New aircraft Radios for USFS, other agencies
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I never knew either! Talk about never knowing who you are sharing a forum with. First Cowtheif and now this!
It does 1 or 10w. I have a Mirage B1016 10w in 160w out but its fairly narrow band around 2m. I have similar amps for UHF and 50 to 100w amps for 10m through 6. But when I get my water dropping helicopter this radio will have plenty of range barefoot.
I did receive about 8hr of helicopter flight instruction maybe 30yrs ago, does that count?
What is the old expression of what you have to do to fly a helicopter? You are riding a unicycle while balancing a beach ball on your nose while on the deck of a small ship in the middle of a hurricane. So no matter what, you are always busy. I have enough time as a passenger in helicopters while watching the pilots do what they do. I am also a certified member of the auto rotation club. The pilot found a stringer meadow in an area full of glacier erratics to set the skid the ship down with my thoughts of this being my last flight. When we finally came to rest we all were praising this Vietnam vet pilot he gave the standard reply "it was easy, no one was shooting at us!"
The other quote is that "planes don't fly, they suck. Helicopters don't fly they beat the air into submission."
I got to be in control of a Robinson R22 for about 20mi during my lesson and it was a bit scary. The aircraft was pitched forward and sideways while I was trying to go straight and I don't think I've ever sweated so much. If your life depends on flying a helicopter out of somewhere and you don't know how to fly one, you will die. It would have been impossible for me to operate a radio during that brief lesson, either the radio would have worked for a few moments until we crashed or we stay in the air and no radio. Pick one but not both.
nd5y
Member
WTH is that, swapping cars? Helicopter autorotation is one word.
I stand corrected, my spell check accepted it as one word.
Sounds like quite the experience. I admire you for trying to fly a helicopter for that distance. You have your feet on the pedals, the collective in one hand and the other hand on the stick, or whatever it's called. They all have separate functions, but you have each extremity working for the same goal. The tough part of autorotation is knowing when to end the descent and going forward to slide on the ground. Do it too late and you auger in, do it too soon and you run out of forward motion and then auger in when you lose lift.
When something goes wrong that illustration using the unicycle adds a couple of new ingredients. a bowling ball in one hand and a golf ball in the other. You are always fighting to keep everything in balance. I always admired the pilots I flew with. In a career that started in 1973 and ended in the early 2000's. I would say, conservatively 80% were Vietnam vets. It was 100% in 70's and less starting in the mid 90's. After some maintenance one day in the mid 70's after hours the pilot wanted to make sure everything was working correctly and said on the radio, watch this. He did a loop d loop. He landed and said he had to do those in Vietnam to avoid small arms fire from the ground. It looked very impressive and I really didn't know it could be done with a helo.
Truth is, with some good coaching with a vet pilot, "If you can walk and chew gum at the same time, you can fly a helicopter".
Not to mis understand, a 2000 hour fixed wing pilot would be like the video above without some good coaching.
Te aerodynamics are totally different between the to types of aircraft.
Same here except it was a Bell 47 and more like 30 minutes. Wasnt scary, just didnt know what to expect. Typical for first hour, you over control and over correct. you let the chopper fly you.
Did have a nice radio stack. Rather new Norco.
Day of my first hour training was in a Schwizer 290 (like the video)- The thing wouldn't start so the only alterative was a 206 ranger.
Startup is easy, but if you don't know how, you will never get it started.
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You won't need linears in aircraft, and I question even a dual turbine chopper electrical system could handle the extra amprage.
Whaa? "Linears are needed everywhere, if some power is good, more is better and too much is just right. Right up to the point of stalling the engine(s) when you key up. I should stay on topic for a moment so the mods don't lock this up too quick. Technisonics has been making VHF analog/P25 aircraft radios for a long time that basically does the same as the new radio from AEM and they are accepted by USFS. Their current radio lineup can cover all bands 30-50 FM, 108-156 AM, 136-174 FM/P25, 225-400 AM, 380-520 FM/P25, 700/800 FM/P25. Its nice that AEM got there radio accepted by USFS but I don't see anything that special about it.
Now on to the off topic, my 8hr helicopter training was initially to provide a moving target for a classified radar project where my boss told me to rent a helicopter and fly in a specific pattern so the radar project could be demonstrated to the customer, which was above my security clearance at the time to know who it was. Besides the aircraft radio in the Robinson R22 I had a Systems Saber DES encrypted to a Spectra radio with my company and the customer and I had an ear mic setup under the aviation headset to hear and talk through the Saber to get instructions on where to fly.
It was a very busy day listening to the pilot/instructor giving me lessons as we flew the same course back and forth and also taking info from my company and the pilot/airport through the headset. We were right up next to the approach of one of the busiest airports in the country so there was a lot of distracting radio traffic. The pilot had me lightly hover over the pedals to get the feel of what is doing while flying with lots of instructions. After several hours we needed refueling at a different airport and once the helicopter was over one of the freeways at a safe altitude he handed over the control's to me one at a time until I had it and he had to do a few corrections to straighten things out. It was amazing and frightening at the same time since I had no prior classroom experience leading up to this.
kayn1n32008
ØÆSØ Say it, say 'ENCRYPTION'
I'm not sure about the US, but here in Canada, i believe it's no more than 10w on airborne LMR, and there is a maximum elevation AGL, that they can be used. There really is zero need for more than 10w whe in the air. Everything is line of sight.
Very true. My guess is that it's significantly cheaper than Technisonic.
Outside of urban interface, wildfire firefighting is on VHF. Period.
Why would a wildfire contract helicopter need a radio that has all the other bands if it is only using VHF. It's not being marketed to law enforcement, border patrol, or urban fire departments that use low band, UHF, 7/800MHz or the military.
That is NOT the market they are interested in.
This is true in the US, and in Canada. Even here in Alberta, Alberta Forrest Firefighters have their own, independent VHF radio system. Conventional VHF. our provincial trunk system that the majority of public safety is now using, is a mix of 700MHz and some limited VHF, in western and northern Alberta in the rocky mountains, where there is sites that are off grid.
It's a purpose built radio for wildfire helicopters.
Nice. I've spent some time in helicopters when I was surveying, nothing as small as a Robinson though and only single turbine. H125, 206LR and 407. Definitely like the H125 the best. Lots of power, good tail rotor authority(206RL kind of wiggles through the sky) and lots of room for the class of helicopter.
RFI-EMI-GUY
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There is a low band antenna and tuner for those radios that requires binary data to tune it.
RFI-EMI-GUY
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The default mode for planes is flying. The default mode for a chopper is to crash. Big difference.
Yes, the TFM-30 VHF lo radio talks directly to the Foxtronics tuner and the TFM-550 triband needs an ATC-550 interface box for the tuner.
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