Jan Olieslagers
14th Nov 2011, 00:07
My secondhand plane had a transponder installed, and how impressive I found that! It is labelled KT78A, I take that to indicate (Bendix-)King.
Now that the time has come to actually fly, I am looking into this transponder, and have some questions. And of course there is no manual, though there was one for the altitude encoder.
-) no amount of websearching found me a manual, I only came up with a 2-page pdf describing installation and cabling. But perhaps there is not much to say, beyond that?
-) apparently, there are 3 similar models: 76A, 76C, 78A - what are the differences?
-) when I switch the transponder on, in its normal "alt" mode, the orange indicator flickers busily, even on the ground. I suppose every flicker indicates an interrogation, but are these really so frequent? Even on the ground, outside most radar station's range?
Now that the time has come to actually fly, I am looking into this transponder, and have some questions. And of course there is no manual, though there was one for the altitude encoder.
-) no amount of websearching found me a manual, I only came up with a 2-page pdf describing installation and cabling. But perhaps there is not much to say, beyond that?
-) apparently, there are 3 similar models: 76A, 76C, 78A - what are the differences?
-) when I switch the transponder on, in its normal "alt" mode, the orange indicator flickers busily, even on the ground. I suppose every flicker indicates an interrogation, but are these really so frequent? Even on the ground, outside most radar station's range?