28-11-2017, 07:52 AM
An update on this from last weeks VK7 news -
“While the secondary radio was connected in place of the original primary radio, the original primary radio was kept in service as the secondary radio, and not actually despatched for servicing, as reported. I may not have been clear in my explanation of what occurred at the maintenance base when giving my verbal report at the November general meeting.
In any event, we appear to have been premature in thinking we had found the fix, in light of another seemingly related issue which has been occurring over this last week, involving interference heard on 146.525 in the Don Heads area. Again the aircraft involved is
VH QOJ so it appears there is still a problem with the radio or radios on this particular aircraft. It has only been heard when VH-QOJ has been flying into Devonport and transmitting on 126.9 MHz. It does not seem to be occurring with other aircraft using this frequency.
Various other amateurs have also provided information and ideas relating to the issue and a lot of time has been spent investigating it, including by Greg VK7YAD who has been chasing this particular issue from at least mid-September, Joe VK7JG and now
Eric VK7EV, who has been monitoring and reporting on the latest interference after hearing it from Lillicoe.
At this time we are not sure if the interference occurs when the aircraft transmits when on an approach from the East of the airfield. If this is confirmed, I will be contacting Qantas Link Maintenance again to request more investigation.
73
Peter VK7KPC, Vice President NTARC Inc”
Thanks Peter for that correction and update. I may have misunderstood your earlier account of the maintenance steps taken by QANTAS Link or it may have been an assumption on my part that the high standards of maintenance required of airlines would have dictated that the radio be fully checked out on the bench. Given the subsequent appearance of interference on 146.525, such action would probably have been warranted. Be that as it may, thank you to all those amateurs that are spending time trying to solve this problem.
“While the secondary radio was connected in place of the original primary radio, the original primary radio was kept in service as the secondary radio, and not actually despatched for servicing, as reported. I may not have been clear in my explanation of what occurred at the maintenance base when giving my verbal report at the November general meeting.
In any event, we appear to have been premature in thinking we had found the fix, in light of another seemingly related issue which has been occurring over this last week, involving interference heard on 146.525 in the Don Heads area. Again the aircraft involved is
VH QOJ so it appears there is still a problem with the radio or radios on this particular aircraft. It has only been heard when VH-QOJ has been flying into Devonport and transmitting on 126.9 MHz. It does not seem to be occurring with other aircraft using this frequency.
Various other amateurs have also provided information and ideas relating to the issue and a lot of time has been spent investigating it, including by Greg VK7YAD who has been chasing this particular issue from at least mid-September, Joe VK7JG and now
Eric VK7EV, who has been monitoring and reporting on the latest interference after hearing it from Lillicoe.
At this time we are not sure if the interference occurs when the aircraft transmits when on an approach from the East of the airfield. If this is confirmed, I will be contacting Qantas Link Maintenance again to request more investigation.
73
Peter VK7KPC, Vice President NTARC Inc”
Thanks Peter for that correction and update. I may have misunderstood your earlier account of the maintenance steps taken by QANTAS Link or it may have been an assumption on my part that the high standards of maintenance required of airlines would have dictated that the radio be fully checked out on the bench. Given the subsequent appearance of interference on 146.525, such action would probably have been warranted. Be that as it may, thank you to all those amateurs that are spending time trying to solve this problem.