Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

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levyland
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Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by levyland »

Considering for my installation.

Cheers John
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john2
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by john2 »

levyland wrote:Considering for my installation.

Cheers John
At this time it is what I'm planning on using also. Ronnie Smith likes his and Troy has told me that is what he will probably go with. Not much in user reports on the web or youtube :x . They are extremely light and compact.
Take Care,
John Cooley
Kit #265 converted to SuperSTOL
N265JC reserved
levyland
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by levyland »

Thanks John, after further review I am going with the V6 as well. Steve really likes the Xcom but it is $500 more bucks and is mono instead of stereo. Both radios have good raps on the internet., but I reckon I could throw the $500 at something else.

Cheers,

John
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R Rinker
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by R Rinker »

Does the V6 receive both active and standby channel audio at the same time, like the Icom does? I read the literature and not sure...
Rodger Rinker - Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada
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danerazz
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by danerazz »

It appears to "scan" both frequencies, then when there is reception on one it lets you listen. There are a few options to his, and it can be turned off.
Dane

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JohnM
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by JohnM »

From reading the documentation on the radio it scans between active and standby. This means that you will only hear received audio on one of them at a time depending on which one is active. It does have a priority scan capability. With priority scan the radio is jump back to the active channel once a second to check for activity. If it finds activity it will stay on the active channel until it clears.

I also looked at the receiver specifications. <2uV (-101dBm / 50) for 6dB S+N/N (m=30% 1KHz) I was a little disappointed with those numbers. While they are acceptable I was expecting something closer to 0.3uV (-115 dBm / 50) @ -12 dB Sinad or a factor of 10 times more sensitivity. Does it make a difference? Depends on where you are flying and where the other radio you are trying to receive is located.

Have you looked at the Microair M760? It does have Dual monitoring of both standby and active channels with indication of which frequency is receiving.

John M
hoskinsb
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by hoskinsb »

I have the MGL V10 in my RV7, when I build a Highlander it will have the V6. I can't say enough good things about the MGL products. The V10 is a great com. I have never had any problems with transmitting or receiving. I like the fact that in a 3.5" space I have a radio, intercom, aux audio input and weighs next to nothing. If you have questions about MGL products call Matt at MGL in Torrence, CA he is extremely knowledgeable, helpful and very nice. Research other products and you will find that MGL products give you the same if not more options per instrument and at a better price. I have their flight computer, EGT guage and artificial horizon in my RV also and they are great. The Highlander will have the MGL Extreme, Transponder and V6.

Brent Hoskins
Caldwell, ID
RV7 flying
Highlander-dreaming
hoskinsb
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by hoskinsb »

I have the V10 in my RV7 and love it. I will have the V6 in the Highlander I build. MGL products and people are great. Matt at the Torrence, CA location is very knowledgeable, helpful and nice.

Brent
Caldwell, ID
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levyland
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by levyland »

John and Karl Von Kael have one in theirs and are very please with the reception and transmission . The scanning ( I believe) is like the flip flops on the KX 155/ 165 whereas the active channel is what you are hearing and the standby is just that. Coming into an airport I would flip/flop between the active tower freq, and flop to the ATIS momentarily. Works fine.
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R Rinker
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by R Rinker »

It does depend on what kind of flying you'll be doing with it. For us reliability and audio quality are top priorities. Poorly engineered circuits can pick up a lot of noise from the airplane. I'm a little cautious about a 'do it all' radio, because the more you pack into it, the harder it is to make it all work together and more things to go wrong. I lean toward a dedicated transceiver that is designed to do one thing, do it well, and built to work. I like the Icom A-210...Icom has has been building top of the line Ham gear for many years now, and I know they know what they are doing. I want the option of receiving two channels of audio at the same time. With a dedicated transceiver you need an audio panel. I don't know what is the latest & greatest audio panel. I have an RST panel that I built from a kit in the 182 and it has been bullet proof. The RST is no longer available, so I don't know what I'll be using in the Super Stol yet. Audio quality seems to be the one issue that none of our local guys have attained in either the recent homebuilts or even certified aircraft. They don't realize what good audio is and that it is attainable by adhering to the basics of shielding, isolating, good connections, electrical ground plane, check SWR, etc. Clear, readable audio is critical in my experience...how many times do you guess what was said, or fill in the blanks on your own because it wasn't clear. A couple years ago I had an aerobatic guy take off in front of me...I was passing over top of him and he went vertical and almost took off my tail...I never heard him or saw him as the runway had a hump in the middle...he had audio problems. At the same time another guy almost landed on top of me on my take off roll, and it was all due to bad or faulty audio. I had four souls on board.....Rodger
Rodger Rinker - Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada
JohnM
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by JohnM »

Very true on shielding, grounding, avoiding ground loops, proper placement of the antennas, and numerous other things. I liked the idea of what the MGL offers and what they are doing for the consumer. My concern was the lack of receiver sensitivity listed in their documentation. Please forgive me but having worked on radio systems for over 20 years I tend to pay attention to the sinad and rejection data and generally will look at those numbers before looking at the rest of the documents.

Rodger, I think your looking for some of the same things I'm looking for in the radio department and it is why I looked over the entire MGL online manuals for the V10 and V6. Both are nice radios, however professional experience makes me a little wary of do-all solutions. Besides I'm looking for a panel that can handle 2 different radios in the console and seperate them between the Pilot and Co Pilot if needed. While looking at the MGL V6 I happened to look at a PSE since they are just a 45 minute ride from here. The PSE PAR100EX seems to do what I'm looking for in radio options. The Air Band radio is remote controllable from the audio console (Micro Air remote) with dual receive audio from the Select and Standby freqs if desired. I can also switch in a completely different radio if desired (Ham Radio or Public Safety portable if needed) and have a Blue Tooth connection to a smart phone for listening to music or to place a call after landing while taxiing to close a flight plan already built into the panel.

True it is more costly to go this way which is why I'm still looking at other options, so thanks for all the positive comments about the MGL radios.

John M
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R Rinker
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by R Rinker »

John, the lack of receiver sensitivity is a big indicator to me that they are using an 'economy' IC from the Philippines or where ever and putting it on the board for a receiver. If so, they didn't even 'build' the 'receiver', the radio would be a combination of such chips stuck in there and wired together. Actually, most of these non-TSOed, EX radios are probably engineered that way. It's not necessarily bad, if they use a high end chip. The cheaper chips wouldn't even have the ability to align and tweak some of the circuits.
Thanks for pointing out the PSE line, really interesting. I won't have my kit till October, so Avionics won't be purchased until next winter...looks like a lot of fun planning the panel with all this interesting stuff out there.
I like to fly my 2meter FM Xceiver. I have a 2 meter 1/4 wave antenna on the 182 and can hit our local repeater, which is on a mt., all the way to Grande Prairie, which is about 200 miles out, at altitude and 50 watts. I can plug the external speaker jack directly into the audio panel, but I still have to use the mike for transmit. I'd like to connect the headset mike. I guess I'd have to use intercom audio into the 2 meter, otherwise I'd simultaneously transmit on the active AM radio when I hit PTT. On those PSE audio panels, they have lots of aux audio inputs, but would there be an aux audio output I could pipe into the 2 meter rig for transmitting voice? Not sure how good the noise cancelling mike is on the 2 meter rig in the high noise environment of the aircraft. Just assuming the mike impedance of the headset is same as the 2 meter mike. There must be an in-depth article on this somewhere.
I definitely want to mount a 2 meter rig permanently into the Super Stol, and just leave it there. Always wanted to go hf (Ham bands) in the airplane. Really easy to do with the automatic solid state tuners available now.
The PSE PAR100 is facinating and really appealing, and would save a lot of work...but it's going to take me a lot of time to get my head around giving up a simple, 'Quality', bullet proof, (well aligned) Icom.
Rodger Rinker - Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, Canada
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FlyerChief
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by FlyerChief »

Hi Guys,

Don't get too hung up on receiver sensitivity on aviation radios. Unlike amatuer radio where the distance you can communicate makes a big difference in how well you can operate, 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.
Selectivity is another issue all together... cross-channel interference and intermodulation can produce unwanted noise and further desensitization of the receiver. In my humble opinion, this is much more of a concern for aviation than receiver sensitivity.

By the way, the Icom 210 panel mount radio spec. for rx sensitivity is the same as the MGL V6... http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/ ... tions.aspx

Whatever you end up choosing will likely be fine!

Dan (Amateur Call - VE3NCI)
When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it. ~Henry Ford
levyland
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by levyland »

Many years ago Burt Rutan said "keep it light" and he wasn't kidding. Ask Gary or Troy and they will tell you the same thing. Builders have a tendency to put a lot of Bling Bling in their kits. Ask yourself "do you need it or want it"?

My humble opinion.........
JohnM
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Re: Any experience with the MGL V6 radios?

Post by JohnM »

I agree with keep it light and keep it simple. Same can be said for many things. To that effect the J-3 had no electrical or radios. Think of the weight savings. The Highlander with a Rotax, only needs enough battery and wiring to start it and stop it and maybe 3 steam gauges. That would be keeping it light.

For safety we have radios, intercoms, GPS, glass panels, synthetic vision, IR Cameras, etc.. The MGL is a nice lightweight radio, and if it does what you need and want for the price you want to pay, buy it. Just make sure you know and understand the limitations on the frontend, it helps prevent other problems later.

No need to buy a Carravan when a Highlander will do what you want to do. Just make sure that the Super STOL won't do it better and isn't better suited to your needs.

Same goes for radios and instruments.

Just my opinion

John M

When planning for significant events: Murphy was an Optimist.
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