National Aeronca Association Bulletin Board

Last year a friend loaned me a SkyRanger for a few months and I flew it using my Vertex VXA-300 for comm. It did beautifully on ground, but above 100 or 200' the squelch opened and I had a full-volume mixture of hiss, ATIS, local radio stations, etc. Tower transmissions would suppress that noise, but between transmissions it'd drive ya' nuts. He had the same problem with one of his HT's but not the other.

We figured it was something in the SkyRanger causing the problem.

Last weekend the KY-197a in my Chief stopped working and I switched to the Vertex--same problem! Great on the ground, squelch breaks about 200' and stays open. Now I figure it's gotta be the front end on the HT at fault.

Soooo--Anyone else notice this? And are there any HT brands that reject off-frequency noise better than others?

Thanks

What is an HT?

There are two things to squelch - if it is the radio, we have found that the Icom A-20 and A-21 are better than almost anything else, but they require special PTT circuitry.

If it is the intercom, often you have to match microphone gain - usually there is a screwdriver adjustment on your headset mike.

The obvious question I presume you have done, did you adjust the squelch again after you got above 200 ft?

Radio 101, the higher the antenna the better the reception. That means all the weak signals that were not present below the horizon are now fighting at your new antenna height.