Updated RST Audio Panel?

Heh... I'd love for his audio panel to have the "crew-Pilot-all"
function on it... but I'm comin down to the wire and will prolly end up
just getting it as is, SOON..

Dave

N523RV wrote:
Jim,

I had emailed you late last year inquiring about upgrades to your audio
panel product. I think you indicated that you were working on a new
version? If that is the case, do you expect it to be available any
time soon?

I think there might be a market for a scaled down version of an audio
panel.. unlike the current model which has many functions not used in
today's homebuilt.

- 2 place intercom
- 2 com inputs
- Stereo
- 3-4 unswitched inputs for devices that generate alarms
- switched input for stereo.
- marker beacon receiver/lights
- updated 'design' to look a bit more modern.

Things that I personally don't see a need for: ADF, DME, Speaker, dual
NAV's.... but that is just my personal opinion as I'm sure some will
want some of these functions.

Thanks!

Matthew

Not that my 2-cents is worth any more than anyone else's 2-cents,
but - for the sake of discussion - a comment or two:

"RST Engineering" wrote in message
Other goodies ... digital 60 second recorder with an option to play it
back
on the transmitter line (perfect clearance readbacks in the controller's
own
voice) and a few more I'm not willing to share right now.

I like the "recorder" feature/idea alot. But - the thing that would make it
really cool would be an "instant playback" of the *last received message*
only. This may be of variable length. A processor could track this to some
extent (perhaps by monitoring the break on the squelch) but in reality just
listen to any approach frequency and note the amount of overlap between
the controllers and the respondents - deciding where to "mark" the
beginning and end of separate transmissions received would be tough -
but it could be probably be fine-tuned to give some fairly good results.

The playback of the controller's message on the transmit side seems to
be of limited utility - IMHO. Here's why - The purpose of the "readback"
on your part is to demonstrate that you have in fact received and understood
the instructions. Playing back the controller's own voice message on the
transmit doesn't demonstrate that you really DID hear and understand. It
might be fairly cool in the vent of a "dispute" - you could let them hear
their very own words - but, other than that, doesn't seem that useful.

A really useful feature in the intercom would be "Automagic Gain Control"
and levelling of the outputs. Some of the newer and more expensive
Comms units feature this (for a hefty price premium) but it sure seems to
make more sense to put this in the audio panel where all the different and
disparate levels actually come in! What difference does it make if my
new Acme Nav/Com has levelling if it doesn't match the levelling that may
be going on in my other widgets? Analog Devices has a nifty device with
their SSM-2166 which has a VCA and alot of options for compression.
There are others (e.g. Thatcorp.com) which can provide dual slope
compression/limiting/gating, etc.... Personally, I think this would make for
an attractive set of options.

I could be wrong (not that it's ever happened before 8-).... but those are
some of my comments anyway. I'm sure the final product will be great
with or without any of these features.

Bill