Jan,
If you contact Skywagon City at: and ask Peter there, I expect that he'll have the parts you need, and can put them in the mail to you at a very modest cost. I'll be speaking to him, and mention that you might email him. I can help make the arrangement flow smoothly...
He has lots of removed from service radios there, and parts from the face of the radio are easily had.
We have a complete unit for sale if you need a replacement. Looking for £250
... and duly arrived Peter, I will look into it later today. Great stuff to have, anyway!
I need to learn to read first!
76a stuff on its way...
Just popped the KT76c installation manual to you by email
Many thanks Peter, of course it was you that I was hoping for. Still, there's quite some differences between the KT76 A and C models, I'm afraid.
The KT76A should have an option for a remote mounted ident button.
This might well be a winner. There certainly is such a mention in the docs (see above), unfortunately I cannot try it out without flying the aircraft, I reckon. Still this is my first option for now.
Maybe you have a button in the plane somewhere you're not sure what it does?
I'll not describe what all was found in the hidden corners, but no, up till now not a single pushbutton, more's the pity...
Thanks to all who helped thinking!
The KT76A should have an option for a remote mounted ident button. This would be far easier to install than fabricating a new button for the unit.
Maybe you have a button in the plane somewhere you're not sure what it does?
We're doing the annual on my aircraft today, at the moment I'm taking a break, so I looked at my KT76A. The push button is firmly spring loaded out, moves about 6-mm and clicks at the bottom of its travel. Make sure it does that with whatever knob you make and I think you'll be fine. The button does not pull off mine with any reasonable force so i wonder how it came adrift?
In the US (for now) we are not required to identify ourselves involuntarily while flying so the ident feature does get used occasionally on initial contact with ATC. The King is a pretty good unit so while it may be of limited utility for you, I certainly wouldn't junk it. I'm 100% certain mine hasn't been worked on since long before 2002, and it works great. We did a transponder check a couple of weeks ago.
Just popped the KT76c installation manual to you by email
Do not forget that I fly a microlight. A transponder can never be mandatory for me. Its only advantage is that it improves my chance of exceptionally getting a clearance that I am normally not entitled to, such as crossing a CTR. As long as I can keep it going without too much cost/hassle, I will.
It also carries a repair tag from a US'an workshop, dated 2002, so it must be long past its youth - one more reason to not spend much money on it!
As for the bent back paperclip: such contraptions do break sometimes, and I don't much fancy the idea of flying around with a bit of paperclip behind the transponder's front panel.
So get yourself something suitable, lathe, brass, plastic, whatever does the job. You won't be able to fly to many countries in Europe with your A/C transponder so I wouldn't invest too much effort in keeping it alive.