Audio Selector Panel with Intercom

RST 564, $278 (6.5 in. wide faceplate)

RST-565, $278 (6.25 in. wide faceplate)

Special Offer Combines Audio Panel with Remote Marker receiver.

There is an LED Blue White Mod Kit available for those who prefer the traditional color lights..

The RST 564 and RST 565 Audio Panel includes all of these features:

Automatic speaker and headphone switching between COM 1 and COM 2 when the transmit switch is selected to that radio (or separate audio and microphone switching at the option of the pilot).

Built-in full-feature intercom with front-panel volume and squelch switches.

Provisions for one to four aviation headsets.

Isolated and individually switched inputs for 8 "radios" (COM 1, COM 2, ADF, AUX, DME, NAV 1, NAV 2, and MKR.)

Detailed construction and operation manuals.

COM 1 and COM 2 can be either switch selected or automatically switched with the microphone selector switch. Both inputs are muted during transmission on either of the radios.

The AUX switch has a "priority" control on it. If any of the other 7 inputs has audio, the AUX radio is switched off for the duration of the other radio's audio input, and then is turned back on. Typically, this AUX input is connected to an AM/FM or cassette radio and when an "airplane" radio starts to "talk", the music is switched off until the airplane radio stops talking.
The MKR (marker receiver separate option, RST-522) input has a specially designed circuit that remains in the "high sensitivity" mode until a signal gets strong, then attenuates that signal to a low audio level. After the input signal drops down in strength, the circuit resets itself to high sensitivity. Typically, this is used on the marker beacon signal so that you can hear the approaching marker, but then the annoying marker beep is attenuated into the background and the marker light used to indicate station passage. The circuit then resets itself for the next marker beacon passage.

The BYPASS switch completely bypasses the electronics of the 564/565 audio panel and hardwires the #1 radio directly to the aircraft microphone, key, headphone, and speaker. In this manner, should the audio panel fail for any reason, communications capability is maintained on a limited scale.

The audio panel was also designed for service and customization. Should the audio panel be removed from the aircraft for these purposes, the connectors remaining in the aircraft were designed to mate such that the #1 radio is hardwired directly to the aircraft microphone, key, headphone, and speaker. The lamps (LED's) on the front panel light at half-brilliance when the #1 COM is keyed (red), the #2 COM is keyed (green), or when the intercom is on (amber). The remote mount marker receiver (RST-522) also lights these lights at full brilliance, pulsating, for the outer marker (green), middle marker (amber) or inner/fan marker (red). (The appropriate light is also lit as a reminder when a transmitter is selected but the radio is turned off.) In addition, the MM light (amber) is illuminated very slightly when the audio panel has power but both the intercom and marker beacon is off.

The only difference between the RST-564 and the RST-565 is that the 564 matches radios with a 6.5 in. wide faceplate and the 565 matches radios with a 6.25 in. faceplate. Note that these are faceplate measurements and not chassis measurements. Refer to the owner's manual or measure your radio's faceplate width to order the correct size. In general, radios designed before 1990 used 6.5 in. and after 1990 used 6.25 in. If you are not trying to match radios, order the 564 since installation and hiding the cutout are easier with the larger faceplate.

Specifications

Audio Outputs: 5 watts into a 4 ohm speaker. 10 volts p-p into 4 aviation impedance (150 ohm) headsets.

Audio Inputs: 1 volt p-p into 600 ohms for full output. (600 ohm input impedance may be raised up to 10k ohm by changing internal load resistor.)

Input Power: 12-14 volt system at 1 ampere for full output (40 mA quiescent).

Size: 6.5"w x 1.5"h x 4.88"d weight 1.0 lb.

Build Time: 15 - 20 hours

The RST 564/565 is plug-compatible with every audio panel and marker beacon receiver ever produced by RST. This means that you can unplug a 501, 502, 503, or 504 and just plug in the 564/565 with minimal if any wiring changes. (To save weight and space we shortened the 564/565, so you will have to install the new tray [included] if you are upgrading.)

Audio Panel Cardboard Model PDF

The Story of Our Audio Panels

Time was when an "audio panel" was found only on the most sophisticated of single-engine aircraft and even some twins had a single old clunky "XMIT 1 -- XMIT 2" bat-handle toggle switch as the "switching panel". If you were fortunate, the avionics tech that installed the radios thought to wire in a "muting relay" so that the speaker would be prevented from squealing in your ear when you hit the PTT switch.

So along I come in 1972 trying to earn an instrument rating in my 1948 C-170 (N4190V) and trying to figure out a way to keep my old MK-III and my 90-channel Genave A-200 happy with each other. How about we use some of this "newfangled" integrated circuitry and a little ingenuity? Thus was born the concept of "kit avionics" and RST.

What we learned about audio panels became the RST-501, the world's first kit avionics part. And what we learned on 501 became 502, then 503, and so on to 504, and now the fifth generation of audio panels with a quarter-century of design and refinement -- the RST-564/565.

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