Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

[R Rinker]

Dan, My point exactly, a well engineered rig with quality components is essential for good performance. I'm sorry if you guys think I'm leaning toward overkill in a panel, but we live in a different world. I'm learning that most builders down south fly in a Sunday afternoon environment and fly for rest & relaxation on sunny local flights. Thus comments such as..." 99.9% of your communication on an aviation radio will be relatively short range, where lower sensitivity is not an issue and in fact may eliminate a bit of chatter from distant users on the same frequency." Not so in the Arctic where we operate, and even here in the bush in Alberta a high percentage of our communications is out on the edge. I've had our 182 into Siberia four times via the Bering Sea, and if I didn't have a Collins Comm that I could break the squelch wide open, I couldn't even get into Russia on each trip. In the Arctic our platform is a flying gas tank that often serves as a communications repeater, especially on Search & Rescue. Our 182 carries 105 U.S. gallons in four wing tanks, and we very often have another 30 gallons or more in Jerry cans, and I can still tell horror stories about not knowing if we will get in. Our needs in the area of VHF is far greater than anything we can buy in certified or un-certified AM gear, so we have to agonize over how to make it work. We still don't know if we can survive the learning curve of putting such a lightweight aircraft as the Just Super Stol into such a hostile environment, as we often operate the 180's and 182's beyond the limits of what we should, but they are such incredibly robust airframes that I am still alive after 30 years & thousands of hours doing it. I'm hoping I can learn how to limit it, but surviving the learning curve is not guaranteed to anyone up here. Cold weather operations is something that is not worked out very well on the new avionics. I can't get much information at all how this stuff will work in the cold. Our cut off point in the past has been 40 below with a Lycoming, a little higher with a Continental, and we don't expect the avionics to work until the interior gets warm.
By now I should know what works, and what we need...how to get it in the air, and how to keep it there...and how to get it down. But at the end of the day, it's my call, and my fault if I don't get it figured out. It's a problem for us finding out about the latest & greatest, and I deeply appreciate those of you that take your time to post what you know and carry on these discussions for us to learn and make informed choices. A forum like this can be a treasure of knowledge between all of you that are working your way through a build, and prevents everyone from making the same mistakes. So, if you have something to contribute, I am one that is grateful for your trouble to do so....

[bluemax]

Wow. . . I'm sure glad I don't have to worry about communicating with someone that is 200 miles away. All I use in my Tiger Cub is an Icom A-6 with an external antenna and a headset adapter. And still. . . I have to turn the squelch all the way up, in order not to hear radio traffic from a busy airport that is 60 miles away. No ground plane either. . .or at least I didn't do anything to try and establish one.

Luckily, my desire for Alaska is more than satisfied by watching Flying Wild Alaska, Gold Rush, Bearing Sea Gold, and of course, Alaskan State Troopers.

[levyland]

Exactly my point. Every airplane has a mission. If you are keen on a turbine Lancair lV, and want to play cock a doodle doo at Oshkosh deck the halls with lots of bling bling.

But the mission of the Highlander is to go where no man has ever gone before.

Low, slow, and in control.

Hence (imho) why have bling bling when all it's going to do is detract from the mission (performance) of the airplane.

And your pocket book.

I am going with a one Dynon Skyview 10", remote transponder, and a single MGL V6 radio.

But that single screen will do more than any avionics package I have ever had.

If the power craps out I reckon I can get back home easily enough.

Just my thoughts boys........

[R Rinker]

Max...the 200 mile reference was on FM - 50 watts - and into a repeater on top of a mountain.. 80 miles is a stretch for AM & 5 watts. I did hear a friend of mine once up at Old Crow about 1500 miles away on 122.3, but that was a rare backscatter skip off a meteor trail or some phenomena.

It's nice for us to have an audio panel we can plug auxiliary stuff into such as when tracking Caribou or etc.