4 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

What is wrong with the DC  6 systems??

 

I also like the old style radios that are depicted in the PMDG DC-6 and I'm sorry they are dummies.  Some of the Connie simulations actually use these type of radios.  They work with all the VOR, NBD and ILS systems for aircraft of that period.  I think PMDG modeled their DC-6 from  an actual operating DC-6 which was equipped with more modern radios. 

22 minutes ago, jmdriskell said:

I also like the old style radios that are depicted in the PMDG DC-6 and I'm sorry they are dummies.  Some of the Connie simulations actually use these type of radios.  They work with all the VOR, NBD and ILS systems for aircraft of that period.  I think PMDG modeled their DC-6 from  an actual operating DC-6 which was equipped with more modern radios. 

Well most DC-6 that are still in existence have been retrofitted. So I don't see this as a negative. 

2 hours ago, fogboundturtle said:

Well most DC-6 that are still in existence have been retrofitted. So I don't see this as a negative. 

My guess is that every aircraft of that vintage has long ago replaced the Avionics. Working in electronics all my life, and a short stint as an Avionic tech, those old radios have been placed  in a landfill.

1 hour ago, Bobsk8 said:

My guess is that every aircraft of that vintage has long ago replaced the Avionics. Working in electronics all my life, and a short stint as an Avionic tech, those old radios have been placed  in a landfill.

That Breitling Super Connie as I was on it in 2004 did have a GPS unit externally mounted to the panel , however I recall it was used to provide an extra tier of reliability to navigation but was not at the time in any way coupled to control systems.

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by fppilot

6 hours ago, sd_flyer said:

Did you guys look at manual? Graphics definitely not in par with PMDG. Look at the "edgy" gauges

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LFZdhL070NnmkObKQRHF8gImRA_g3zWo/view

The systems look very in-depth though.  I think its not for me.  I need the magenta haha!

5 hours ago, Bobsk8 said:

What is wrong with the DC  6 systems??

 

The radios. The large ones below non op. Modern replacements up top do work. I wanted them to use the original ones. Not about efficiency or ease for me, but authenticity to period I crave.

42 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

The systems look very in-depth though.  I think its not for me.  I need the magenta haha!

One of my uncles was a flight engineer on a Connie and was positioned facing that starboard panel.  He literally set all of the controls based on pilot callouts!  His function went away with subsequent transports and he later became a loadmaster on the first C5A's until he retired.

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by fppilot

13 minutes ago, Fielder said:

The radios. The large ones below non op. Modern replacements up top do work. I wanted them to use the original ones. Not about efficiency or ease for me, but authenticity to period I crave.

Those radios haven't been used in decades.

2 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

Those radios haven't been used in decades.

And the aircraft type was last in active use......  (active use)

 

57 minutes ago, ryanbatcund said:

The systems look very in-depth though.  I think its not for me.  I need the magenta haha!

I flew PMDG and other Magenta's for a few years and it suddenly occurred to me that it was as exciting as watching paint dry. That's when I went back to steam gauge airliners and GA aircraft.

6 minutes ago, Bobsk8 said:

I flew PMDG and other Magenta's for a few years and it suddenly occurred to me that it was as exciting as watching paint dry. That's when I went back to steam gauge airliners and GA aircraft.

I go in waves...sometimes flying with skyvector and a low alt enroute chart is cool....preferably with two VORs (but one is more challenging).  It's always fun to shoot a timed NDB approach right?  And then I just want to shoot some rnav approaches in the G1000 Nxi.  

You might get those old radios to work in a pinch - but getting replacement valves for a 1950 transmitter might be getting tricky.  Valves basically have a heating element in them a bit like an old-school light bulb and they eventually blow and you need to replace the valve. 

Some valves are still made.  For example you can still get the growly EL34 Pentodes (or an equivalent) for your 100w Marshall stack if you want that authentic overdriven '60s Stones/Who sound on your Strat, and if your really lucky it might even go to eleven.  However in other cases you are looking at NOS or they are simply completely unavailable at all.

Good link for anyone nerdy enough to be into valve types used in retro guitar amps and what the different types will sound like ...

https://marshall.com/live-for-music/arming-the-artists/valve-types-explained

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

You can still get 199 and 201A tubes in America (made about the year 1900). Two of my favorite AM broadcast radios use 201A. I think I paid $20 for each tube.

My oldest working AM broadcast radio is from 1921. Plays great!

This one of mine uses more modern tubes (1934).

I have a few boxes full of tube numbers like 45, 24, 27, 2A3, 201A

Most old tubes are not hard to find.

https://vacuumtubes.net/Prices 12A to 29LE3.htm

To buy (restored) old tube broadcast radios, most in glamorous wood cabinets, go here:

https://radioattic.com/

In FSX, one of my favorites was the "Sky King" plane which used RDF radios (which were popular in the days before ADF went into use). You dialed in the frequency much like any other radio. But  instead of turning a loop antenna you turned the plane. Instead of reading a dial, you listened to Morse Code. Amazon library had (I think it still does) a utility to put Radar Range stations at any airport in FSX.

Yes the DC-6 radios, which PMDG left dead, are decades old. So is the plane. They would go well together. And making them work would not be hard. Other far more simple flightsim planes had working old pre ADF radio systems installed.

 

 

6 hours ago, Glenn Fitzpatrick said:

You might get those old radios to work in a pinch - but getting replacement valves for a 1950 transmitter might be getting tricky.  Valves basically have a heating element in them a bit like an old-school light bulb and they eventually blow and you need to replace the valve. 

Some valves are still made.  For example you can still get the growly EL34 Pentodes (or an equivalent) for your 100w Marshall stack if you want that authentic overdriven '60s Stones/Who sound on your Strat, and if your really lucky it might even go to eleven.  However in other cases you are looking at NOS or they are simply completely unavailable at all.

Good link for anyone nerdy enough to be into valve types used in retro guitar amps and what the different types will sound like ...

https://marshall.com/live-for-music/arming-the-artists/valve-types-explained

To be honest, those older radios would not have the precise narrower bandwidth capabilities of modern radios with 'tighter' ATC frequencies, so although they transmit over a broader frequency spectrum for a given selection and are thus able to be used to contact those frequencies, it's really only their broader brush stroke transmission which makes that possible, but that would likely make their signal bleed into other frequencies, so it would potentially be a bad thing in regards to creating interference for people on other close channels. The desire for authentic equipment is one thing, but there's usually a good reason behind why things change and I daresay anyone who had to use that stuff would not want to go back to it in preference for the modern capabilities of a digital radio  for their ATC.

The fact that the radios on stuff like the Connie had an operator to work that sort of thing and the fact that ATC tended to be a case of radioing in that you were at certain points on a flight plan route rather than the much more immediately-managed ATC we have these days, means such radios were suitable for the ATC environment in the Fifties, but are not really suitable for a modern environment. A good example of why all that changed is the directives which followed the investigation into the 1956 mid air collision of a TWA Super Constellation with a United Airlines DC-7 over the Grand Canyon, which was a turning point for the development of ATC in the USA and much tighter controls on where things were in the sky.

'scuse me, while I kiss the sky...

As you say, it's a different matter with valve amps for guitars. In practical terms, transistor amps are great from the standpoint of being more robust, smaller, lighter and cheaper. But whereas all these characteristics are desirable for avionics, it ain't necessarily so for guitar amps. Valves chop the top of the signal somewhat unevenly when they get saturated, but they also produce a lot of pleasant harmonics because of that. Tranny amps chop the peaks too in those circumstances, but since they do it more uniformly, they don't produce the same pleasant harmonics, and you can definitely hear the difference.

But this is why lots of people make a ton of money by selling 'classic guitars' (i.e. old ones such as the '58 Les Paul and the '54 and '62 Stratocaster) when in reality at the time these guitars were being used to make the recordings that people like so much, they were actually new guitars and so there was no magic 'aged' ingredient in them, it was the valve amps which they were going through and the tape saturation of the recording process which gave that desirable sound.

If you listen to stuff such as Jimi Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower, or Purple Haze, the guitars he was using for those recordings were ones which had been bought a couple of years beforehand from a regular guitar shop and not some revered classics, especially considering that Hendrix was prone to setting fire to guitars and smashing them up etc during his shows, so he got a lot of new guitars simply of necessity. As a result of this, on the recording of Purple Haze, Hendrix wasn't even using his own guitar, or even a Stratocaster for that matter, he was using a Telecaster which he borrowed from someone in the studio. But even though this is true, you'll never convince many guitarists of that, especially when there is money to be made from such myths to get them to spend thousands on what is in reality nothing more than a battered old guitar. And these days they're even making new ones which are 'reliced' to look like that and charging a fortune for them for the 'pose value', when what guitarists should be doing, is getting a Marshall valve amp and using any guitar they like - including one made last week for less than 200 quid if they so desire - and they'll find it's the amp which is giving them that sound whereas - pickups notwithstanding - the guitar itself hardly matters. Of course it also helps if you happen to be as talented as Hendrix. 🎸

Edited November 5, 20214 yr by Chock

Just want to say that startup procedure with smoke billowing was incredible...  That is what I want to see from these old birds sparking to life 🙂  

Without an AFE I don't know I would ever get them started though LOL! Seems a LOT of switches to flip for one person.