Wings Forum

Has anyone that has a Becker ATC 4401 transponder ever received a "E10" error message before, and if so, how did you remedy this?

Have some excellent news after going through quite a frustrating month and a half to sort out this problem.

To cut a long story short, I tried using a brand new piece of aluminium (without any paint on), as the ground plane, and it seems to work 100% now!!!

I never suspected that the previous ground plane was no good, as it came out of a previous aircraft where a transponder had been fitted. It had a layer of paint over it, (although not very thick) and although I had tried cleaning the contact points, there was still lots of paint on it. (I had even tried to earth the previous ground plane to the aircraft's earth, but even this didn't work previously).

I flew today for about 1 hour, and didn't receive a single error code. Can't believe it. Hopefully the issue is sorted out now. Even flew in controlled airspace and ATC were very happy with what they saw on their screens.

It's my birthday today, so that came as a nice present.

Hopefully this is the end of the matter. The only time I receive an error code now, is if I touch the antenna when the transponder is on (I was told this is perfectly normal as my body then interferes with the antenna system).

Damn, damn, damn. After flying for 1 hour a couple of days ago, and thinking I had sorted out the problem, I received the "E10" message again on today's flight. Thought I had sorted it out...:mad::mad:

Glenn,
I don't know too much about Becker xponders and their error codes, but I do know a lot about transponder antennas.
Have you been able to get a definition for the error code, - from Becker, or any documentation with the xponder?
If you can positively invoke the error code by messing with the antenna, my first guess is you have an intermittant coax, most likely shorted since that is the easiest for the xponder to detect. It is much tougher to detect an antenna match (VSWR) problem and I don't know of any xponders that do that. So your 'painted ground plane' solution is no doubt suspect.
Transponder coax's installations are problematic. They are asked to carry high peak pulse power at 1 GHZ and return weak signals to he box. Most coax installations generally are very lossy and any connection (BNC, etc.) are suspect when the system performance is sub-par.

You want to have a very low loss coax with no extra connections and as short a run from the xponder to antenna as possible.

Hope this helps,

Wes

I THINK I have solved my E-10 problem.

I simply cleaned my antenna.

I also have begun the practice of turning off the transponder before applying avionics power. I then turn it to "Standby" and leave it there 10 seconds before turning it to "On" or to "Alt".

Since cleaning the antenna, I have had two flights without an E-10 error msg.

Thank you, God