Recommendation for Becker radio shop

On 12/4/2020 8:25 PM, Jim Lee wrote:
The Becker radios have an internal fuse which can easily blow from the surge if you start or stop the engine with the radio turned on. Make sure the radio is off before doing so. When the internal fuse blows, the only option is to send it to Becker at the above listed address. They will replace the fuse and send it back to you pretty fast.


I am puzzled by that. Why would an overvoltage surge, even if it is up
to, say, 20 volts, blow a fuse? Especially if the radio is not
transmitting at the time. Voltage only causes current if something
accepts it. (Unless that radio has protection circuitry that does that
on purpose.)

The OP said "The tach also mysteriously died and the fuse on the vario
blew". That, together with the radio problem, suggests that something
much worse than an overvoltage surge happened. Or is one supposed to
disconnect the tach too before starting the engine?

"Was working fine and on the next flight nothing after starting up the
engine." - Was it working on the same flight before starting the
engine? If not, I wonder what happened between flights. Battery
briefly connected in reverse polarity?

Once that other issue is (or has been) cleared, then indeed the radio
may need service.

On 05/12/2020 14:19, Moshe Braner wrote:
On 12/4/2020 8:25 PM, Jim Lee wrote:
The Becker radios have an internal fuse which can easily blow from the
surge if you start or stop the engine with the radio turned on.Â* Make
sure the radio is off before doing so.Â* When the internal fuse blows,
the only option is to send it to Becker at the above listed address.
They will replace the fuse and send it back to you pretty fast.


I am puzzled by that.Â* Why would an overvoltage surge, even if it is up
to, say, 20 volts, blow a fuse?Â* Especially if the radio is not
transmitting at the time.Â* Voltage only causes current if something
accepts it.Â* (Unless that radio has protection circuitry that does that
on purpose.)

The OP said "The tach also mysteriously died and the fuse on the vario
blew".Â* That, together with the radio problem, suggests that something
much worse than an overvoltage surge happened.Â* Or is one supposed to
disconnect the tach too before starting the engine?

"Was working fine and on the next flight nothing after starting up the
engine."Â* - Was it working on the same flight before starting the
engine?Â* If not, I wonder what happened between flights.Â* Battery
briefly connected in reverse polarity?

Once that other issue is (or has been) cleared, then indeed the radio
may need service.

There may be over-voltage protection in the form of a Crowbar circuit
which shorts out the input if a set voltage is exceeded.

I list all the US repair shops that I know of for transceiver/transponder manufacturers in my troubleshooting presentation found at http://aviation.derosaweb.net/presen...s/#transceiver. If you know of any others, please let me know. Thanks.

The Becker repair shops in the US are;

Gulf Coast Avionics Corp.
• http://www.GulfCoastAvionics.com
• 3650 Drane Field Road, Lakeland, FL 33811
• Phone: 863-709-9714
• Email:

Mid Continent Instruments and Avionics
• http://www.mcico.com
• 9400 East 34th Street North, Wichita KS 67226
• Phone: 800-821-1212, 316-630-0101
• Email:

Enjoy, John OHM

On Sunday, December 6, 2020 at 6:18:30 PM UTC-5, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
I list all the US repair shops that I know of for transceiver/transponder manufacturers in my troubleshooting presentation found at http://aviation.derosaweb.net/presen...s/#transceiver. If you know of any others, please let me know. Thanks.

The Becker repair shops in the US are;

Gulf Coast Avionics Corp.
• http://www.GulfCoastAvionics.com
• 3650 Drane Field Road, Lakeland, FL 33811
• Phone: 863-709-9714
• Email:

Mid Continent Instruments and Avionics
• http://www.mcico.com
• 9400 East 34th Street North, Wichita KS 67226
• Phone: 800-821-1212, 316-630-0101
• Email:

Enjoy, John OHM

Contact Becker in ft. Lauderdale, speak with Alex, these guys are the factor repair station.

Becker USA doesn't seem to do a very good job advertising their repair services for the US. Googling "Becker USA Ft Lauderdale" I get a hit on http://www.beckerusa.com (located in Miramar FL?). Clicking on that I get redirected to https://www.becker-avionics.com/ in Germany. From there clicking on the "International Dealer-Service" link I see only European locations on the map (zooming to the US shows diddly-squat). Digging down further through "Dealer Portal US only" I see a "support" link to http://www.beckerusa.com/support which ... wait for it ... gives me a 404 error. OOPS. Blame it on Covid?

On Sunday, December 6, 2020 at 7:36:39 PM UTC-6, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
Becker USA doesn't seem to do a very good job advertising their repair services for the US. Googling "Becker USA Ft Lauderdale" I get a hit on http://www.beckerusa.com (located in Miramar FL?). Clicking on that I get redirected to https://www.becker-avionics.com/ in Germany. From there clicking on the "International Dealer-Service" link I see only European locations on the map (zooming to the US shows diddly-squat). Digging down further through "Dealer Portal US only" I see a "support" link to http://www.beckerusa.com/support which ... wait for it ... gives me a 404 error. OOPS. Blame it on Covid?

So this morning I called Becker USA (954-450-3137) in Miramar FL and they do repair all the models of Becker transceivers (3201, 4201 and 6201).

The support person I talked to said that the http://www.beckerusa.com domain was removed as corporate Becker Germany didn't want all the countries having their own web sites. It now is a redirect to http://www.becker-avionics.com/. If you click on a small black pull down in the upper left corner of the web site, and select "Americas/Japan/Australia", you get the USA location information. I expressed that http://www.becker-avionics.com/support should list all the country specific repair sites instead of a 404 error. I am probably tilting at windmills.

I will update my presentation.

- John OHM

On Monday, December 7, 2020 at 12:59:12 PM UTC-5, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
On Sunday, December 6, 2020 at 7:36:39 PM UTC-6, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
Becker USA doesn't seem to do a very good job advertising their repair services for the US. Googling "Becker USA Ft Lauderdale" I get a hit on http://www.beckerusa.com (located in Miramar FL?). Clicking on that I get redirected to https://www.becker-avionics.com/ in Germany. From there clicking on the "International Dealer-Service" link I see only European locations on the map (zooming to the US shows diddly-squat). Digging down further through "Dealer Portal US only" I see a "support" link to http://www.beckerusa.com/support which ... wait for it ... gives me a 404 error. OOPS. Blame it on Covid?
So this morning I called Becker USA (954-450-3137) in Miramar FL and they do repair all the models of Becker transceivers (3201, 4201 and 6201).

The support person I talked to said that the http://www.beckerusa.com domain was removed as corporate Becker Germany didn't want all the countries having their own web sites. It now is a redirect to http://www.becker-avionics.com/. If you click on a small black pull down in the upper left corner of the web site, and select "Americas/Japan/Australia", you get the USA location information. I expressed that http://www.becker-avionics.com/support should list all the country specific repair sites instead of a 404 error. I am probably tilting at windmills.

I will update my presentation.

- John OHM
If you go to their webpage and click on America's and Japan the contact info for Becker is displayed, I did not get the 404 error. I contacted Alex today in regard to a Becker radio and was responded to within a hour. These are very good responsive people.