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Vent: the manual says to calibrate yearly, but that's a lie
I landed a job at a small shop near Phoenix last month and the older techs laughed when I pulled out the calibration schedule. Turns out if you wait that long on a TSO'd radio like the KX165, drift gets bad enough to miss the localizer by a full dot. I started checking every 90 days with a service monitor and caught 3 units already that were off. Anyone else run into this or is your shop actually following the book?
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mila_brown1019d ago
Respectfully, that schedule isn't a lie, it's a baseline minimum. The manual assumes a controlled environment with stable temps and clean power, not a shop in Phoenix where radios bake in the sun all summer. I've seen KX165s hold center frequency for over a year in a climate-controlled hangar, but pull one from a puddle jumper that sat on the ramp in July and you'll be tweaking the reference oscillator every few months. Your 90 day check is smart for your specific conditions, but calling the manual a lie is too broad. It's more like a safety net, not a hard rule for every situation.
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jackson.matthew18d ago
You know, I used to be one of those guys who swore by the manual like it was gospel. But seeing you lay out the Phoenix versus hangar example, that really clicked for me. I guess I never fully appreciated how much the environment can throw a wrench in what should be a simple rule.
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grantp2819d ago
That line about "not a hard rule for every situation" really hit home. In my line of work we see the same thing with all kinds of gear that gets cooked on the ramp, especially older stuff without temp compensation. I once had a KX155 that drifted so bad the localizer needle was bouncing like a heart monitor until I swapped the oscillator. You ever have to just replace the whole reference module or do you tweak the trim cap on those older units?
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