Audio Fix, Trial and Error

Sunday

While 3 Tango Charlie was having her spa day I hung out at the hangar trying to figure out what is the secret handshake to having radio audio back on my videos. The first step was to find out when the last time everything worked. With a little bit of investigation I came to the conclusion that everything was peachy as of the trip to Wilmington to pick up our friend Jo Ann. On the very same day, for the return trip the audio was gone, well, everything except the intercom.


The ladies swung the seat back forward so Jo could get in and the headrest hit the panel, at the time I didn't think anything of it. I should have taken a moment to slide the seat base forward which would have the headrest just lay against the top of the dash top panel, lesson learned. This is only a theory.

 So day one I tried every combination I could think of. The only way I could get the radio audio on the video was to put a mini mic in my ear cup. That's doable but not what I want wedged in my headset against my ear.  Having pretty much failed at correcting the problem I went home to do some additional reading about the PMA 8000B. It has to be some combination of settings that is eliminating the radios only and just providing intercom. I should add by 'radios' I mean all incoming and outgoing transmissions, to the passengers, which is where I have the plug to feed the camera.

So as I read through the pilots manual I found this juicy tidbit at the bottom of page 11.

Obviously the TEL button was pressed and it switched to "Alternate Intercom Function". I am making a return trip to the hangar tomorrow to test this theory. For now I tried the mini mic in the headset earcup, it worked perfect.  I'm not a fan of having that in the ear cup, heck I have a hard time with ear buds.  We shall see what tomorrow produces.

Monday

I'm off for the hangar this morning, round two of the audio investigation. I opened up the hangar and was really happy with the wash, polish, and wax job that C.A.V.U. completed. I'll be posting a video for that view.

Ok, back to the audio problem.  Yesterday the mini mic worked in the ear cup, but that's not a long term fix, at least not for me.  So, I went through the specific buttons, as noted in the pilot manual for the 8000B.  No luck on hearing the message alerting me to ALternate or Standard Intercom Functions.  I'm thinking that's not good. 

My next thought is to plug into the front headset jacks. A few wires switched and I once again go battery hot and avionics on. First test, the intercom, no problems.  Next I tried to pick up the weather, again positive results. I reroute the audio cable along my seat track and up the back of my seat to the camera, for now this will work. 

I found another headset jack inside the center console, tomorrow I'll try that and pray it works. This plug will eliminate the need to run the cable along my seat track.