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Zaon MRX Traffic Nag: Impressive Performer

Several pilots we know actually, many pilots we know obsess about the threat of mid-air collisions. Yet as an overall accident cause, mid-airs rate near the bottom of the also-ran category. In the overall scheme of things, its hard to find them in the statistical noise level.Nonetheless, if mid-airs are among your personal demons, youre probably a customer for a traffic avoidance device of some sort and the market has provided, albeit not at prices the freckled-neck masses can afford.

Aviation Consumer Staff
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al pilots we know actually, many pilots we know obsess about the threat of mid-air collisions. Yet as an overall accident cause, mid-airs rate near the bottom of the also-ran category. In the overall scheme of things, its hard to find them in the statistical noise level.Nonetheless, if mid-airs are among your personal demons, youre probably a customer for a traffic avoidance device of some sort and the

Zaon’s MRX

market has provided, albeit not at prices the freckled-neck masses can afford. The exception to this is a handful of portable, glareshield-mounted traffic nags that weve tested from time to time, the latest being the MRX from Zaon, a device the company calls PCAS, for portable collision avoidance system.

The MRX springs from a line of such devices developed by both Zaon and its progenitor company, SureCheck Aviation. SureCheck was itself an offshoot of a company specializing in paper checklist products. A couple of years ago, it spun off a new company and renamed it Zaon, a word made up of the initials of two of the founders.

Evolution of Models

The MRX the smallest portable collision device weve seen yet, measuring 2 1/2 inches wide by 4 1/4 inch long and only 3/4 inches high a cigarette pack, basically. Its a bare bones device, shipped with an onboard antenna, accessory power cord and some Velcro bits for mounting. Price, on sale as of press time, is $474. The MRX also has an excellent, large-format manual which clearly explains how the gadget works and how to use it.

The MRX is one of two products Zaon now sells, the other being the XRX, which we reviewed in the August 2006 issue. The XRX currently at $1695 is the more sophisticated of the two products, providing both range information and, according to our trials, relatively accurate azimuth information, something unique for a portable. Zaon ne SureCheck is unique in the portable field for having entered the market early and having remained in it, offering improved products. Two competitors Monroy Aerospace and ProxAlert have remained in the market with essentially the same products they first introduced. Zaon, on the other hand, has evolved a number of products, each of which has performed better in our trials, including the diminutive MRX.

Hardware

Like all of the portables, the MRX is a passive transponder listening device. It depends on ground-based radars or active traffic systems to interrogate nearby transponders, then listens to the reply to make sense of range and relative altitude, but not azimuth. Like the more expensive XRX model, the MRX has a built-in electronic altimeter to provide relative altitude and trend data.

Aviation Consumer Staff