I am most of the way there. I use the PSEngineering PMA8000C and the 12100 TAC radio adaptor. One has to match microphone impedances as the aviation and ham are not the same.
The radio is a Yaesu FT857D.
Howdy all,
first post here after watching for a great many years!
I know this thread has been resting a little in the last year or so.
There is another choice for an adapter if you don't want to use the "Tactical Radio Interface" by PS Engineering. (about $700 from Aircraft Spruce and other places)
The Northern Airborne Technology AA34-100/200/300 Universal Radio Interface is a great alternative and seems to be very popular with float plane operators that want to interface their marine VHF FM equipment into their audio switching panels.
Here's a link to manualslib where you can read the install manual and specs etc:
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1385448/Nat-Aa34-200.html#product-AA34-300
A local avionics shop owner told me that he has installed a great many of these things in float planes in the Pacific NW over the years.
I decided to use it in my 108-2 Stinson to install a dual band VHF/UHF amateur transceiver. It can be used with virtually any non-aircraft radio and allows a seamless interface complete with sidetone etc.
I recently found one online new (old stock) for about $300 and a whole bunch of "as removed" ones for less.
I've been operating amateur radio equipment in small airplanes since the 70's and (already installed) HF SSB equipment in USAF and civilian aircraft since the early 80's until I retired in 2018.
The only main problem with HF equipment in small airplanes is the short antenna. If you can cobble together a trailing wire using an end fed coupler (like the SGC-230, ICOM AH-4, and a host of others) It can work pretty well.
If you're stuck with a very short antenna like a repurposed ADF sense antenna, and running 100-150W, it's not going to work all that well on the lower medium and high frequencies. (below around 8MHz)
Even the Airline and military radios didn't work all that well on the lower frequencies with the crummy vertical stab embedded antennas but they made up for it with high transmit power (400W) And for the record, high altitude doesn't help all that much at all with HF skywave propagation.
Steve Ashby
Thank you all for your incredible help!
I am blown away by the generous input of you brother RVers. This is all valuable information.
I am buying a GMA 340 and I will be on the hunt for an adaptable and affordable HF transceiver for planned transoceanic flights. I am grossly ignorant of avionics installations, but, with the right help, I know I can make it all work.
Thanks again,
Steve
Steve,
there's several radios out there for ham radio that will "work" . I am not sure how the FCC would see it but most of the current stuff is certainly stable enough.
Other choices can be the Motorola MICOM-3T, Vertex Standard VX-1400/1700 and the ICOM IC-M802 and 803
The with the exceptions of the ICOM radios mentioned above, the others are discontinued but are available for reasonable prices (I have a VX-1700, IC-M802 and a Micom-3T and they're outstanding HF radios)
My choice would be the ICOM IC-M803 which is currently in production or even the MICOM-3T because they're commercial quality equipment. (and they have remote mounted control heads)
Anyway, there you go!
Please post back here with what you finally do! I would love to hear what worked for you!
73 All!
Rick