Oh yes forgot about the dud radio in the beagle pup.
On my way back to Cardiff from Rochester last year, one the 17th of December, I reckon on of the Wright Brothers decided to play a trick on me.
Call Filton. A friendly controller gives me a sqwark and a flight information service and transit the overhead at 2,000' (if I remember correctly).
So far so good. I can hear him (a fellow PPRUNER!) talking to others on the radio. Then he calls me. I respond. He says carrier wave only. I try again. Carrier wave only. I try comm two. Carrier wave only. Its now night time but nice VMC conditions (thankfully).
He asks if I am familiar with blind transmissions. I click the button once. So we start talking like this for a few minutes. Well I respond with yes, no, etc etc...
Then I switch the intercom off and try calling him. We have success! On both comms as well.
Oh but I can't leave the intercom off as my grandfather and I need to talk to each other as well. So I resort to turning the intercom on and off as and when I need to make a transmission.
The problem persisted the rest of the flight (another twenty minutes or so).
The next day I go flying... absolutely fine on COM2 but not COM1. Still TX carrier wave only on COM1. But at least we could go flying.
We still have the problem on COM1 on and off (its a Narco unit). Its away at Cranfield being looked into at the moment. If they can't find anything wrong then the intercom is going to be looked at.
So fingers crossed friendly Filton controller, you shouldn't have any more blind transmissions from us guys in the pup group anymore (Hopefully!!!!).
Best wishes,
Charlie Zulu.
Edit: Obvious spelling (or rather grammer) mistakes.
Last edited by Charlie Zulu; 31st Aug 2004 at 22:08.