Rant: A bad coax connector on a King Air's transponder had me chasing ghosts for a full shift

Got a squawk for a weak transponder signal on a King Air 200. Spent the whole morning checking the box, the antenna, and the wiring runs. Everything tested fine on the bench. The issue was a single BNC connector in the avionics bay that had a tiny bit of corrosion inside the center pin. It passed a basic continuity check but failed under load. Replaced the connector and the signal jumped right up. Anyone else had a simple connector cause a huge headache?

2 comments

2 Comments

markl7511d ago

Chasing a bad connector is the worst. At least you found it before it turned into a multi-day ghost hunt.

emeryw1611d ago

Honestly markl75, I gotta disagree. Sometimes that multi-day hunt is the best part. It forces you to learn the whole system inside out. You end up checking every ground and tracing every wire, and you find three other problems you never knew about. Finding the bad connector fast just means you'll probably miss the deeper issues. That quick fix can come back to bite you later.