I have an unusual challenge with a Decathlon I recently purchased. It has the original KX170B and Sigtronics Intercom. When transmitting some listeners hear 5x5 and to others it's completely unintelligible.
For example, my son was doing some pattern work and the local Tower Chief calls my on my cell to advise my son's transmissions are unreadable. We had flow the AC home as a flight of two and didn't have any com issues so I was surprised. I turn on my Icom handheld and can hear the aircraft just fine. Not perfect, typical noisy cockpit, but no issues understanding. I walk over to the base of the tower (it's a small 50' tower) and I can hear what they hear via the loud speaker. They were not exaggerating, completely garbled. I turn up the Icom handheld so they can hear what I hear and were all scratching our heads. Simultaneous reception, one 4x5 and one useless. On a subsequent flight I picked up a Yaesu handheld to listen in and was surprised to hear terrible coms. Turned on the Icom and things sounded fine.
It's almost like the Icom handheld might be receiving a wider bandwidth. Both the Tower and the Yaesu were reminiscent of a transceiver that was tuned one digit off freq.
Reception in the AC from all transmitters is fine.
Thoughts?