Thread: Grounding of 2005 CTSW+

I've been having a lot of trouble with receiving communications from ATF's and (sometimes other pilots). There's static to the point that I don't think it is safe for me to fly into Class C airspace. I suspect that my plane isn't properly grounded. I have an ICOM IC-A200/100 radio that's in dash. Can anyone help me determine how to solve my problem?

Thanks,

lclayton

Really a job for a competent avionics tech. That said, the first thing I would try would be to connect a handheld to the antenna with a good length of coax and see how the signal is. If it's ok, you've narrowed it down to the Icom or the cable to it. Next, I would connect the handheld to the airplane coax going to the Icom. If both of these are good, you probably should have the Icom bench tested.

Hi Clayton,


Just a thought.

You might have a partial ground on the radio or your radio wires are to close to an energy source. I take it this just started to happen and it was fine to start with or has it always been this way? Did someone just get behind the instruments and maybe inadvertently do something to one of the wires? I would go after the ground issue first. A quick and dirty way to rule this out is to take a piece of wire and put it on a known good ground and then back the the radio ground so you know you have bypassed any bad ground. Then give it a quick try. If the problem goes away then you know what to go after.

To Jim Stewart and Roger Lee,

Thanks for the input, guys. I think I better have a tech person check things out. I'm barely literate in this subject area.

Best,

lclayton