Clean the antenna?
I’ve got a Narco 890 DME in the Piper. I have no idea how old it is but it has never missed a beat. Used in conjunction with some equally old King KX-170b VOR/LOC it gives more than adequate minims.
The much maligned Narco AT mode A transponder is also working very well. That combined with Skydemon and a Skyecho gets me about quite nicely OCAS and in the odd bit of Class D.
I know some of this stuff is old but but it works.
Capitaine wrote:
I had a Narco 890 DME but the display was erratic and it finally stopped working early this year. The general consensus was no one in Europe could repair it and buying second hand units would be a waste of time, so I went to a second hand King.
I still have a Narco 890 DME and hope it continues to work for a while yet. I wouldn’t want to be without a DME despite reports of people removing them when doing new panels. Mine has been acting up a bit and I’m not sure where the problem lies. Did a VOR/DME approach and the DME distance didn’t appear until I was already on the ground. If it breaks I’ll be looking for a King too, but I’m amazed how few of them seem to be for sale and those that are seem to command a high price, especially the KN63.
This stuff comes up on US avionics Ebay
But on EASA-reg you have to deal with this which is believed to be worthless now. Of course there are ways around it 
Capitaine wrote:
The general consensus was no one in Europe could repair it and buying second hand units would be a waste of time, so I went to a second hand King.
If I am not mistaken Avionitec at ZRH can. At least as long as they have parts.
Not too long ago one of my colleagues had a failure on some similarily ancient DME which was part of his avionic package, possibly also a Narco DME but the remote one. He took it to his avionics guy who grumbled a bit, disappeared into his inner sanctum and returned some time later with a spare he had taken out years earlier when upgrading someone’s airplane. After a bench test it proved to work just fine so my colleague went home with a working exchange box while his was being stripped for workable parts. The whole exercise cost him a few hundred bucks I believe.
While I am at it, if someone of you has a Shadin Miniflow laying around which “worked when removed” please let me know.
Thanks for the recommendation on these books @Silvaire. I read the first three over Christmas, but will have to wait for a cheap copy on eBay for the fourth (currently $120). Funny how little has changed, and some of the lessons he learned I only discovered the hard way or by reading EuroGA.
I had a Narco 890 DME but the display was erratic and it finally stopped working early this year. The general consensus was no one in Europe could repair it and buying second hand units would be a waste of time, so I went to a second hand King.
I used a Narco 122 on an other airplane and found it at the time a very useful unit. It was a “one box” ILS complete with marker beacon receiver.
Later I also added a Narco DGO 10 HSI. Again it was a one box device and comparatively affordable. Unfortunately it was not slaved and did not have a heading bug.
At the time I thought Narco was a pretty good alternative to more expensive manufacturers such as King. Some people I know still use isolated components like the 122 or the Narco DME890
My 760 channel Narco 810+ is still working fine at 35 years since new and 13 years since I replaced the display. And I have another fully functional one on the shelf, waiting for that to change 
@Capitaine, Frank Kingston Smith did a lot of travelling in that 250 HP Comanche, it must’ve seemed like a Time Machine circa 1960.
That was from back when Narco made decent radios, I suspect. Towards the end Narco stood for “Not A Radio Company”.
We used to have a Narco COM 810. Things improved immeasurably when we chucked it out and put in the Garmin GTR225.
From I’d Rather Be Flying! Instrument and Multi-Engine Flying for the Week-End Pilot (1962), Frank Kingston Smith.
In his first book, learning to fly in 1955, he only had 4 crystals in his radio, therefore only 4 frequencies
Peter wrote:
which is more amusing: the box or the asking price
Guess it’s priced to go as antique
