Hand held Radio

[McRay7ac]

Aircraft annual and ready to fly what is a good hand held radio to use and what kind of battery intercom system
I need to install, were is the best place to perches one that is not expensive that works well.
Thanks Ray

[M Towsley]

Re: Hand held Radio

Hi Ray,

I use an Icom A6 with an external antenna. You will need an external antenna if you plan on talking to anyone. I also use a Flightcom IISX two-place intercom. No batteries needed except for the one on the back of the radio and the 9 volt in the intercom.

This has been covered many times, try using the search box for more info.

I should add, after reading Ryan's post, that I operate out of Class C airspace therefore I need the range. Range is so good with an external antenna I talk to people in the next state over, and I am in the middle of ours.

[Ryan]

Re: Hand held Radio

I use Icom A-14 with same set up as Marty except I dont have the external antenna. I get good 10 mile range and ok about 15 miles. After that can get random. i hang mine on the back of the passenger shoulder harness and works great there. If i put it down in the cockpit anywhere i get static.

[3Dreaming]

Re: Hand held Radio

When I had my BL it had unshielded ignition. I had an extension made to hang the rubber duck antenna up in the windshield. That worked well for me, but your mileage may vary.

[Mark Bowden]

Re: Hand held Radio

Hi,

I'm using a Sportys SP400 I upgraded to from an SP200 a year ago, it's excellent. I get 20-25 hours of battery life per module pack. Sigtronics intercom is 15 years old now, squelch performance is a balancing act but works ok. Very pleased with radio performance. Push to talk switch is on yoke.

Installed is an external antenna on a simple strap below the floor board with coax running up into the cockpit to the center console. The antenna hangs down at front of and between the shock cord fairings.

In the flat Midwest at 2500' AGL I get loud and clear Unicom traffic (not the FBO) reception from 100 miles away and more, even though the antenna mount strap doesn't follow any ground plane design guidelines.

Typically at 2500' AGL I'll get ATIS/AWOS 20 miles out. Tower RX is better.

For mounting when Dad had the aircraft he made a center console from out of cardboard painted grey. It has proven to be durable and weighs about a pound (it too is about 15 years old). He used 3 boxes and the lower is sized in width to hold a quart of oil sideways. It provides two storage compartments of ample room, it's as affordable and light as a console can be. It takes up space but is pretty handy.

Radio has Velcro on back of the battery module and is held to Velcro on console. Spare battery module has matching Velcro. You don't have to undo the cables to swap battery packs.

Hope it helps, Mark

[Joe cooper]

Re: Hand held Radio

The master craftsman who rebuilt my 12 d made a small metal holder for the sportys radio and mounted it on the upper left of the panel , just perfect. The coax ran up thru the ceiling, hidden, to an external antenna mounted outside over the roof. Worked perfectly even though there was a slight noise from the ignition. Incidentally , this really nice t craft is for sale by the fellow I sold it to. Is on barnstormers. It's in chandler Arizona seller is dave allen. It's got a recent engine by Don swords. It. really is pretty t craft. Trophy winner.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: Hand held Radio

I mounted my iCOM on the A Pillar with an aluminum bracket. With the A Pillar right behind it it doesn't impact visibility at all. I used an antenna extension cable to a whip antenna on the top of the fuselage close to teh aileron cable area (KEEP THE CABLE CLEAR OF THE CONTROL CABLES, but DON'T coil it!). Very easy to see and use there and I usually tuck the headphone cables up on top of the glareshield, not hanging down like in the photo.