Yesterday, departing from Cherbourg, I set the oxygen up while still on the ground.
Normally I open the valve on the cylinder while in the ground (it's on my checklist) but I don't switch on the O2D2 because it will just start beeping until I have the cannula in my nose, which I don't do until a few thousand feet up.
It was fairly obvious that the powerful pulses from the based radar (which make louds beeps in the headsets) were causing the O2D2 to do what it does when initially turned on: it beeps and gives you a long pulse of oxygen. The processor in it probably has a watchdog timer which was getting triggered because the processor kept crashing on each radar pulse.
Interesting!
people with a pacemaker should better avoid this place ... 
This is not the terminal radar for the airport but some long range radar, correct? I have been to many airports with surveillance and approach radar and never heard the pulses. The only pulses I've heard were from my 150W beacon but this one is gone for good.
Maybe the French are researching a new method to burn your KFC225 servos?
That is an interesting observation, Peter.
I once had the situation that the O2D2 regulator was on the floor behind the front seats, and it started beeping. I took it on my lap, and the beeping was gone.
Could very well be that the signal from the transponder antenna was interfering with the O2D2 regulator...
PS: Why are you turning on the regulator manually? There is the D5 (or D10) option, which will activate the unit automatically when passing FL50 (or FL100).
Why are you turning on the regulator manually? There is the D5 (or D10) option, which will activate the unit automatically when passing FL50 (or FL100).
You have to turn it right off after a flight, otherwise it always draws a bit of power.
This is not the terminal radar for the airport but some long range radar, correct?
It may be some sort of military radar, but it is normal to hear the beeps in the headset when parked close to the rotating radar antenna. Can you not hear anything at all in that situation?
Could very well be that the signal from the transponder antenna was interfering with the O2D2 regulator...
Unlikely, transponder pulses aren't very high power (150W or so), and a lot of people would be affected by that.
Some french joint civil/military airfields (such as Dijon) do have high powered radar (primary military, I guess) close to the runway.
It may be some sort of military radar, but it is normal to hear the beeps in the headset when parked close to the rotating radar antenna. Can you not hear anything at all in that situation?
I only heard them with ANR headsets, not in classic ones, so I assumed the radar interferes with the ANR electronics, not the audio signal directly.
Unlikely, transponder pulses aren't very high power (150W or so), and a lot of people would be affected by that.
But the antenna is a LOT closer.
The ANR headset beeps can't be transmissions from my own transponder because if they were then I would hear them all the time in flight. The transponder is transmitting more or less continuously, because SSR is everywhere.
That's what happens if one replies to two posts in one... of course the transponder does not affect the ANR headset, otherwise we would all go bonkers [in fact one of our school fleet does have a transponder crackle in the intercom.. I try to avoid it]
But it affecting the O2D2 or something similar when it is held next to the antenna is at least plausible, isn't it?
But it affecting the O2D2 or something similar when it is held next to the antenna is at least plausible, isn't it?
The transponder is transmitting only when pinged by SSR, which in flight is almost all the time.
