Vertex VXA-150 hand held

[Old Koreelah]

Perhaps someone can assist me to get more out of my radio. I can't get it to do many of the amazing things it is claimed to be capable of. The manual is a little skimpy in the places that matter, and the net does not seem to have any trouble-shooting advice.

 

The only mode in which the keypad can be used to change channels is the VFO mode. I can key in the frequency, which appears on the display, but as soon as I try to transmit it beeps an error message and reverts to the previous channel. That means changing channels can only be done via the rotary switch; it's time consuming and quite a distraction.

 

Regards,

 

Lyle

 

 

[jetjr]

I have the VXA 300 and if you type in full freq including trailing zero it works OK?

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Jetr is right you have not completed the full frequency input. The radio is only seeing the first digits few you need to input the full frequency the decimal point should then come up and when you tx it will hold in the VFO otherwise it reverts back to the last correct used frequency

 

Mark

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Thanks for the replies. You have passed my test. Now the more complex questions can begin...

 

I want to listen to Area as well as CTAF. Presumably written by a radio programming wizz, the instructions to set up Dual Watch are incomplete. They are unclear on how to input the two channels to be "watched". I can't test if it's working unless there is known traffic on both channels, so it's an expression of faith that I have it doing what I want. Any ideas?

 

Regards,

 

Lyle

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

Hi Lyle

 

Its not too difficult. I just downloaded the handbook and read it...page 26 and 27 are the 2 pages that determines the priority channel is on page 26 at the bottom right paragraph there is a star/asterisk you have 2 modes of frequency operation. one is memory mode where you input your channels to be always stored the other is vfo mode which is sort of like a manual tuning mode. The radio in free tune (vfo) mode is when you enter the frequency on the keyboard like your original question but you will also have to store channels in its memory area. The priority is either or when you set DW on and its in the vfo mode then the last used memory channel is the priority channel then dual watch basically scans between vfo mode and a memory channel the last one you were using. If the radio is in memory mode it must have the frequency inputted into the memory position 1 the number 1 out of 50 total memories so for this last one if you have the local ctaf in memory one and the area freq in say memory 15 then it will dual watch between 1 and 15 but memory and channel 1 will be the priority channel. Its not confusing to me but I do understand that others who haven't dealt with radios will find it confusing as you need to understand the differences between VFO and memory

 

Handheld ops in aircraft are always a pain really thats why I have a Xcom in my aircraft

 

Mark

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

Thanks for your efforts, Mark.