Jay Honeck wrote:
: The radios in our plane have probably been replaced six times since 1974.
: Worse, every guy that put in a new radio seemed to string new wires, simply
: cutting off the old antenna wires. This meant that there are several
: "antenna wires to no where" under the panel -- making determining which one
: was disconnected an exercise in frustration.

My airplane has also gone through many radio installations, from the
original dual narco 2-piece tube units onward.

When I replaced the audio panel in my airplane, I also removed and replaced
all of the radio audio signal wires, and power wires. I removed all of the
"wires to nowhere" that were disconnected at both ends. I retied all of the
wire bundles under the dash. This probably added 4 to 6 hours to the job,
but since I did it during the 9/11 grounding the extra days weren't too
critical. I don't think many people would pay someone to do this, because
it doubled the job time. Since I was working myself (under supervision),
the time was less of a factor.

Net result? Instead of the wire bundles being 3" in diameter, they're now
1" in diameter. The radios don't hum, whistle, or otherwise misbehave.
And, I ended up with a 33 gallon trash bag full of bits of wire! I removed
over 4lbs of unused, disconnected, wiring and a mess of unnecessary
connectors.

--
Aaron Coolidge (N9376J)