Steel mounting hardware on radio trays OK?

[John Courte]

After a pile of ferrite beads and slightly more intelligent wire routing, I've reduced the MGL Odyssey's chainsaw buzz in the COMM circuit a lot. But I can still hear it with the GNS430W's squelch off. It's not horrible, I can still pick up SMO ATIS 2 miles away from inside the shop, but I'd love to get it to the point where zero squelch is just white noise.

One thing I thought of: I'm using regular AN flush mount screws to attach the radio trays to the panel, subframe, and reinforcing angle. Is it possible that hardware is acting like a bunch of little antennas and conducting EFIS RF into the radio?

If that's the case, what's the recommended hardware for attaching radio trays to the airframe?

Cheers,
-John

 

[cfiidon]

Okay to Use

John,

I can't imagine that AN hardware would cause you any problems. The entire panel when mounted is hopefully at chassis ground potential.

I just recently fired up my panel. Although testing is limited as I have only one antenna connected, everything seems to work. I did notice that the GNS430W puts out some form of cyclical (at 1 HZ) low level buzz that's coupling into my comm audio.

Doubt I'd hear it with the engine running, but I'll see if I can figure it out, unless some other knowledgeable person out there has a clue.

Don