Sun May 26, 2019 4:16 pm
#1695974
Slightly divergent from the issue of the frequency itself, I can pass on a little trick/tip that wasn't shared with me when I did my IMCR many years ago.
You'll be aware that the ident of a paired VOR and DME is the same morse code. You may also be aware that the ident for the VOR is repeated every 10 seconds, with a 20 second gap once a minute. In other words if you listened to it for a full minute you'd hear it 5 times, with an odd gap where you might have expected to hear it for the 6th time.
You may also have noticed that the tone of the VOR ident is lower than the tone of the DME ident. The DME ident comes round only once every minute, which can be a pain in the backside if you are trying to ident it whilst doing other things, because sod's law says that it peeps-up just as you are trying to write down the squawk code or whatever.
So here's the tip. Rather than listening to the VOR ident first and then the DME ident, listen to them both at the same time. In other words, press both the VOR1 (or 2) and the DME buttons together on the audio box. You will now hear the VOR idents in a lower tone every 10 secs and, hey presto, bang in the once-a-minute long gap you'll hear the DME ident in a higher tone. It makes it much easier to ident them both, even if you are distracted as the DME one comes up.