Company Offers Audio Panel Replacement With No-Cost Installation

Garmin's recent dominance in avionics has put it in the market-share crosshairs of competitors. At Oshkosh this year, Avidyne announced a new series of stack-mounted, touch-screen FMS/GPS/NAV/COM boxes which are plug-compatible replacements for the aging Garmin GNS series.

Now, PS Engineering is offering it's PMA8000 series audio panels to replace Garmin's older GMA340, and PS says it will absorb the installation cost for a limited time. You'll want to hold off a few days. The offer covers purchases made starting November 1, and made through February 29, 2012.

PS is calling the special its “Plug and Play – No Pay Program.” The upgrade instantly offers pilots new features such as monitor mode, front panel music input, front panel cellular telephone input, four music muting modes, IntelliVox automatic intercom squelch, radio recorder and more.

The company touts the upgrade as especially helpful to operators flying single-pilot IFR. The “Monitor Mode” allows the pilot to select one Com as the primary radio while the other becomes the secondary. When the primary radio becomes active, the audio panel mutes the secondary radio, allowing uninterrupted ATC communications.

A continuous-loop digital recorder allows instant play back of radio messages.

The PMA8000 series has PS Engineering’s automatic intercom squelch protocol known as IntelliVox, which eliminates adjustments of knobs and ensures proper setting of the intercom trip levels for each of the microphones. This patented system works to optimize the VOX circuits, promising that clipping syllables will be thing of the past.

The PMA8000 series has hi-fi quality stereo music, and offers a front panel utility jack that accepts most music devices and audio advisory inputs from portable devices. Volume of the music input is easily controlled through front panel buttons as well as the selection of several music distribution modes.

The list price on the PMA8000B is $1895, and the PMA8000BT, with Bluetooth® connectivity, is $2095.

FMI: www.ps-engineering.com