MicroAir Radio Transceivers - JUNK and Zero Support

[Roscoe]

The only problem I have had with my M760 is me not following the installation instructions to the letter and believing other people whose opinion I now know to be rubbish. I threw out the original harness I made, and made a new one with proper shielded cable, earthed at the radio end only, installed a power filter and ferrite chokes where specified as per the manual. Now everything works well. I still get a bit of noise when hearing broadcasts from long distance in CTAF but then these are 40 or 50 or even more miles away so it doesn't matter. This can be improved with replacing the mag switch cables with shielded cable & earthing these at the engine so I will probably do this one day when I am looking for another project.

My Microair also has electrical type interference when receiving distant stations however on a recent trip i did a transmit check with Melbourne Centre and they received me 5X5.I find that the display is difficult to read in sunlight, and very difficult to change frequency in any sort of turbulence!

 

I also had problems trying to speak with a tech at Microair, they were not interested in discussing issues a couple of years ago.

 

I will replace mine with a Trig to match my Transponder when the time comes.

 

 

[cscotthendry]

Mike what is the theory behind grounding only one end of a shielded cable?

Grounding at both ends can cause ground loops (no not the flying kind) that also cause noise and interference.

[jabpilot]

14 years ago I had noise problems as described in my J200 bird from my M760. I flew to Bundy where "Graeme", the techo, spent a couple of hours on my problem. Problem was my wiring but after placing magnets in key areas, problems vanished. Still working perfectly to this day. No charge for labor but small charge for the magnets. Great service so check to see if this techo is still there...

 

 

[Kenlsa]

In 11 years of operation in have had to return my 760 to Microair 3 times at $300 a pop. First problem was at 32 hours just joined the circuit at Narromine for the national meet and the radio went on the fritz..... Worked great after landing (of course). Radio returned of rev Q update and about 100 hours later....fritzed again. Returned and 'fixed' for about another 100 hrs, then smoked again. Returned and fixed....but after 5 hours a total failure. $1000 spent so far. The last few years I have had trouble talking to a human at the factory.

 

Said that my radio would not be "supported" any more and I could have a new one at cost ($1200). I took up that option as I did not want to re do the new harness with another make.

 

5 months, yes 5 months, (said they had a contract in Sydney to fill first but did not elaborate) later my radio arrived. I had borrowed one from our level 4 for that period and it worked great, not a fault. Put in my new one and had trouble from day one.

 

Bottom line is I now have 12 suppressors fitted, a capacitor (flux?) and a filter that our level 4 recommend in another post. Worked ok (90%) but when I flew over high tension wires from the power station I would get interference at anything less than 1500 AGL. Squelch is almost turned to maximum to keep most clutter out. Just recently replaced the headsets to a higher spec........now 99% fixed, yippee !!'

 

Ken

 

 

[Birdseye]

14 years ago I had noise problems as described in my J200 bird from my M760. I flew to Bundy where "Graeme", the techo, spent a couple of hours on my problem. Problem was my wiring but after placing magnets in key areas, problems vanished. Still working perfectly to this day. No charge for labor but small charge for the magnets. Great service so check to see if this techo is still there...

Presumably your 'magnets' were actually ferrite torroids.

 

 

[phantom1959]

What gets up my nose is that an aircraft transceiver is just a simple AM transceiver, like the old AM CB radios, just using VHF instead of HF. Now, if we have to pay $1000 for a simple piece of kit then I would assume that's because they are built to a far better standard than a CB radio. So, how would MicroAir be allowed to produce rubbish? There is nothing that justifies the ridiculous price for any equipment we put in planes. I know folks who still have working AM CB radios from the 70s.

I have a couple of mates that have these radios set up in nice little boxes that operate on an internal battery and / or mains power.

The guys (Frank & Nigel - Airshow Operators Par Excellance') have had no end of trouble since day one.

 

I think I can count the number of times that these things worked properly on an extremely sloppy 1 handed butcher named Stumpy!

 

The feedback issues are horrendous; we have had radio gurus who attend air shows for work and play just give up, shrug their shoulders and then have to be restrained from jumping off the display control position scaffolding

 

Honestly, I think we would be better of communicating with the aircraft via sign language!

 

The guys have spent lots of $$$ trying to get the sets right but we all realise they are just boat anchors masquerading as radios for the short term.

 

 

[Mike Gearon]

On 21/5/2018 at 6:59 PM, phantom1959 said:

I have a couple of mates that have these radios set up in nice little boxes that operate on an internal battery and / or mains power.

The guys (Frank & Nigel - Airshow Operators Par Excellance') have had no end of trouble since day one.

 

I think I can count the number of times that these things worked properly on an extremely sloppy 1 handed butcher named Stumpy!

 

The feedback issues are horrendous; we have had radio gurus who attend air shows for work and play just give up, shrug their shoulders and then have to be restrained from jumping off the display control position scaffolding

 

Honestly, I think we would be better of communicating with the aircraft via sign language!

 

The guys have spent lots of $$$ trying to get the sets right but we all realise they are just boat anchors masquerading as radios for the short term.

 

 

I’m currently in USA googling Microair to try to understand the intermittent communication problems I’m having. Last was leaving a towered airport and really caused me great stress. Nearly wandered into B airspace. 
 

So, I’m googling randomly and return back to Australia to rec flier with a definitive solution…… I’ll Throw out the microair radio! 

[FlyBoy1960]

they are going to be making them again but it will be a different design to the original and they are not supporting any of the originals according to a presentation I went to a couple of weeks ago. Apparently there are new owners now in Sydney

[FlyBoy1960]

microair.aero

[Kyle Communications]

Common issue with the Microair..they wander off frequency internally..the VCO inside is crap....the radio has been a very bad one..just badly designed

I refused to look at them after being bitten so many times...repair retune them...3 to 6 months later same issues

 

 

[Mike Gearon]

My current front runner is the Icom. After experiencing dual monitoring I now understand how incredibly valuable this is. 
 

[RFguy]

Not all the microair VCO setups are bad, later versions they changed the VCO/PLL combo.

 

There is a repeating problem I see which is the lack of voltage spike protection, shooting through regulators, igniting Tantalum capacitors , blowing up regulators...

Older units have a internal PCB fuse , newer ones have NO internal fuse. (!) 

I put a 15V holdoff or 18V TVS (transient voltage protection diode) in there. 

Jabiru harnesses/V0ltage  regulators I dunno what  seem to produce spikes from time to time and I am getting newly repaired units people to put a fuse in the harness so that the whole radio doesnt have to be taken apart to change the mini fuse.

(this is after the voltage spike protection component is installed internally). 

[jetboy]

OK if they are starting over and not supporting the earlier product....does anybody have the service info available?

I keep notes on all the units I've repaired but wont touch anymore

[Kyle Communications]

I have some Microair circuits I can send...send me your email

[Roscoe]

On 08/06/2022 at 2:40 PM, Kyle Communications said:

Common issue with the Microair..they wander off frequency internally..the VCO inside is crap....the radio has been a very bad one..just badly designed

I refused to look at them after being bitten so many times...repair retune them...3 to 6 months later same issues

 

 

And thats exactly why i chucked out my Microair 2 years ago and replaced it with a Trig VHF com.

[Jim McDowall]

On the subject of junk radios does anyone know who can fix X-Air radios?

[Kyle Communications]

Whats a Xair radio?

 

Xcom can still be fixed..some parts are not available but most are

 

[Jim McDowall]

I meant Xcom - looked wrong when I typed it in but the brain was not plugged in!

Can you fix the radio? (not the brain - determined to be u/s long ago)

[Kyle Communications]

They are actually not a bad radio...the tech that used to work for Xcom is still doing repairs..but some parts are not available so depends on the fault. I can give you his number he is here in Brisbane. Send me a PM 

 

[Kyle Communications]

What is wrong with the radio?..if its a early one the modulation transistor goes but they did a mod later that fixed it

 

[Mike Gearon]

I have Sinus motor glider arriving at Moorabin next week from USA. Hopefully it’ll be pretty straight forward to get its C of A and fly it out. 
 

Microair replacement is a priority. Do we know anything about this radio….https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/v6commradio.php

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I didnt think MGL made the V6 anymore its old. there was a V10 and now the V16. which I have

 

[Mike Gearon]

12 hours ago, Kyle Communications said:

I didnt think MGL made the V6 anymore its old. there was a V10 and now the V16. which I have

 

I owe you Mark! That’s the perfect answer. 
 

First.. confirmation this isn’t another dodgy product like the microair. 
 

Second.. It’s an elegant solution. Instead of trying to pack everything into a tiny space (obviously Microair’s mistake) it’s 2 separate units.

 

It’d be nice to have the touch screen of the larger head. I’m now looking at how to go about getting the outdated (and broken) Old Garmin GPS amd Behringer display removed and replace all this with MGL. 

[kgwilson]

The V6 had a poor reputation, worse than the M760 in the US. A head on the panel and separate control unit seems to be the best option. This is the same as the Trig. My 10 year old M760 still works well though. It did have a fault with noise in cold weather and then it stopped transmitting. RFguy couldn't find the fault as it was working when he received it but installed a diode & removed some balls of solder that were rolling around inside & it has been perfect ever since.

[Blueadventures]

18 hours ago, Mike Gearon said:

I have Sinus motor glider arriving at Moorabin next week from USA. Hopefully it’ll be pretty straight forward to get its C of A and fly it out. 
 

Microair replacement is a priority. Do we know anything about this radio….https://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/v6commradio.php

 

 

Maybe ask RFguy if he can have a look at the microair, should be fixable and then when his new radio is available buy one (scans 3 air channels and a uhf) as they sound very practical.