Buying a Hand Held

[W.J.Langholz]

If you were to buy a hand held radio today what would it be?

W.

[canav8]

what is your use? Radio back up or primary fun around the airport. If it is a back up Sporty's SP200 is bear bones for less then 200. Not Bad for a transceiver with good power output. After you buy all the bells and whistles it can get alot more. All accessories are separate and can be added at any time. STAY AWAY from VERTEX radios, I dont know why, but they all have been poor in the transmission arena. Good receiver though. Hope that helps. Doug

[W.J.Langholz]

Doug
It would be for radio back up mostly, just in case sort of thing

W.

[cmsusllc]

I like my Icom, I have enough parts to hook it up in the plane for a self powered backup. I wouldn't bother with the nav function again though. It's worked great, no problems for six years.
Scott ..... 53B

[Blue4]

A back up comm radio? Radio failure is a license to steal, don't waste such a great opportunity!

I'm only half-joking. You'll find plenty of utility in a handheld, but probably never use it as a backup. Its a solid idea!

[W.J.Langholz]

Blue

Did you take 1 along on your recent "long" trip ?

W.

[Blue4]

No, I made it all the way from Montana to Alaska with only a single nav-com, NO BACKUP COMM RADIO.

In addition to the SPOT, I had a 406 MHz PLB and an Iridium satphone. I would have used my cell phone or the sat phone to talk to ATC if I absolutely had to.

In all honesty, though, if I were to do it again today I would bring it with. I was trying to pack light, and figured it wasn't worth the weight. Now I know I could have brought quite a bit more before going grossly over gross.

-Scott

[N2540V]

Sporty's SP200 is bear bones for less then 200.

The SP-200 is list $375 on sale for $299.
http://sportys.com/PilotShop/product/9191

There are less expensive Icoms
http://sportys.com/PilotShop/category/831

[GAHorn]

Hand-helds are poor back-ups unless you go to the trouble to install an external antenna, and provide for headsets.

In most comm-failure scenarios, I believe pilots are ill prepared to use their hand-helds. Imagine what will likely occur:

1: Your microphone will be constantly keyed to the ON position, and it will be unlikely to be discovered for quite some time. You may not get it un-keyed if it's a failed relay. The freq. will be blocked until you turn OFF that comm radio.

2: ATC will attempt contact with you and you will not be listening to your hand-held because you are unaware of your comm failure for some time.

3: When you finally become aware of your failure, you will not have access to the hand held sitting back in the baggage compartment or in your flight bag, out of reach. You will have difficulty finding it, plugging it in to your headset, recalling the frequency you were on (your aircraft comm lost it's display when it failed) and you do not recall the FAR regarding your last clearance. (In fact, you're not certain what your last clearance was, or your EFC or void time, for that matter.)

4: You completely forget or are too timid to squawk 7600, even if you CAN receive. And the arriving F-16 is distracting. (Don't worry about him. You can SEE him. Worry about the one at your six-o'clock that you can NOT see. He has armed missiles and a radar LockOn.)

5: You finally get the handheld turned ON and ATC has given up trying to contact you. They are now irritated with you and tell you "radar service terminated, squawk 1200, good day."

OR..... you were on an IFR clearance, you are still IFR and you can recieve ATC but cannot reach them with your weak little handheld transciever. You finally squawk Ident enough times that they re-broadcast a new clearance to you and tell you to squawk something different or IDent again or make a turn to confirm your reception of them, and then you are given a clearance you cannot comply with. NOW ...what do you do?

Handhelds are toys and/or security-blankets. It is exceeding unlikely they will ever be of serious use other than to obtain a clearance prior to engine start or for monitoring purposes. I have an older King KX-99 that I actually DID find useful once.... In VFR conditions I used it's VOR feature to confirm a pilotage-derived position on a Sectional Chart in an airplane which had no navigation radios of any sort. While I'm glad to have it, for the last 5 years it has lived in a desk drawer at home with it's dead battery. Rather than spend $300 or so for a handheld, I recommend you spend $600 or so for a cheap, properly installed #2 comm.

Hot wire it directly to your battery and provide a completely seperate headset/mic jack/antenna setup, if you wish to avoid audio panel complexity and true back-up capability.

Here's only one choice available. Used units are also options.
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/a ... eFL760.php

[canav8]

Yea George, that toy saved my life one day when I was a private pilot. I used the nav function of the toy to navigate to a VOR. The problem was I had an alternator belt break, flying IMC. Guess what! Do you know the first thing that quit when I was loosing battery power? It was the transponder when I realized they lost radar contact, The second thing to go was the com. I lost the nav last. The beautiful little discharge light in the cessna had blown at some point and I didnt even see it was on. It must have blown when the alternator went under voltage but that is speculation on my part. I was flying in the Southern California Basin and the wx was low overcast all over. I used my little toy to navigate to a VOR on the field. Knowing that my present position and the VOR did not have obstructions I descended and punched out the bottom of a fairly high ceiling 1700 feet to make a pattern for landing. Only to be welcomed by an entourage of CFR vehicles. I was shacken not stirred! Keeping a toy close to where the pilot operates in the cockpit is good airmanship much like a map, If yours is in your bag and you dont pull it out well, I guess someday we will all read about it. V/R Doug

[GAHorn]

My comments were intended to provoke serious thought about what best-use may be made of handhelds and to offer a better solution. Seems you failed to reduce your electrical loads subsequent to the alternator failure?

Yes, I've written about those little "red lights" that folks mistake for "charge indicators". A burnt-out indicator...fails to "indicate".

Many years ago, a friend purchased a C-175 which had a defective voltage regulator. On his first flight, to bring the airplane home, the gen fuse blew, which disables the no-charge indicator. His radios quit in the traffic pattern at Love Field, Dallas. Of course, he landed anyway with no problem, but the point is.... red indicator lights are less reliable even than hand-held transmitters.

I agree that portable nav radios are very useful....which is the function you apparently made use of. I recommend everyone have a portable GPS these days. (Much more useful than a handheld transmitter, IMHO. IN fact, air-band SCANNERS are much less expensive and virtually as useful as transmitters.)

[n3833v]

I carry mine at night in case I loose electrical power and then I can at least turn on the runway lights.

John

[jrenwick]

Not exactly a toy, my 20+ year-old ICOM handheld is the sole radio in my J3. It does have an externally-mounted antenna. In 2003 it took me to Anchorage. Never had a problem reaching anybody along the Alaska Highway, or anywhere else on that trip.

If you ever want a really satisfying challenge, take a J3 from the lower 48 to Alaska and back!

[Bruce Fenstermacher]

Like John my Icom is my only radio in my J3. I used it to fly from PA to FL 12 years ago and return. It remains my only radio in that aircraft but only is used when it is charged and I turn it on of course. I've never used the VOR feature to navigate anywhere and to be honest wouldn't even think to do so.

I kind of chuckled when George proclaimed them junk. I know what he means. I've been plenty upset when my handheld with the plain rubber ducky antenna wouldn't transmit more than 5 miles in J3 environment of an unshielded ignition. Pretty tuff to get clearance through a Class D surface area when you can't get close enough to the tower for them to hear you. Then of course I always forget to charge it or forget to turn it off on the last flight fully discharging the external 12v 6ah sealed cell I have it tied to now because the internal battery just never seems to last long enough.

I can only imagine how well it would work after sitting in my flight bag waiting for the off chance my other radio or electrical system failed.

Of course like any piece of equipment if you keep it in good working order there is no reason it shouldn't get you out of a jam. I'd probably run the battery dead though trying to figure out how to get the VOR feature to work. I'd also recommend an external antenna if you are serious about making any transmissions of any distance.

[jrenwick]

....Then of course I always forget to charge it or forget to turn it off on the last flight fully discharging the external 12v 6ah sealed cell I have it tied to now because the internal battery just never seems to last long enough....

You have to accessorize! In addition to the rechargeable battery, I've always used an optional extra battery case containing ten AA batteries. I didn't take the rechargeable one to Alaska because I didn't know where I'd be able to recharge it. I took Lithium AA batteries, non-rechargeable, at $2 a pop for spares. They weigh less than half as much as alkaline batteries, and last at least twice as long. Only had to replace them once in three weeks, as I remember.