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Comm / Intercom Question

Piper J3

Well Known Member
I have a general question regarding comm/intercom interaction. Should intercom remain active when incoming transmission is rec'd on the comm radio? In other words... when comm breaks squelch and you are receiving, should the intercom be inactive. Does comm have preference?

We have one plane that operates as described above and another plane that allows intercom with incoming comm transmission.

Wondering which is correct?
 
Jim,

If you are talking about the Garmin GTR 200 radio, have a look at the GTR 200 Pilot Guide Rev C Page 9. There you will see a menu setting for Com ICS Mute. When set to "On", intercom communications will be muted during received radio calls.

FYI ... there is also a menu setting that does the exact thing for music called Com Mute Music. Here again "On" will mute music during a received radio call.

If it is not a GTR 200 radio, I would expect similar options on other radios.

I don't think there is any right or wrong way to set these options ... it is purely pilot preference. My preference is to mute all distractions when receiving radio calls.

Happy flying,
 
Last edited:
My preference is to mute all distractions when receiving radio calls.

It really is pilot preference, but if you do a lot of flying in relatively busy airspace, you'd have the IC muted pretty much all of the time. Usually after a while, you get to where you "tune out" everything not for you, unless you choose to actively listen to other calls.

For the music, though, I do have my GMA-340 set up to mute the tunes when receiving communications.
 
Thanks guys, yes, it is a new Synergy RV-12 with dual Dynon HDX and Garmin GTR 200 radio, so we'll look at options you have mentioned. We're going to make it behave like my early SN RV-12 with Garmin SL40 and Flightcom FC-403 where intercom is active during an incoming radio transmission.

Thanks again...
 
+1
I turn music mute off, too, for the same reason: in busy airspace it would be constantly muted. I just make sure I can hear ATC over the music.
My pet peeve: intercoms that block my voice while the pilot flying is transmitting. As a cfi I frequently encounter the situation where the pilot flying gets stuck or confused with a clearance read-back, but as long as he holds down his PTT I can’t help him.
Edit: the +1 went with post #3. I guess I type too slowly,
 
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