I've been working an ongoing radio problem and thought I'd throw it out here to see if anyone has any ideas. My RV-8 has a icom A-200/A210 and a flightcom 403 intercom. Over the last year I started having intermittent problems with transmitting...reception has always been fine. At times it works fine, at times it will not transmit at all, at times it will transmit very brokenly with the TX indicator flickering. Several months ago I pulled the radio and cleaned all the contacts in the back of the rack as well as checking grounds, etc. It seemed to work better for a few flights, but the problem returned. Last week I bit the bullet and upgraded the radio from the A-200 to the A-210 in the hopes that the problem was internal to the radio, and what the heck, I liked the upgraded features on the new radio (I know about the ribbon issue). Anyway, in the hanger the new radio seemed to be working great. I pulled the aircraft out of the hanger, copied down the ATIS, started up the engine, and went to call for taxi and the radio would not transmit. Well at least I've eliminated the radio itself as being the problem! Last night I ordered a few new connectors for the RG-58 coax and will see if that might help. I'd be a little more confident if it wasn't receiving just fine. The intercom seems to work fine. When I push the PTT, if it transmits I will hear my voice back through the intercom...when it fails to transmit it will mute my voice. Clearly the PTT button is triggering the intercom. Any thoughts? Is it possible that a faulty antenna (or connection to the antenna) will receive fine while failing to transmit correctly? Thanks in advance for any advice!
Mark
Mark