UK guidance on regulations from the CAA:
Following my initial post on this thread I found this helpful CAA webpage, which others here may already know about (new to me though):
which includes a link to their 8.33 page which says this:
Change in the law
On 1 January 2018 the law changes and all aircraft operating in airspace that requires the carriage of a radio must have 8.33 kHz-compatible equipment fitted and operational. After this date all 25kHz radios can no longer be used, unless specifically exempted for a particular channel such as the emergency frequency 121.5MHz. This means that all General Aviation (GA) aircraft must comply with this change to UK law to maintain safe communications with ground stations.
The UK leaving the EU will not affect the implementation of this new legislation.
It says very clearly that after 1st January 2018 the CAA believes (and mandates) that 25kHz radios cannot be used, so there is no point in me keeping my old 25kHz second radio in my plane. (I have read elsewhere that they won’t work well when 8.33 frequencies are in wide use – even on the co-incident 25kHz frequencies.) I’ll be putting in a second 8.33 radio this spring. (if the avionics installers are not snowed under by then.)
Thanks again for everyone’s help. Much appreciated.
The only way that I can see of keeping an old radio installed after 01Jan 2018 is to disable all frequencies except 121.5, just how you could do this will no doubt be subject to much interest from the authorities.
Our box 2 is an old King unit with a mechanical knob. Guess we could pull the knob off? Or glue it in place ;)
One can always placard the old radio INOP.
My second radio is a handheld iCom – which I’ll still hang on to for emergency VHF, ATIS, Wx and UK listening watch squawk frequencies – now if these go to 8.33 we know that someone is not thinking through the safety impact.
The vintage Super Cub has a very nice sub panel which now holds 8.33 and Mode S using less space than the old COM 195.
All this radios have to be 8.33 is a tad annoying.
I can’t afford to replace the Nav/Com with a 8.33 Nav/Com. So I was simply looking at putting in a trig/PAR200 and making the Nav/Com box two. That way I don’t loose the VOR/Localiser. Would I be correct in thinking that this is no longer possible?
I’ve already updated my microlight with a second hand Yaesu FTA-550 for 95 quid fitted.
The question is what the authorities will do if thousands of owners suddenly pretend their second radio were INOP. Probably, some CAAs have already thought of this scenario and that’s why they spread that 25 Khz radios are illegal per se. Assisted by many avionics shops, of course.
On a practical level, the question will be if and if yes how quickly airports will start switching their ATISes to 8.33 frequencies. If they don’t, then most of us will be fine with the #2 radio a 25 Khz, since ATIS is what most of us use it for (there are a few pilots who switch comstantly between #1 and #2 radio when being handed over to the next controller and to be able to continue doing so, these will need 2 8.33 radios straight away). In case of a failure of Comm1, one will still be able to contact ATC on 121.5 using the second radio.
boscomantico wrote:
On a practical level, the question will be if and if yes how quickly airports will start switching their ATISes to 8.33 frequencies.
Article 6 of 1079/2012:
10. Member States shall ensure that, by 31 December 2018 at the latest, all frequency assignments are converted to 8,33 kHz channel spacing with the exception of:
(a) frequency assignments that stay in 25 kHz as a result of a safety requirement;
(b) 25 kHz frequency assignments used to accommodate State aircraft.
Assignments utilizing CLIMAX are outside the scope of that regulation, just as 121.5 and a few other frequencies.
For fairly obvious reasons, the UK might not implement that, given the Dec 2018 date….
After all, what is the point of doing this unless there is an actual frequency shortage, and we all know that any frequency shortage in Europe is 100% the result of the countries not co-operating on frequency allocation! The whole 8.33 business is completely nuts…
I don’t think that just sticking an inop Plackard on the box is going to wash with the authority’s.
I am going to guess that the very minimum would be the disconnection of the MIC key line ( PTT ) or the removal and locking of the selector knobs on the front of the box with 121.5 selected.
Both of these actions would in theory require minor Mod action and I can’t help thinking that the cost of keeping the NAV side of an ancient radio that is unsupported in Europe would be better spent on upgrading to a state of the art NAV/COM that will be reliable into the forseable future and will be subject to a 20% cash refund from the CAA.
It should also be remembered that a NAV/COM can be replaced with another NAV/COM under CS-STAN further reducing installation costs.
