Cold Start: How to make the FM radio set work?

[irfanahmed1979]

I made a small mission in the editor for practicing cold start and free flight. The mission starts at Tbilisi-lochini and the player is flying a Turkish airforce Huey.

 

I can get to talk to the ATC with both the UHF and VHF sets but the FM radio just doesn't work.

 

Furthermore the CDI has a horizontal flag on it which according to the manual is related to the FM circuits not working properly.

[Vinny002]

Hi, irfanahmed1979!

 

I think your problem is why you cannot get the FM radio to work and the CDI flag to disappear is you forgot to turn on the inverter on the overhead panel.

 

Cheers,

Vincent

[irfanahmed1979]

Hi, irfanahmed1979!

 

I think your problem is why you cannot get the FM radio to work and the CDI flag to disappear is you forgot to turn on the inverter on the overhead panel.

 

Cheers,

Vincent

 

Do you mean the INVTR switch which should be set to off before engine ignition? After the engine startup I set it to ON Main. Is there a compatibility issue with any of the 2 Navigation sets? It's not just the flags on the CDI I can't even communicate with the tower using the correct frequency (41.80 MHz) even though the other two sets work fine. I even turned the FM set of and then to T/R and waited for roughly 3 minutes because the manual says that it has a warm up time of 2 minutes (I think). I've tried the Transmit Button (Radio and also ICS) keyboard commands but nothing.

Edited January 4, 2015 by irfanahmed1979

[Yurgon]

I can get to talk to the ATC with both the UHF and VHF sets but the FM radio just doesn't work.

 

I just set up a mission with these parameters and can confirm your observations.

 

Not sure if this is an explanation, but IIRC the ATC FM frequencies were introduced because the WWII aircraft (P-51, Fw 190, Bf 109) required them.

(And the ATC UHF freqs were introduced because of the F-86).

 

Maybe old code prevents players to contact ATC through the FM range?

 

I also just set up an Fw 190 with one of its presets set to 41.80 and was able to contact Lochini ATC just fine.

 

It would be interesting to find out if this is a bug or intended behavior.

(By which I mean that the tower can't be reached on FM in the Huey.)

 

In any case, when the Huey was released, ATC on any airfield could only be reached on the VHF AM radio, so I wouldn't be too surprised if this is kind of a legacy problem.

That also means that, with the Huey, the AM radio is the primary radio you're supposed to use. It's kind of a bonus if you can reach the tower on any of the other radios for the time being. :D

Edited January 4, 2015 by Yurgon
Clarification

[irfanahmed1979]

thanks Yurgon, what about the horizontal flag on the CDI?

 

I just remembered something, at the start of the elbrus rescue mission if I set up the FM to Homing and dialed in the ELT frequency there would be an audible pulsating tone (and it wouldn't go away), I used the hot start option for the rescue mission (never tried the cold start on any mission except this one till now).

 

According to the manual whenever the FM set is tuning a tone is audible and it goes away when the set finishes tuning. I get no such tone when I change the frequencies after cold start.

Edited January 4, 2015 by irfanahmed1979

[Yurgon]

what about the horizontal flag on the CDI?

 

Not sure about that, maybe someone else can chime in.

[Chump]

The flags will go away once the ILS receiver is tuned to a valid frequency. You will hear the tone when a valid frequency is obtained. You can test this by starting up at an airport with ILS and tuning the AN/ARN-82 (VHF navigation radio) to the frequency. The GS/LOC flags will be removed once the frequency is correctly tuned.

 

Obviously, this does not help with the FM-to-ATC issue, which I can confirm also.

[Cibit]

I think the problem is that the ATC correct radio is AM. There is only the option of FM for the older (historic) modules.

[irfanahmed1979]

The flags will go away once the ILS receiver is tuned to a valid frequency. You will hear the tone when a valid frequency is obtained. You can test this by starting up at an airport with ILS and tuning the AN/ARN-82 (VHF navigation radio) to the frequency. The GS/LOC flags will be removed once the frequency is correctly tuned.

 

Obviously, this does not help with the FM-to-ATC issue, which I can confirm also.

 

I'll try that. thanks.

[irfanahmed1979]

Yes the flags disappear when the correct ILS frequency is tuned in the Nav Comm set.