Has anyone ever added a marine or non-aviation radio to the system

[glenadavis]

Good morning ladies and gentlemen,

I am planning the installation of dual HDX 10 inch displays in my Mooney M20J. I fly this aircraft for the Coast Guard Auxiliary and need to communicate with the Coast Guard on a marine radio every 15 minutes while flying. I have in the past used a handheld marine radio for this purpose but some of my Coast Guard colleagues have installed hardwired marine radios similar to the kind installed in boats. I would like to do that during my installation of the Dynon. The audio panel I plan to install is a PS Engineering PMA 450C. Can this be done so the marine radio can be isolated through the audio panel as typically the person in the left seat is talking to ATC and the person in the right seat, or the back seat, is talking to the Coast Guard station.

Thank you,
Glen

 

[jandetlefsen]

I would look at the audio out signal properties that the marine radio supplies (voltage, impedance) and compare it to those typical in the aviation world. If they are compatible it should be easy to just wire up the radio to a com channel of the audio panel. Of not you probably need some sort of converter. Same goes for the other direction to make use of your microphone signal.

 

[Rhino]

Audio impedance specs are easy to find for audio panels, but practically nonexistent for marine radios. Microphone impedance shouldn't be much of an issue, though it's possible a problem could arise. Mismatched speaker impedance (to the audio pane) is something else. A mismatch most likely won't hurt anything, but could affect your audio levels and range. You might try searching here for "ham radio". Several people here have done the exact same thing using ham radios.

 

[GKC Aviation]

I install commercial UHF radios in aircraft very often. They are used extensively here in Australia for mustering and station work, as well as marine UHF/VHF maritime work.
I use a NAT AA34-300 commercial radio interface unit (now made by Cobham) to interface the mic, audio and PTT to aircraft audio systems.
I can provide you a wiring diagram if you like, it's not a difficult installation.
This gives you good, balanced and isolated audio functions to any aircraft audio system.