Looking for Transciever suggestions

Having experienced and successfully survived my first complete electrical
failure, hence no radios (at night mind you), I am looking for suggestions as
to which hand-held transcievers I might looking into buying.

All suggestions are welcome...

Thanks in advance.

On 03 Jul 2004 01:46:42 GMT, (Lockrdg) wrote:

Having experienced and successfully survived my first complete electrical
failure, hence no radios (at night mind you), I am looking for suggestions as
to which hand-held transcievers I might looking into buying.

All suggestions are welcome...

Thanks in advance.

I'd recommend the AvTek battery backup. Google for AvTek and you
should get his site, or look in the Aircraft Spruce catalog. It
guarantees an additional 40 - 60 minutes of electrical use and is very
small.

I have it and hope I never need it, but know I've got something I may
not be able to live without.

I also have the iCom handheld to answer your question directly.

HTH.
z

In article , Lockrdg
wrote:

Having experienced and successfully survived my first complete electrical
failure, hence no radios (at night mind you), I am looking for suggestions as
to which hand-held transcievers I might looking into buying.

The manufacturing trend is toward miniturization.
€*Unless you have child size fingers, I recommend the older, slightly
larger size units. One finger=one button.
€ Having said that, you can download the instruction manuals for most
of the popular aviation handhelds (ICOM, Yasau). Compare features and
familiarize yourself with the steps necessary to program the
frequencies you will use and other features offered.
€ Compare what is included in the price.
€*Compare the capacity of the included battery.
€*Power output will be expressed in two way, peak and carrier.
Compare apples to apples on these measurements.
€*Determine if this spec is for the included battery pack or attached
to a 12Vdc source.
€*The instruction manual should give the battery capacity (expressed in
mAHr) and the talk/listen time for that battery pack.
€*You will want to purchase an alkaline battery pack as a backup for
when you cannot recharge or if you forgot to recharge.
€ Ask about the antenna connector. Is a standard BNC or some other type
that requires a BNC-adaptor.
€ Look at the display. Is the display large enough to read when 18-24
inches from your eyes?
€Is the keyboard backlit?
Don't be in a rush to purchase before you have an opportunity to try it
out. If you know someone with a unit you are interested in, ask to
borrow it for flight or trip. They are great for obtaining clearances
prior to engine start, especially when there are departure delays,
calling for the fuel truck from the ramp, etc.
The new units have NOAA Weather frequencies built in, so you can get
the latest severe weather wherever you are.

Edr,

The manufacturing trend is toward miniturization.
€*Unless you have child size fingers, I recommend the older, slightly
larger size units. One finger=one button.


Check again: It's the units getting smaller, not the keys on them
(mostly).

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

"Lockrdg" wrote in message
...
I am looking for suggestions as
to which hand-held transcievers I might looking into buying.


I have the older Icom IC-A22 but I have user (or rather tried to use) the
VOR feature on it and consider it nearly useless for serious usage. If I
were to buy one today I would probably go for one of the smaller/lighter
Vertex units.

I have tried a bunch of different ones (old and new Icom, Yaesu, Vertex and
an old King) and to a first order approximation they have similar
sensitivity and power output. I did try making an entire flight (ground,
tower, then approach control, tower and finally ground) using the Icom and
it went completely smoothly with no one saying I was difficult to read etc.
Key: make sure to get and use the headset adapter. For my Icom I also got
the alkaline battery pack so if the NiCds go dead I have a backup which has
a very long shelf life. You can also buy NiMH packs now for them for about
the same price it would cost you to get new cells for an old pack.

While it is possible to program these units ahead of time I find it easier
to just enter the frequency on the keypad or it is really rough up there to
use the knob to change frequency (slowly, though).

Peter Gottlieb wrote:
"Lockrdg" wrote in message
...

I am looking for suggestions as
to which hand-held transcievers I might looking into buying.



I have the older Icom IC-A22 but I have user (or rather tried to use) the
VOR feature on it and consider it nearly useless for serious usage.

VOR's emit horizontally polarized signals, so you place the radio with
the antenna level with the horizon.
Comm signals are vertically polarized, so you hold the radio straight up
and down.
If you talk to FSS on a VOR frequency, you hold it vertically.
If you want to navigate with a VOR frequency, you hold it horizontally.

"john smith" wrote in message
.. .

VOR's emit horizontally polarized signals, so you place the radio with
the antenna level with the horizon.
Comm signals are vertically polarized, so you hold the radio straight up
and down.
If you talk to FSS on a VOR frequency, you hold it vertically.
If you want to navigate with a VOR frequency, you hold it horizontally.


Yes, I know all that. Even held horizontally and oriented for maximum
reception to a VOR it works marginally.

And when you are busy flying it is sure inconvenient to be moving that thing
around. Paying more attention to the radio than flying the plane is a
recipe for disaster.

"Lockrdg" wrote in message
...
Having experienced and successfully survived my first complete electrical
failure, hence no radios (at night mind you), I am looking for suggestions
as
to which hand-held transcievers I might looking into buying.

All suggestions are welcome...

Thanks in advance.

Is that all you're going to tell us? C'mon, out with it! g
--
Jim in NC


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Hmmm...

Took off at night on a heading going directly over the ocean. When I hit the
gear up switch, I lost all power to the panel. I circled back, switched off all
electrical except the master and got a flicker of power in the panel but not
enough to work the radio's. I was hoping the generator ('62 Comanche) would
charge up the battery, but when I looked at the amp-meter, the needle was at
zero. Switched the transponder to 7700 (in case I got enought of a charge) and
occasionally tried the radio (and clicked SOS with the PTT), but it when it
became evident that the generator was gone, I lowered the gear manually, swung
by the tower, thought I got a light and came back around to land. Held it off
the runway for as long as I could, but guess the gear hadn't locked and down I
went. 600' later (according to the airport police) I came to a stop, my
passenger and I hopped out, and that, gentlemen, was that.

This happened last Friday night, so there is still no information as to what
went on with the electrical, but given the amp-meter reading 0 with no draw,
it's a pretty good guess that the genny went out. As far as the gear not
locking, with everything going on, it's possible that I hadn't slowed down
enough before releasing the gear and therefore they couldn't lock, though it
would have been nice if they had once I got down to approch speed :-)

Thanks for ALL your suggestions - particularly the portable power supply - that
would have saved the day.

All the best - Fly safe...

"Lockrdg" wrote in message
...
Hmmm...

I lost all power to the panel.

when it
became evident that the generator was gone, I lowered the gear manually,
swung
by the tower, thought I got a light and came back around to land. Held it
off
the runway for as long as I could, but guess the gear hadn't locked and
down I
went. 600' later (according to the airport police) I came to a stop, my
passenger and I hopped out, and that, gentlemen, was that.

****************************
Sorry to hear about the gear up, but good to hear you made a great landing.
You do get to use the equipment again, right? g\

Most importantly, no one got hurt.

How bad is the plane?
--
Jim in NC


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