Headset advice

[Grob Driver]

Hi,

I wonder if you can help me. Is there such a thing as a tiny headset that I can wear under my 'normal' headset - I'm thinking about something like you get with you buy a mobile phone. A single speaker that fits into to ear with a microphone?

I fly with a built in radio but would like to have the hand held radio on listing out on another frequency (121.5!) - I was wondering if anyone known of a small ear piece that I could use to listed to the icom?

Any help would be gratefully received.

Thanks

[Dawdler]

I know your suggestion may sound bizarre to some, but it could work. When I was working at a radio station, we presenters would have different feeds into each ear. One would have the station output running (golden rule in radio ALWAYS listen to station output), the other would hear comms from others in the studio and/or cueing up the next trackto be played. (It is all done by computer now). So it is perfectly feasible to hear (not necessarily listen) to two outputs at once. However whether one would have the capacity to absorb the info without becoming confused. Remember Aviate, Navigate, Communicate in that order.

If you are determined to try it why not just do as you suggest and slide one of the mini earphones up inside your main headset, you only need one channel. so one of those you useed to get with cassette players might do the job.

[1800ed]

My Sennheiser headset has inputs for an iPod and a mobile phone. Perhaps you could use a headset like that, and plug your secondary radio into the mobile phone input? I'm not sure if that solves your problem or if it would work suitably though...

[Genghis the Engineer]

I have a cable adapter which does the same - it's designed for listening to an MP3 player on any headset, but I use it for listening to terrain and other warnings on my portable GPS. I can't see any reason why you shouldn't listen to a scanner on that. Cost me US$30 from a US based pilot shop.

G

[BackPacker]

would like to have the hand held radio on listing out on another frequency (121.5!)

I don't get it.

The fact that you only seem to have one panel mounted radio and no audio select box seems to suggest you're flying a fairly low-capability aircraft. Not one that's designed to fly the "high seas" such as the Atlantic or worse. At the very least, such a setup would not fulfill IFR requirements.

All of mainland Europe, and a fair amount of places beyond that, have 100% ATC coverage on 121.5, and those ATC units will be able to handle an aircraft in distress much better than you can from your aircraft. (Assuming the aircraft in distress isn't being handled on the FIS/ATC/whatever frequency it's already on in the first place.)

Furthermore, if ATC does need your help in dealing with an emergency of somebody else, and they know you're there (either from a position report or from a mode-C return) they will contact you anyway. Usually on the top-three of most likely frequencies you could be on. Which makes an excellent case for monitoring the FIS frequency, or the ATC frequency of nearby airspace (and squawking the appropriate "monitoring" squawk if appropriate).

So why would you want the distraction of listening in continuously on 121.5? Particularly if it means messing about with lots of cabling, converters, battery chargers/power cables and whatnot.

Don't get me wrong. I think there are several good reasons to have the capability to listen to multiple frequencies at once:
- ATIS
- When in a club flyout/formation flight/photo shoot/whatever, to chat with the other aircraft in your party
- When "over the high seas" to monitor 121.5 because there might not be a ground station able to monitor that frequency with adequate coverage.

But in an aircraft that's only equipped with one COM box I really wouldn't bother listening to 121.5.

[FlyingStone]

What BackPacker said.

If I have one COM available, the last thing I worry is listening to 121.5 - it's nice to assist somebody in urgency/distress, but safety of your own aircraft should come first, so it's better to listen out to ATC for instructions/advice/traffiic information concering your aircraft. As for your handheld radio goes, spare it in case you have communication failure - it would be pretty embarrasing having to comply with comm-failure procedures when you have a serviceable handheld radio on board and you've instead used it to monitor 121.5, where the only messages was some air-to-air chit chat.

Beside the fact that BackPacker written about FIS having much greater coverage on 121.5 and direction finding capabilities, you have to be aware that VHF communication is based on line-of-sight principle. So basically, if you don't have the aircraft in distress in line of sight, listening on 121.5 doesn't help a thing. For example, if you're flying through tight valley (below sorrounding peaks) - the only traffic on 121.5 you'll hear is from previous turn to the next turn - not very usefuly, isn't it?

I think it's better to leave listening 121.5 to transport aircraft, which have 3 VHF stations and usually one of them is tuned to 121.5 - being high in the sky they have a lot greater coverage, so they will most probably (if transmitter is working quite OK) hear any traffic on 121.5 in excess of 200NM. Of course, if you have two VHF COM stations and you don't need the second one for ATIS/weather/listening to overflying small airfields - do set it to 121.5, but in your case I believe it's just too much workload with barely noticable effect on overall flight safety, if any at all.

[Red Top Comanche]

Give the guy a break.

I use multi com boxes, not for 121.5 but when I need to monitor or talk to more than one station. There are lots of times its a benifit, such as working with London Info and getting near Headcorn, I like to listen in, to see if they are throwing sky lemming out of planes or crossing Lutons zone and need to call Panshanger before I am in their zone but also need to listen to Luton as I am still in their zone, even after sign off..

As long as you can cope with two boxes, it can only be a benifit.

Good luck :)

[Rod1]

Just out of interest, what do you fly and what is the radio fit? On most club aircraft you will have two radios and a both option on the audio panel. This facility will allow you to listen two frequencies at once. Apologies if I just insulted your inelegance!

Rod1