I know it's OT, but...
I recently bought a Com radio from a Boeing 727 (VHF Air Tranceiver... Scrapped from plane, no cosmetic damage, $25, no big loss if it doesn't work). It's still on its way from Panama. I was wondering if anyone knew where I could find specs, mainly voltage. I googled it, but came up with nil.
Thanks,
Josh

Try http://www.avweb.com

There may be some folks on the BBs there who can help

These guys are radio wizzes: http://www.popularwireless.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro&BypassCookie=true

If it is aircraft gear, it most likely runs on 28VDC or 400Hz AC...

Maybe the folks at http://www.boeing-727.com/ can help.

I would have to believe that it will have a data plate on it with some of the info that you need. If it is an older com, it might not have the tighter frequency spacing that they put alot of AWOS, ASOS, and ATIS transmitters on.
Joe

PE:

I don't want to be a buzz kill here, but please use caution on how you use that radio when you get it. The FCC and Homeland Security geeks might get a tad upset if you do any transmitting with it. If you simply want to listen in on pilot chatter, that's not a problem.

Don't ask how I found out about this...

Thanks everyone. Oh, dont worry mx, I wouldn't dare transmit. The airport is 5 miles away on the next hill (vhf air is line of sight for those of you who didn't know), so i'm sure the ground controllers would hear me, and would pull my pilot's license before I even get it, as well as haveing to deal with "the man". I'm not sure how old it is, but it does get pretty tight... XXX.YY MHZ, which is good for my use. I have an old analog radio/CB/PB/AIR tuner from the 60's. It's pretty broad, tunes with a dial like a regular radio, so I can hear transmissions on different freqs at the same setting, but I also want something more precise.
For those of you interested, here it is. (I was mistaken about coming from Panama though.)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...05051710&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT

(Edited b/c I kant splel and I gots me some worser grammer)

[This message has been edited by PEdoubleNIZZLE (edited 03-02-2006).]

I too am worried about why com gear like this is even available? Ill use could be a as a jamming device.

There are perfectly legitimate uses. Monitoring the air band is fully legal (at least in the U.S.), or somebody could convert it for use on the 2m ham band, for example.

It worries me too, but you could easily just build one (a jammer or Txer) if you know what you're doing. I'm actually a little worried about there maybe being a short somewhere that keys the mic. I wont actually have a mic on it, just a speaker, but keying it without a mic would silence the channel. Unfortunately, the only place I could test it with the right equipment is my college, a mile away from the airport. Niow that I think about it, it might not be such a great Idea to use this. I bought a handheld scanner to use, just in case the 727 com doesn't work, and the scanner seems to be working better than I hoped.

e57, there's plenty of aviation gear around for legitimate purposes. For example, ICOM and YAESU/VERTEX make relatively inexpensive portable and hand-held transceivers. See:
http://www.vertexstandard.com/?cmd=DivisionHome&DivisionID=2

If I were renting small planes, I'd probably want to keep one with my flight gear as a backup.

Boy that is an old radio! It will do OK for you if you just want to listen to what's going on around there. It was probably replaced when they mandated the switch to 25 KHz spacing in the early 90's. Back then, you had to pull out on one of the knobs to get to the 25 KHz (like the AWOS at Washington County 118.425). I learned to fly at AGC and ist solo was at Rostraver so I couldn't guess how many times I reported over the Elizabeth bridge, community college or Irvin Works.

It looks like you got this thing for not much more than a ticket to Kennywood Park, which you will probably be on a right base over in the future. Maybe you should hook it up at school or someplace where you can make sure it isn't putting out any spurious emissions, even in Rx mode, and disable Tx completely. I also hope that you will buy a good hand held for your flight bag.
Joe

Joe - I live 5 miles east of KAGC. I'm goin to CCAC, and I'm taking flying lessons from there in Summer 2007 (Dont have the money for this summer). I've always enjoyed the physics of aviation (Makin flying models), and spent a lot of time on the sim (game, not the training sim.)

You might want to take a careful look at what they're actually selling. As I read the description, it appears that it's just the control head for a radio, not the actual radio. This piece sits in the panel in front of the pilot, and controls a considerably larger radio that is mounted remotely.