Commercial, Embedded Avionics

Garmin Introduces New Aviation VHF Radios

By gguarino | January 18, 2013
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Garmin on Tuesday released a new series of VHF comm and navcom radios with features that are compliant with the 8.33 kHz channel spacing mandate recently enacted by the European Union as part of its Single European Sky (SES) initiative.

The new GTR 225 (VHF COM) and GNC 255 (VHF NAV/COM) radios feature an internal database that displays the station identifier when a pilot tunes a specific frequency. Pilots can also use the radios to find the nearest airport, control station, flight service station and weather frequencies.

EU’s SES initiative requires all aircraft using European airspace to be equipped with 8.33 kHz radios by 2017. Garmin said select models of its new radios will offer both 25 kHz and the 8.33 kHz operational capabilities.

“These products have truly reinvented the stand-alone COM and NAV/COM radios with novel features like reverse database look-up and the COM monitor function, which bring new efficiencies to cockpit radio management,” said Carl Wolf, vice president of aviation sales and marketing at Garmin. “But beyond that, these products demonstrate Garmin’s commitment to aviators worldwide by providing the solutions they need to meet the latest regulatory requirements in their regions, such as the recent SES mandate.”

Garmin said the radios also have received FAA’s Technical Standard Order (TSO) authorization and should be available to U.S. and European customers in the first quarter of 2013. More

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