Trig TX56A Pirep

[Andy95W]

I recently installed a Trig TX56A Nav/Com in my M20C.  I’m an A&P/IA so I did the installation myself.  I connected it to my existing KI-209 in lieu of the King KX-155 that I removed.

The obvious competitor to the Trig is the Garmin GNC255.  It is the same size, and it has the same basic features in that it can connect to a GPS and can access a frequency database.  Like the Garmin, the Trig can “clone” an SL30 so it can be connected to a G5.  (I did not do that, you should definitely confirm this with your avionics shop).  The NAV portion will decode the Morse identifier and display it on the screen in both units.  They are both 10W transmitters.

I saw two positives with the Trig, and only one negative.  First, the Trig always shows the active NAV or COM.  If you are in the COM page on the Garmin, you don’t see the active navigation frequency.  Likewise, if you are on the NAV page on the Garmin, you don’t see the active communication frequency. I personally like always seeing the frequency I am either transmitting or navigating on.  The second positive is the “Play” button on the Trig that replays the last transmission.  My audio panel doesn’t do that, so I’m glad for the additional capability.  The only negative with the Trig is that I wish the display was white instead of orange.

Two additional things that weighed in on my decision is that the Trig is $400 cheaper than the Garmin and it’s available immediately instead of a 3 month wait for the Garmin.

The installation was very straightforward since I didn’t connect it to either my GPS or my G5.  I wanted a completely stand-alone Nav/Com that would work if I lost everything else in my panel.  Plus, I suppose I’ve been hand tuning frequencies for so long I didn’t see the need to use the database function.  I figured that by the time I found the location in the database, selected it, then confirmed it on the chart, I may as well just tune it myself.

So far it works perfectly.  The maintenance facility in the US is Mid-Continent Avionics, so that made me feel better about serviceability.

[47U]

19 hours ago, Andy95W said:

I recently installed a Trig TX56A Nav/Com in my M20C.  I’m an A&P/IA so I did the installation myself.  I connected it to my existing KI-209 in lieu of the King KX-155 that I removed.

I also have a TX56A, replacing one of the Comm 120s.  It’s been flawless, connected to both a KI204 and Aspen.  The only Narco radio I kept was the DME890.  I had to get a converter (available on eBay) to enable slave tuning of the nav frequency to the DME.  I don’t think a BK DME requires the converter.  

Center stack space in the vintage aircraft is tight.  You have solved that problem.  I think though, that the TX56A (and SL30) are both 1.3” high, and the GNC255 is 1.65” high.  The GNC255 wouldn’t fit in my center stack.

[OR75]

maybe soon they will be a BK rebrand version of the TX56A

they usually take the Trigg product and make the UX look better (white instead of orange) like for the KT74

[McMooney]

I'm leaning towards installing a TX56 in Birdy, unfortunately it's way down on the list.

[EricJ]

1 hour ago, OR75 said:

maybe soon they will be a BK rebrand version of the TX56A

they usually take the Trigg product and make the UX look better (white instead of orange) like for the KT74

Or their transponder.   I have the Trigg TT31 transponder, which is the basic transponder behind a whole bunch of vendors faceplates.    At least with the transponder I think they gave themselves the clunkiest user interface possible so that their hardware customers could create some value-add.