My GPS antennae were never rewired – at least not recently. None of them had been relocated. One day, I will get it all re-done with RG58.
Typo? I hope you mean RG-400 which is the better cable for GPS.
Sorry, yes, RG400.
Actually Socata sometimes use really high grade cables. The KN63 DME cable is about 10mm diameter; green. At least I hope that isn’t the KR87 ADF cable 
The altimeter problem was described here.
The KEA130A also developed a pointer wobble, which got worse. This was assessed (I did a video) as needing an overhaul. I can’t find the video right now, unfortunately. So I got it sorted. I normally use Castleberry Instruments in Texas for mechanical instruments; they do a great job.
Aren’t we a bunch of sad old gits doing this over Xmas
I have the iCom A24E, but pre 8.33 spacing (only 25 kHz). The newer 8.33 one seems to have the same model number – funny!!!
I fly club or private (not mine) PA28 aircraft so can’t fit and external aerial.
In an emergency to improve range what could I do for a better aerial than the rubber-duck?
1) something suckered to the inside of the screen?
2) trail or stick something out of the PA28 ‘storm window’?
Only had to use it once in flight (on the rubber-duck) and performance was grim – not what you want when faced with an emergency.
Aren’t we a bunch of sad old gits doing this over Xmas
That’s what you said, Peter – I went flying. More correctly: I spent most of today at the airfield and added a whopping 45 minutes to my logs then another 30 minutes – an average microlighter’s day of flying…
what could I do for a better aerial than the rubber-duck?
I am afraid you have little options. In a polyester or perhaps even in a wood and tissue plane you could experiment with a pair of copper strips, sticked to the fuselage inside on velcro or such – but in an aluminium frame only something on the outside will be really better. OTOH in an emergency you don’t need enormous range, unless you are crossing an ocean – normally you want to talk to your nearest aerodrome or to some information service.
Use the best (largest) antenna design for VHF COM on your handheld. All these rubber ducks are shortend antenna’s, and degrade the quality. You could talk to the aircraft owner if you can have a service loop at described in this topic, which uses the VHF COM antenna outside normally for the VHF COM, and for your handheld only in emergency.
Any antenna should be outside a shielded box for best performance. Every antenna uses a reference or counterpoise for good operation, normally this is the fuselage in a metal aircraft, or the copper tape for example on composite aircraft. Antenna which don’t seem to have a reference must have another form of reference. An example is the glide slope antenna on some Cessna’s betwee the sunvisors. This is a dipole construction.
A rubberduck on a handheld has no visible counterpoise system, It has some reference internally, but this is to small to be realy effective. That reference requires to be capacitively coupled to your hand holding the radio. You yourself become part of the antenna. If mounted in to a plastic mount for example, the handheld with rubberduck will work, but have a degraded performance. This is not an issue if you use an external antenna, at which the antenna itself has a counterpoise.
There is an interesting footnote to this “8.33 handheld” thread:
Some 8.33-capable radios can set both 120.000 and 120.005 (and as discussed elsewhere the latter is the same as the former except that the receiver sensitivity is tightened) but others cannot set 120.000 when 8.33 mode is enabled.
I am pretty damn sure the KX165A can set both but I am told an Icom A220 can set only the latter.
Peter wrote:
I am pretty damn sure the KX165A can set both but I am told an Icom A220 can set only the latter.
There will still be 25 kHz channels around, both for technical reasons (where you really do need the lower receiver sensitivity) and because of exemptions. Not to mention 121.5 MHz. So using a radio that is unable to tune 25 kHz channels might be a bad idea.
If my understanding is right, the issue was that the 25k frequency could not be tuned unless the radio was reconfigured for 25k. That would be a strange way to do it…
Well, since every third 8,33 frequency is also a 25 kHz frequency it would be strange if it was not possible to tune it.
My understanding, which could be wrong, is that the 25k frequencies that are aligned on 25k will (or might) become 8.33 frequencies, and then will be republished as thus, so e.g. 125.000 will be republished as 125.005. No hardware change at the station will be involved.
Of course a 25k radio set to 125.000 will still work fine on such a 125.005 channel, unless it is well off-spec. That would however be illegal
Why do this? In the UK, there is tax on frequencies and the 25k ones are taxed more!!!
The 25k frequencies which will not become 8.33 will be
