Is there a slide-in-replacement available for the KX125 COM/NAV – with 8,33 KHz spacing?
No
One of the big mysteries of aviation…. why no slide in replacement for the KX155 and the KX125…. would sell like warm bread but nobody bothers?
Because the rest of the world doesn’t need 2280 channels!!
Agreed, but these guys have been talking about it for years and still have a ‘pre-certified’ (whatever that’s supposed to mean) version on their website.
Yes – listed in “Threads possibly related to this one” below 
There have been so many “obvious” opportunities in avionics, which nobody addressed.
Peter wrote:
There have been so many “obvious” opportunities in avionics, which nobody addressed.
@Peter: For an electronics guy this one is a real opportunity. These King Nav/Com units are installed in thousands upon thousands of airplanes and are falling apart. There are only a handful of shops left who can service them and these charge top $$$$. A slide-in replacement would prob90 sell like hot cakes.
It would take about 6 months to do it (mostly digitally nowadays) but you have to get it certified (it is an “intentional emitter”) and that takes time.
And you know that the market will be shrinking all the time. It’s like a KLN94 slide-in replacement which does LPV, or a KI256 replacement (which finally does exist, in the form of the buggy GI275).
Certification is much easier if you are an existing player, but since all the existing players are making $$$ selling “glass” nobody wants to do anything which reduces “glass” sales 
172driver wrote:
These King Nav/Com units are installed in thousands upon thousands of airplanes and are falling apart. There are only a handful of shops left who can service them and these charge top $$$$. A slide-in replacement would prob90 sell like hot cakes.
What did the Avidyne 440/550 units sell on really? LOTS of people bought them because they were a 430/530 slide in replacement. No installation effort, nothing, at least that was the party line, even though many needed a new antenna. Trig TT31 sold many to European owners of the KT76 transponder, same reason. Slide out, Slide in, works.
The KY155 is probably the most sold and installed NAVCOM in the world and they are getting difficult to repair. So even if 8.33 is not needed in some parts of the world, a slide in replacement with modern electronics and 8.33 would certainly sell thousands of units in Europe alone plus many many more even if 8.33 is not needed but a new and up to date NAV/COM competitively priced would replace existing KY155 installations. The same goes, to a lesser degree, for the KX125. Possibly a slide in replacement for the venable KX175B might sell a buck or two as there are stunningly many of those and their older digital slide in replacements left installed all over the place.
Theoretically you could develop a NAV COM and stick the identical electronics in 3 different boxes with 3 different plugs at the back. Call them XX123-155 xx123-125 and xx123-175b for the dislectic. 3 products, one certificate, one development. Why this should not work and sell in really high volume is totally beyond me.
Peter wrote:
Certification is much easier if you are an existing player, but since all the existing players are making $$$ selling “glass” nobody wants to do anything which reduces “glass” sales
The market speaks a different language. Glass is in very high demand, particularly the smaller units like the G5 and similar.
Certification, I’d say Trig is a existing player yet they never managed to get their Nav/com certified. I really wonder why. For a newcomer however I agree, the initial hurdle to get anything certified is too high for almost all manufacturers. That the certification hurdles are the reason we are in many cases still flying with 1950’ties equipment is a long known fact… but someone like Garmin, Avidyne or Trig should well be able to produce the said boxes without too much rocket science. But as the example of the Trig Navcom shows, apparently even for an established manufacturer it does not always work that way.
I wonder if politics is at play in the case of Trig’s Nav/Com? Which has been indefinitely delayed.
