Radio advice - newbie

I'm a student pilot, and it's about time for me to get a radio. For general
soaring purposes, what's a decent handheld? I really know nothing about
them. Is the Sporty's SP-200 a good choice?

Thanks in advance.

"Roger Worden" wrote in message
om...
I'm a student pilot, and it's about time for me to get a radio. For
general
soaring purposes, what's a decent handheld? I really know nothing about
them. Is the Sporty's SP-200 a good choice?

I have never seen the SP-200 so can't comment. You will never go wrong
with a Vertex or Icom, they are the Toyota and Honda of that particular
market.

Vaughn



Thanks in advance.

"Vaughn" wrote in message ...
"Roger Worden" wrote in message
om...
I'm a student pilot, and it's about time for me to get a radio. For
general
soaring purposes, what's a decent handheld? I really know nothing about
them. Is the Sporty's SP-200 a good choice?

I have never seen the SP-200 so can't comment. You will never go wrong
with a Vertex or Icom, they are the Toyota and Honda of that particular
market.

Vaughn


I would like to second Vaughn's comment. I have an Icom IC20 since
1988 and it works well. They rugged and reliable.

Ulrich Neumann
Libelle 'GM'




Thanks in advance.

I forgot to add that I prefer to buy the smallest radio I can find and
then wear it around my neck on a light lanyard. I never have to fumble for
my radio and it is never adrift in the cockpit. (nothing more fun than a
radio or a drink bottle down around your rudder peddles)
For the record, I now use a Vertex Pro V, but I think that Icom makes a
comparable unit.

Vaughn

"Vaughn" wrote in message
...

"Roger Worden" wrote in message
om...
I'm a student pilot, and it's about time for me to get a radio. For
general
soaring purposes, what's a decent handheld? I really know nothing about
them. Is the Sporty's SP-200 a good choice?

I have never seen the SP-200 so can't comment. You will never go
wrong
with a Vertex or Icom, they are the Toyota and Honda of that particular
market.

Vaughn



Thanks in advance.

never wear anything around the neck lest you want to be choked by it...

get an ICOM.. then get the "speaker/mic" combination unit that plugs into
the top.. ICOM carried on belt or hip pocket.. or inside windbreaker jacket
pocket... speaker/mic clips to shirt collar or glider shoulder seat belt
straps (like a traffic cop)

JMHO
BT

"Vaughn" wrote in message
...
I forgot to add that I prefer to buy the smallest radio I can find
and
then wear it around my neck on a light lanyard. I never have to fumble
for
my radio and it is never adrift in the cockpit. (nothing more fun than a
radio or a drink bottle down around your rudder peddles)
For the record, I now use a Vertex Pro V, but I think that Icom makes
a
comparable unit.

Vaughn

"Vaughn" wrote in message
...

"Roger Worden" wrote in message
om...
I'm a student pilot, and it's about time for me to get a radio. For
general
soaring purposes, what's a decent handheld? I really know nothing
about
them. Is the Sporty's SP-200 a good choice?

I have never seen the SP-200 so can't comment. You will never go
wrong
with a Vertex or Icom, they are the Toyota and Honda of that particular
market.

Vaughn



Thanks in advance.

"BTIZ" wrote in message
news:rfezb.892$yf.327@fed1read01...
never wear anything around the neck lest you want to be choked by it...
(sigh) Always someone on the Internet to tell you that what you are
doing is mortally dangerous. I did say "light" lanyard and you could just
as easily get wound up and horribly injured in the cord for that speaker
mike. (said with a grin)

That said, if you are wearing a chute, extra lanyards, cords, water
hoses etc. should be thought out very carefully.

get an ICOM.. then get the "speaker/mic" combination unit that plugs into
the top.. ICOM carried on belt or hip pocket.. or inside windbreaker
jacket
pocket... speaker/mic clips to shirt collar or glider shoulder seat belt
straps (like a traffic cop)

That is a perfectly valid way of doing it, I just don't like carrying
that extra hardware around. My entire radio is only about double the size
of some speaker mikes I have seen and there is one less thing to break.

Vaughn

never wear anything around the neck lest you want to be choked by it...
(sigh) Always someone on the Internet to tell you that what you are
doing is mortally dangerous. I did say "light" lanyard and you could just
as easily get wound up and horribly injured in the cord for that speaker
mike. (said with a grin)

I understand the "tongue in cheek" comments..

but at least with my speaker/mic combo.. the cord has to get around my
neck... with your set up.. it's already there.. LOL

regardless how "light" the cord.. you can get twisted on a string..

to each their own preferences..

BT

Is my impression correct that in the U.S. many if not most fly around
with handheld radios only?
If yes - why?

In (continental) Europe virtually all sailplanes have built-in radios.

In article ,
Marcel Duenner wrote:
Is my impression correct that in the U.S. many if not most fly around
with handheld radios only?
If yes - why?

In (continental) Europe virtually all sailplanes have built-in radios.

None of our 5 club gliders have radios. Part of it is to
keep the rent cheap, cheap, cheap. Another part is simplicity:
nothing to break, repair, steal, or recharge. Another part is that
we very seldom have simultaneous tows, and the 400 foot width
of our main runway makes unplanned simultaneous landings a cinch.
Finally, there is very, very little "radio required" airspace
within even 50 miles, and I don't know anyone who has
made it to 18,000 above our sea level airport (18,000 feet is
again where radios are required).

I suspect in Europe there is much less open land, and much less
uncontrolled airspace. And I suspect gliding is much
more popular because petrol is so expensive and in some
countries one must get a scheduled "slot" to fly a plane.
I imagine this is why winches are popular too.
On aerotow, there are signals that don't require radio,
and are easy to see from 200 feet.
On winch, I bet radios really help a lot.
Don't the flight levels start at 6000 in some places too?
Do you need radios for this?

Now on the US East coast, I couldn't say if radios are
commonly installed. I suspect it's more likely since
the controlled airspace on their sectionals seems to
appear with some regularity...

Perhaps someone could tell us what radio requirements
are over the pond, or in other parts of the world.
In the US, the bahamas, and mexico, it's very easy
to fly anywhere, except major (500,000 person+) city
airports, using only a handheld.

(Mark James Boyd) wrote in message news:3fd60658$1@darkstar...
In article ,
Marcel Duenner wrote:
Is my impression correct that in the U.S. many if not most fly around
with handheld radios only?
If yes - why?

In (continental) Europe virtually all sailplanes have built-in radios.

None of our 5 club gliders have radios. Part of it is to
keep the rent cheap, cheap, cheap.

That's a point.

Another part is simplicity:
nothing to break, repair, steal, or recharge.

We rarely break, repair and never steal our radios either :-)
What we recharge is the battery which we need anyway for the el. vario
and glide computer.

Another part is that
we very seldom have simultaneous tows, and the 400 foot width
of our main runway makes unplanned simultaneous landings a cinch.
Finally, there is very, very little "radio required" airspace
within even 50 miles, and I don't know anyone who has
made it to 18,000 above our sea level airport (18,000 feet is
again where radios are required).

I suspect in Europe there is much less open land, and much less
uncontrolled airspace.

The controlled airspace is not the reason I use radio. Last time I
talked to ATC was at least 300 flying hours ago. We have general and
also "private" chatting frequencies here and I wouldn't like to rely
on the poor transmission range of a handheld. Plus I have enough stuff
flying around (no, not literally) in the cockpit already (food, drink,
maps, jacket, sometimes GPS, sometimes oxygen, sometimes camera) and
can do without an additional handheld radio with all the potential
difficulties described by others in this thread.

And I suspect gliding is much
more popular because petrol is so expensive and in some
countries one must get a scheduled "slot" to fly a plane.
I imagine this is why winches are popular too.
On aerotow, there are signals that don't require radio,
and are easy to see from 200 feet.
On winch, I bet radios really help a lot.

There are also very clear signals for winch launching without radio -
but because of radio long forgotten by most people... including winch
drivers.

Don't the flight levels start at 6000 in some places too?
Do you need radios for this?

Don't know about 6000. In Switzerland and Germany controlled airspace
generally starts at FL100. Swiss Alps FL130, some places and times
even FL150. From there on you need clearance and often enough won't
get it without a transponder. Of course there are also plenty of CTR,
TMA and AWY much lower down. Same thing the very often no or only
very restrictive clearence without transponder. So I just don't go
there. So far most of these airspaces are fly-aroundable. But the
situation certainly is not getting better.


Now on the US East coast, I couldn't say if radios are
commonly installed. I suspect it's more likely since
the controlled airspace on their sectionals seems to
appear with some regularity...

Perhaps someone could tell us what radio requirements
are over the pond, or in other parts of the world.
In the US, the bahamas, and mexico, it's very easy
to fly anywhere, except major (500,000 person+) city
airports, using only a handheld.

Regards
Marcel