[Elecraft] kx3 aircraft radio

[Jim Brown]

On 3/27/2013 8:46 PM, Mark Bayern wrote:
> I do wonder what US Airways and the FAA think about a pilot engaging
> in a hobby while flying an A330 full of passengers? Being distracted
> while flying has been an issue:

There are several well trained pilots on commercial airline flights, and 
under "normal" conditions, I suspect things are pretty boring in the 
cockpit. It's when things go wrong that those guys earn their money. 
Many years ago, I worked as a photographer for a guy who was a pilot for 
American Airlines, and who shot lots of great photography from the 
cockpit. His part time gig was running his own A/V production company, 
where I was his employee.

In today's world with a fixation on security and extensive scrutiny of 
even the slightest fault, we should remember that it was not always 
thus. There were, for example, instances of hams taking rigs on board an 
airliner and receiving permission of the captain to use them. And there 
have always been pilots with ham tickets who have fired up their ham 
rigs when things are slow enough to justify doing so.

Yes, the OFFICIAL use of radio equipment on board an aircraft for 
purposes of operating that aircraft requires type acceptance, but last I 
looked, the Captain of an aircraft (or ship) could authorize use of 
other radio gear onboard for other purposes. It's a judgement call, and 
requires that the captain be technically competent and able to assess 
that the passenger is also.

Many is the time that I've used a pocket portable FM RX onboard a 
commercial flight to tune in NPR stations on the bottom 4 MHz of the FM 
band, understanding that my local oscillator would be below the 
frequencies used for navigation, and thus incapable of causing 
interference to inflight communications. I wouldn't have dreamed of 
tuning higher in the band, both because the local oscillator could 
interfere, and because I had zero interest in the crap those stations 
transmit. :)

73, Jim K9YC