine cranks and so has to restart).

At first, made me think...is that MY ELT? But nope, there really was one going off somewhere on the field it turns out, but the real question is:

Does the 430 default in some way to 121.50 MHz? Seems to initialize with that frequency, then "load" or switch to the selected freq. Is there a failure mode where it would revert back to 121.5? Is this in the manual, cause if it is, I must have missed it...

 

[cfiidon]

That's a tough one to duplicate.

I do know that if you press and hold the COM button for a few seconds 121.5 will appear in the active frequency window, and whatever was formerly in the active window goes to the standby.

Don

 

[Weasel]

Possibly the Battery

There is an internal battery that retains you settings and the comm freq on shutdown.

Not sure if this is you problem but if it is they are good for about 5-7 years.

Try this

 

[RV7A Flyer]

To be clear...I don't think it's a problem at all (and I have no messages about the battery showing up). I think it's *designed* that way, and the only reason I noticed it at all was because there was an ELT nearby going off.

I just wanted to know if anyone else noticed it.

It should be an easy test if anyone else wants to do it...during the "ELT test period" at the beginning of an hour, activate one, then turn on a 430 while listening to the audio output of the radio.

I re-read the manual closely, and it does say that if the Comm transceiver is not communicating with the main processor, it will default to 121.5. So I think perhaps on start-up, the comm comes on-line sooner than the rest of the system, sees it's not there, and defaults to 121.5 until the main processor is booted.