Interesting COMM/Intercom issues

[Sid Lambert]

The whole listening to music in your airplane has me thinking of an issue in my airplane I'd like to resolve...

I have a Valcom 760 comm and a DRE intercom. When I plug my iPod in to the DRE on the ground the music is a good volume but as soon as I take off the volume goes down like it thinks ATC is talking to me. It doesn't matter where I set the squelch for the intercom.

Another kicker to this is I bought a Zulu headset last spring and plugged my iPod in to it. I have exactly the same issues even with the intercom turned completely off (switch). I can disable the soft mute on the headset and it works fine so the headset thinks ATC is talking to me as well.

The comm has no squelch but I can definitely tell when I am receiving and when I am not. I have tried 2 different Valcom radios and they exhibit the same symptoms.

Is this just a noise in the system issue or is it something that I am missing?

 

[Mike S]

Have you tried another music source???

 

[Sid Lambert]

I have tried an iPod and iPhone. Same results.

 

[647jc]

Are you sure the microphone is not tripping or squelching the music. Cockpit noise goes up dramatically in flight and may be causing the music to be squelched. Might try holding your hand over the mic in flight to see if that might be the cause or maybe you have already tried that.

 

[Sid Lambert]

With the intercom off you can yell in to the mic and it won't come on until you key the comm/mic.