Radio Help Please

[clarkTX 2]

Hi All I'm new to FSX and I think I'm misunderstanding how the sim works. I like to use the GPS systems and fly VFR at this early stage and I can't get the radios to work as advertised. The problem arises when I attempt to contact the tower of my destination airport anywhere from 20-40 miles out. Like the instructions say, I can use the Waypoint page of the GPS to look up the tower frequency. When I select it with Enter it does update the Com1 channel on the GPS itself but when I swap it to active, only the Com1 field on the GPS changes. The radio in the radio stack doesn't update to the new channel so what was the point? Even if I manually set the channel on Com1 in the radio stack (then swap it to active), the ATC menu doesn't reflect the new channel or bring up the menu for the tower, so what was the point of setting the Com1 radio if I can't talk to the tower anyway? Are there 'sync' steps I'm missing that push the com channel to the radio stack and to the ATC menu? Or to make the ATC menu actually update to match the new COM1 channel I've just set in the radio stack? It's a real challenge (and rather clunky) to have to chase down the tower in the ATC "nearest airport" menu when its beyond 2 pages down and there's a lot of airports in the area that make the airport list jump around alot. you can't pause the sim to freeze the ATC airport list because then the ATC menu becomes unresponsive. :( I'm guessing the answer here is going to be very obvious because I haven't found any other posts asking about tuning the radios. It's just me :) ThanksClark

[PIC007 82]

No need to tune the radios, just select the correct option in the ATC window, using the numbers keys. The radios will autotune, then select the next option. All comms with ATC are through that window with default comms.

[clarkTX 2]

Thanks, Jay. Its just that the ATC window is clunky for VFR as I've described, and besides, this is a *sim*; I'd like to use the actual radio buttons. :) I'm highly suspicious that the radio buttons don't actually work as they would in a real plane. Are the GPS and radio dials just for entertainment purposes only? Clark

[DickB 6]

The Multi Crew Experience addon allows you to dial the frequency you want using the VC dials or an external radio module like GoFlight. It then goes searching for and connects you to the nearest airport on that frequency and flashes up the ATC window so you can see what options are available. You can then select the required option by mouse, keypress, or by speaking the option number - or you can just speak the request/response as you would in RW. A little speech training is required, but it's well worth it for the added realism. MCE offer a free trial, and their support (via e-mail) is excellent.

[Kuckoo 2]

ClarkTX: the way you're describing how you operate the radios sounds correct. You can either A: select the comm radio freq in the gps and pressing <ENT> will update the standby freq on the no.1 comm radio, at which time you simply swap the freqs on the radio itself. Or B: manually tune the standby freq and swap. The issue here is that, when flying VFR in FSX, you STILL must to use the "Nearest Airport" selection in the ATC menu and select the airport whose tower you're tuning. Alternatively, you can simply select the airport in the ATC "Nearest Aiport" menu, select the tower, and allow FSX to automatically dial the freq into the radio for you, and just go from there. I mostly choose the former since it involves actual use of the radio on my part. It's clunky, I know, but that's how it's done in FSX. MCE that "Richard"B mentions is handy, but it's an expense.

[woodhick 504]

Clark, you're going to find a lot of things in the flight sim world don't operate exactly as in the real world. It's something you have to get used to and learn to ignore or otherwise work around. And yes, lots of buttons and switches in our airplanes are just for entertainment purposes only. They fall into the general category known as "eye candy".

[mjm 0]

No need to tune the radios, just select the correct option in the ATC window, using the numbers keys. The radios will autotune, then select the next option. All comms with ATC are through that window with default comms.

Yes this works for most planes, but there a few, Lionheart Dynamic and Aerosoft Katana for example that do not change cockpit radio frequencies with ATC window selections.