I make the microphones but not the preamp that goes inside - I think all is
well with the preamp now as been much activity over last 2 weeks

Ian McPhee (skype macca304)
Box 657
Byron Bay NSW 2481 Australia
Tel +61(0)2 66847642 mob +61(0)428847642
ralia (remove all except .au)
www.mrsoaring.com
"Paul Remde" wrote in message
news:vGL6f.466858$_o.281583@attbi_s71...
Hi Jim,

I sell the XCOM radio so I'm probably biased, but I do my best to give
completely honest advice.

I have played with the XCOM radios in my office quite a lot. I like the
ease of use. It is easy to configure and change settings. It is easy to
use "in flight" (although I haven't flown with one yet). It does have
some very cool features as you mentioned. I also like that it can
transmit 0.75 W output with only 9V power input. That is an impressive
spec. Most radios won't transmit at all at 9V. Of course, it transmits
with much, much more power at 12V or more.

My testing was plagued by an issue with a particular batch of XCOM
microphones. They received a bad batch of microphones and I received most
of them. It was tough to track down since the units they had in their
stock worked fine. Thankfully they recently solved the problem and they
are sending me more microphones to test. It was a vendor component swap
issue that was tough to isolate. I've been impressed with their
professional communications with me on the issue.

I've sold several of the radios so far. The microphone issue made us
question the radio for a time but now that that we know it is a microphone
issue and it has been solved, I think we'll be on track. I haven't had
any radios returned to me so far.

If you want a radio with a track record, buy the excellent Walter Dittel
or Becker radios. If you want something new with new features it may be
worth trying the XCOM.

Good Soaring,

Paul Remde
Cumulus Soaring, Inc.
http://www.cumulus-soaring.com

"jphoenix" wrote in message
oups.com...
Anybody have comments positive or negative regarding the XCOM radio?
I'm trying to decide on a replacement for the Filser I pulled and I
like the Becker and Dittel, but the features of the XCOM are very
interesting, monitor two channels, receive 108 to 118 range
frequencies, etc.

Do they sound as good as the Becker? Any reliability problems?

Rgds,

Jim