Repeater Display for Becker AR4201 Comm

I have a Becker AR4201 comm radio and PM501 intercom installed near the rear seat in my experimental cub so I can change frequency without reaching all the way up to the panel. It works great, but I would like to have a “repeater” display in the panel so I could see both the active and standby frequency without turning to the side to look at the radio. I don’t need the ability to change frequency with the repeater, I just want the display.

Is it possible to splice into the wiring harness to do this?

A couple of photos of the installation…

Just for info: You need a stand alone display to mount remotely? Let me check on that.

I think, if I understand you correctly, that the best way would be to mount the radio in the panel so front and back seat can see, and then use external switches to change freqs.

Web

Not seeing any way of doing this elegantly. Maybe one of the newer models with a separate display and RT? Then you could possibly use two displays to operate the one RT.

Web

That looks suspiciously like a J-3. I just put a Garmin GTR-200 in a J-3 and am in love with it. It can be oprated fairly easily from both seats, the internal intercom is quite serviceable with door open, and it seems to last six hours on a charged 7 ah battery. The secret is to install it just ahead of the rear spar, in the wing root. I can get a measurement if anybody cares - we have ten satisfactory hours on the setup. Wiring was almost trivial.

Clyde, that's a really nice clean installation, but I take your point about having another display. Here's a nice summary chart of similar com radios, but apparently no convenient way to do two displays with the Becker 4201, only the 6201, and a couple other good Euro com radios:

http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/radios-panel.htm

Cumulus Soaring is a very good vendor with which to do business, also some good summaries of the battery setups the sailplanes are using these days, too. And there have been some screaming deals on these types of radios from Europe, being removed to meet the new 8.33mHz steps coming very soon in Europe.

Thanks. cubscout

Thanks for the input, guys. I was afraid the 4201 was not capable of an extra display, but I knew you guys would know for sure.

When I installed the 4201 it was one of the best small radios available, but that was more than 10 years ago. I first installed it in the panel, but when I am in the rear seat I can't reach the knobs well enough to turn them. I have a length of wood dowel with an eraser on the end that I use to push the flip flop button and the mode button so I'm fine if I don't need more than 3 frequencies in a flight. I moved the radio back by the rear seat, and I like it better there (I fly from the back almost all the time), but on the few times when I'm in front I'm limited to one freq. I can easily reach the tuning knobs from up front but can't see what frequency is selected. I've seen some of the newer radios that can have 2 displays, I was hoping to modify my Becker on the cheap!

Bob, your GTR-200 installation looks great. My cub looks like a J3, but I have fuel tanks in both wings, so no room to mount a radio in the wing root.

Since my radio still works great I just can't bring myself to buy a new radio, at least not yet. I'll spend that money on gas!

We literally yanked a functioning Becker out of the Stearman and replaced it with the Garmin, due to excessive maintenance costs. I didn't do the wiring in that one, so it cost around two grand to get it in. We used a PM-500 for the intercom, and now know the internal intercom in the Garmin is better.

I wired up PTT switches for the Cub intercom, but have only used them for demos - open mike works fine. If one gets tired of what litle wind noise there is, changing the intercom squelcy to 100% (takes about three seconds) converts it to a PTT intercom.

Crystal clear, and the tower loves us.

I am not, so far, pleased with the quiescent current drain, but I could have started with less than a fresh battery. Six tach hours on the first battery, working on the second.

I can easily reach the tuning knobs from up front but can't see what frequency is selected.

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Might it be possible to mount a mirror near the radio, that would allow you to see the display from up front?

Gordon Misch said:

Might it be possible to mount a mirror near the radio, that would allow you to see the display from up front?

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The DC-9 mounts the compass in the overhead behind the copilot's head. There is a mirror behind the compass and another for each pilot on the glare shield. Works fine. It takes two mirrors to prevent reversal of the image.

I used an XCom radio in my SC Clone with a remote head in the right overhead wing root panel. It uses a serial cable between the two heads for the radio. Both heads are both display and control for the radio. Simple set up that works well and give me full control of the radio from either seat. Seems to me that the remote head was something like $300 at the time that I bought it.

-Cub Builder

@Bob Turner I think you have a lemon or it was not installed properly. My Becker 4401 com works flawlessly in a cub & I know a lot of other cubs installs that say the same. Stearmans are irrelavent for a cub forum board.

Maybe. It was installed by Scootair, and went back to the factory three times, at over $500 a clip. Not my fault; I have done six radio installations and all worked flawlessly. My first one was two KX 170s, a transponder, a glide slope, and a home designed and made audio panel, in a Mooney that took me back and forth to LAX every week night for a month.

Scooter7779h said:

@Bob Turner I think you have a lemon or it was not installed properly. My Becker 4401 com works flawlessly in a cub & I know a lot of other cubs installs that say the same. Stearmans are irrelavent for a cub forum board.

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My Becker has also been great, which is why I can't bring myself to replace it, even though it can't support a second display.