Lightspeed Zulu Noise Gating Technology
 

Hey Zulu users, Can you tell me how this NGT is supposed to work?

I bought a lightly used Zulu on eBay a few days ago.

Tested it out on 2 out-and-backs in the Ocho.

On the first one the intercom hiss would be silenced and only heard when one of us talked. Nice!!! NGT right?

But on my second out and back (next day) the hiss was heard at all times. Rebooted headset, no change. Only thing I can think is that the last FO had a Bose X and his mic may be overly sensitive???

Is this NGT hit or miss? Am I doing something wrong? Do you think my headset could be faulty? Thanks all.

Well the owners manuals says to keep the DIP switch for noise gate "off". It says to call the company if you want use it, so I have no idea when you would want to use it. A noise gate is just a squelch circuit that lives in the headset rather than the airplane panel and decides what is noise and what isn't. Since most airplanes have squelch function I am not sure when you might want it. Other than that Zulus are an ideal headset and seem to have made me an inch taller too (kidding).

Second that, my Zulu manual says to leave the switch as-is and call the company for more information. I have not tried moving the switch. For most of the GA airplanes I get into, I will have to adjust the squelch on the audio panel because sometimes it will be set too sensitive and the mic will stay open. I have had a few instances where the headset squealed/hissed while talking on the radio, but I think that was an audio panel problem.

Yeah problem is in our Dash 8s there is no squelch adjustment for the intercom. The hiss is always on - if you turn it down you can't hear the other pilot when he/she speaks. What I did learn about the Zulu (my gating switch is also still in the off position) if I turn my headset volume to about mid-range the headset will squelch out the intercom hiss and I can only hear it when one of us speaks. Initially I purposely set the headset volume all the way to its lowest setting and turned up the aircraft volume controls. This supressed the buzzers and bells a bit so they would not be so loud. But for some reason this also prevented the headset from squelching out the background noise of the intercom. So problem fixed now, but the fasten seatbelt chime and the "one to go" buzzer really scare the crap out of me now. Oh well, a small price to pay : ) Thanks guys