Our club members routinely use ICOM handhelds. The ICOM A-22 is no long
produced but serves well with replacement NiMH batteries, the original A-22
came with NiCD.

The newer smaller ICOM A-6 works great, comes standard with NiMH or Lithium
batteries.

I personally use in gliders not equipped with a radio, my ICOM A-22 with a
speaker mic and do not have any problems running down a NiMH 1500mA battery
over a weekend. I also remove the rubber ducky antenna and connect via
standard BNC connector to a magnet mount roof antenna on my truck when
chasing cross country pilots. I would think that this would also work in a
glider with an antenna already mounted. Where to mount the radio.

I have received reports that the speaker/mic combination used on the ICOM
A-6 wears the standard battery down very quickly, less than a day.

The speaker/mics plug into the top of the ICOMs and clip to your jacket or
seat belt, just like local security have on their communications. You do
have to be careful to get a compatible speaker/mic for your radio. The A-22
and A-6 speaker/mics are not cross compatible, and a standard Radio Shack
issue will not work.

BT

"Jim Meade" wrote in message
...
Looking for opinions on a portable, handheld aviation radio for ground
support operations. No special features needed beyond the basic
transciever functions, as far as I know.
If there is a handheld that would be suitable for use in the glider
using an established external antenna, please comment on it, too.
Also, what accessories would be most useful in the glider? Boom mike
or headset? This will be for a tandem that is used for glider
training as well as pleasure.