CAA Exemption for 25 Khz radios. . .

[Phil Perry]

Oh Dear,. . .the CAA have held up my 'Collection' of old, useless 25Khz rigs for export to friends in Australia, with this new exemption. This means that none of the 25Khz rigs will have to be junked by law until 31st Dec 2018. This is an extension from the original date, of 1st Jan, due to massive complaints from leisure flyers. . .

 

SO, for the benefit of those four folks who have asked for one of these junk rigs for a naughty spare,. . .You may have to wait a little longer !

 

 

Sorry about that. . .but I won't forget. I'm going for the YAESU model shown below,. . as it's the lowest cost, and I don't need VOR nav. Icom stuff has always been well expensive. . .it's NICE to see that three YAESU rigs are now type approved for 8.33 use in the UK. . . (I REALLY DO WISH THAT THE CHINESE WOULD BRING OUT A MODEL. . .they seem to be able to make and sell useful VHF /UHF hand helds for under £20. . . .if they don't get into this market, they are missing an opportunity IMO. BEX. . .TELL 'EM BEX. . . . .They'll listen to you cuz you spik Chinese . . . .

 

 

 

[Phil Perry]

This message from my Local international airport. ( Please Note Yampy, Spacesailor and Sir Jerry Attrick. . .)

 

Please be advised that Birmingham ATC frequencies will be changing to channels as of 1st May 2018.

 

Please see below for the relevant channels:

 

 

 

Any acft requiring a service from them will need 8.33 Khz compliant radios on May 1st. This will not affect GA / Light Sport acft, apart from Rich owners as the Airport Authority charge rather a lot of money for landing and handling. They do allow amateur flown aircraft use of the site without any whingeing at all however.. But when the Fifty Quid cup of coffee turns into a 350 Quid stopover,. . ( Not including refreshments ) it concentrates the mind towards other alternatives ( Well, it Does for Me )

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Since a radio display on the new system will not show the ACTUAL FREQUENCY you have selected, here is a small sample chart . . .

 

 

Confused ? . . .some of my radio students can't get their head around this.. . My answer is, Don't worry what the 'magic box' is doing inside to get you there,. . if you are given a channel slot to use for a particular airfield or service, Ignore the Frequency and Techno - Arithmetic, That is Irrelevant.

 

Simply repeat / confirm the number given by ATC, as you always have done on the old system. . . select it on your display and USE THE DARN THING !

 

 

[yampy]

Thanks for putting in the picture . I suppose the next time I fly me Thruster into Brum I’ll be needing one of those new fangled radio things then .

 

Dave

 

 

[spacesailor]

Yampy.

 

If you fly into Birmingham,

 

Can I get a ride over to Phil Perry's place.

 

I'll try to get there by hook or crook,  July.

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Dave :,. . .Yes you will, they changed over on May1st.  You'll also need about £160.00 for the landing fee, plus around £50.00 for the Ground Handling agent.  ALL PLUS 20% VAT . . .

 

Spacey:  If you have any probs with transportation to Otherton International in July, give me a call and I'll see what I can do. . .it's only 22 NM from EGBB to Otherton International, . . .Trains to Penkridge ( STAFFORD LINE ) from New Street Stn Brum. . .Arfield only 1.5 NM from Rail Station.  Some trains don't stop at Penkridge though, but if you ask nicely, the driver MIGHT slow down a bit on the bend so that you can jump off. . .

 

We have an Evektor Eurostar Fly -In July 20 - 21 - 22,  if the weather is reasonable, that will be a big one.  

 

 

[spacesailor]

Phil

 

It all went sour after a head-on crash in Dublin with a stolen car.

 

A little whiplash. lots of aches & pains. Spectacular  crash that made it onto Utube !.

 

Alls well Now sitting here on this 36c hot day.

 

Will keep my order in for a better than the old Transceiver I have. makes funny noises now so must be on it;s last legs. 

 

spacesailor

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Sorry to hear about that mate. . .Ouch.  Glad you're OK though.

 

The SECOND extension period expires on Jan 3rd 2019 ( ! ) so any radios which have not been 'Traded Back' to the CAA or to dealers will be useless here thereafter.  So I'll be nagging folks to let me have them for 'Spares' ( ! )

 

I've still got to get an 8.33 Handyrig myself, but Funds are still extremely depressed at the moment, after Wifey and I paid for the Family Royal Wedding for Eldest Daughter on November 4th. . .( Ouch )

 

In the meantime I'll be using the Club Rig.  Our airfield frequency changed from 129.825 to 129.830 last month, ( in case you're flying nearby ). . . but the rotten buggers have kept all the 'Leisure' flyers together on this ONE channel nationwide, even though there are now three times the channels available.. . they obviously discarded the idea of breaking the country up into sectors of, say four, or six regions, to prevent the bloody cachophany of noise that we have to put up with in good flying weather with far too many stations on the same bloody channel., spread over such a Small Country .( Thanks CAA /OFCOM - Really Intelligent decision )  We have already had to reduce the output power on our base station radio to TWO WATTS . . . as another airfield 20 NM away were whingeing. . . MAINLY because of Pi$$poor operating procedures, ie, pilots failing to IDENTIFY the station they are talking to BY NAME . . .I rather like the Aussie procedure of using the name of the station called, at the beginning and end of a transmission when using a Unicom channel  Very sensible with no room for confusion. 

 

Whinge Over.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I had my first flight with a 8.33 about 2 months ago... Still not sure why we needed the change. The US has far more airports than Europe and intelligently designed frequency allocations means they have little contention or overlap. I guess the child of an EASA official started a new job as a salesperson for Trig, Garmin or something similar. Wouldn't surprise me. 

 

BTW Phil, you may have some competition on your hands (not.. most of the aircraft rigs have gone - to the US I hear)...

 

EASA = Europeans Against Safe Aviation

 

 

[Phil Perry]

To be fair Jerry, I didn't intend any competition with anyone.  A couple of years back, when this came up. . . I was given to understand that any radio set from the UK would NOT be legally useable in Australia due to different Type approval guidelines.  That's understandable, all Governments want to protect their rules.   I said that if I could find some surplus rigs, that I could mail them to friends on RF for the cost of the postage, should they wish to use them as spares, since the models are ostensibly identical, across the ICOM range anyhow.   It started when I offered the IC-A20 which I've had for years, to SkippyDiesel to use as spares for his knackered one.   I later received PMs from other interested parties.  I shall be sending my A-20 to Skippy some time shortly, after getting it weighed for postage and asking if he thinks the cost is worth it.   I sent a small aircraft fuel system component to another RF member not long ago, but the postage cost more than Half the contents ! 

 

Most of the Otherton lot and guys from nearby fields have traded in their 'fixed' units for the 25% CAA rebate, but there may be a few handies around still.    I missed out on a 'Promised' one this morning when the chap told me that he'd swapped it for a Headset !  ( Twot  )  I'll keep an ear to the ground over the new flying season though. . .never know . . .

 

My I wish you all a Happy New Year and GREAT flying. . . .

 

Phil.

 

 

[scsirob]

Our airfield frequency changed from 129.825 to 129.830 last month, ( in case you're flying nearby ). . .

Nope. The frequency didn't change. Only the identifier did. In 8.33 world they don't speak of frequencies, they speak of channels. And Channel 129.830 happens to transmit and receive on 129.825MHz.

 

The only thing that changed is the bandwidth. If you keep down your voice, your 25kHz radio will transmit nicely within the 8.33kHz wide channel. And you'll be able to hear those 8.33kHz stations just fine, but you may have to turn up the volume a it.

 

The only problem is that your 25kHz radio may splatter over the adjacent 8.33 channels.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

As I have mentioned before.  If the chart says use  XXX.XXX, just DO IT.  Don't worry what the magic box is doing and forget using the word Frequency.  ( Most pilots in the UK don't anyway )

 

The risk of cross channel 'interference problems due to the physical bandwidth reduction inherent with using 8.33 slots using AM,  has obviously been  a factor behind the Europe Wide  statutes that all 'Old' radios must cease to be used entirely after January 3rd 2019 anywhere in European airspace.  

 

Before I gave away my old Icom A20 to a handsome Gent on this forum; I could still hear clearly transmissions from most of the local airfields and pilots who had changed earlier to 8.33 equipment. . . .But thanks for the comment, as others may not have known that.. 

 

Phil.