At 17:36 07 October 2004, Steve Hill wrote:
A couple of years ago I purchased a brand new MicroAir
760 tranceiver.

Steve,

I've got mixed feelings about my MicroAir. I've had
it installed for about, oh, 4 or 5 years. It sat in
its box under my bed for about a year before one of
my flying buds got fed up with trying to listen to
my transmissions via my hand-held radio. He was so
fed up that he installed the radio for me.

After installation, it worked great for a couple of
years and then, it wouldn't transmit. It would receive,
but not transmit. So, I sent it back to Australia
for repair. Since getting it back, it works fine,
again. There was also one other peculiarity about
it before sending it to Oz: I coudn't understand the
transmission from one particular MicroAir. Other pilots
understood that pilot fine, but not me. I heard the
transmission as a garbled mess. Well, I hear that
MicroAir fine now.

Shipping to Australia from North Carolina, USA: It
can be expensive via UPS or FEDEX. UPS quoted me $180
EACH WAY!!! And that was their cheapest rate, he said.
I got a similar price via FEDEX. The U.S. Postal
Service ended up with my business and their fee was
something between $20 and $30 each way, including insurance.
The repair bill, not including shipping, was something
like $60 (US$). I just included my credit card number
on my transmittal letter.

In our club, two ships have Microairs and both have
been back to Australia for repairs. One radio went
twice. So, we aren't too happy with them, but they
are currently working. We did hear after sending them
to Australia that there is a place somewhere in Florida
that will now repair them. At least, there was a place
before the current hurricane season started. I don't
know about now...

I do like the features of the radio. I use the Memory
function most of the time, but will use the 'flip-flop'
function from time to time.

Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, NC, USA
DG(LS)1-d