Quote Originally Posted by rwanttaja View Post
Well, now that I'm home, I see that's not the case. The A6 uses a different style headset adaptor. It's a two-jack system, and (nicely) the headset jack seems to be a standard 1/8 jack. However, I notice my A14 (which uses the same adaptor as the A6) only gives me right channel output. Not sure why, but it would be easy to fix and/or do a work-around.
The music earbuds are stereo, but the Icom puts out mono, so it's only connecting to one side. I simply wired the adapter to drive both sides; I don't plug the earbuds directly into the radio. Actually I made my own plug for the radio, with an 1/8 and a 3/32 plug mounted together in an aluminum plate, and epoxy potted the back side. Two jacks hang off that, one for the earbuds and one for the mike, and a wire to the PTT switch.

I'm half surprised this worked, as the standard for an aviation microphone is a bit goofy; it needs to emulate an old carbon mike. However, Icom sells the same basic radio to a variety of markets; it's likely that its designed to work with a straight electret mike.

The other drawback is that the computer microphone won't be the noise-cancelling type. Depending on the environment, that may not matter. Depending on how drafty the cockpit is, one might need a foam muff, too.
Well, people say they can hear me with no problem. Most modern handhelds can use an electret mike. I used the plastic shell from the computer headset, too, and put a foam muff over it.

Dana