I went to my radio tech and he tested the transponder. It did not take him too long to find the problem : The transponder, installed in 1977 is now old and does not deliver more than 70W instead of over 200W as it’s supposed to.
Also, the external antenna was a bit rusty and we had to replace it anyway.
He sent me a quote to have that AT150 replaced by a Trig TT31, it sounds quite good, does anyone know this transponder and had any good/bad experience with it ?
I am also thinking of replacing the radio at the same time, but I was thinking about upgrading to a 10W radio instead of my current 5W, but apparently above 6W, it’s expensive and harder to get !
TT-31 is a good choice, it is ADS-B ready, operates reliable and support from Trig is excellent. You might want to hang around for a replacement Trig radio as well.
Trig TT31 has been great for me
I wouldn’t spend any money to get a higher wattage on the radio.
I agree with Bosco. Range increases with the square root of the output power, so doubling the output power will only give you 40% more range. I doubt you’ll notice that. Furthermore, range is sometimes limited by the earth curvature, and no amount of output power is going to help there.
Ok, I get it for the radio. I’m thinking of going for a Trig radio as it seems to be possible to have one main frequency while listening to a second frequency at the same time (useful for ATIS)
Have a look at the Bendix King KT74 as well. It’s made by Trig (well, the back end is at least), but the user interface is miles better than the Trig. It’s got 8 proper buttons instead of the single twiddle and push of the Trig. Similar price.
it seems to be possible to have one main frequency while listening to a second frequency
this seems to be pretty much standard nowadays, the newer Garmin kit (GTN, GNC) does that too…
