Review: ICOM IC-A14 Handheld Radio

My club purchased an ICOM IC-A14 to supplement our existing ICOM-
A4's.

The ICOM-A4 has been recently discontinued. It has a simple limited
keypad (no numbers) which is perfect for a club using only one
frequency. We keep them "locked" to prevent accidental mis-
communications from inadvertently changing to the wrong frequency.
The A4 comes with a nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cd) rechargeable battery. The
battery lasts for an entire (busy) day of operations. We purchased
the ICOM BC-121 six bay smart charger which makes recharging a simple
affair - though the BC-121 and BC-124 (AC power supply) is pricey at ~
$500 each plus the cost of the six charger adapter cups (AD-81) at $11
each. There is also an A4 Sport which uses separate AA cells.

The replacement ICOM-A14 is a smaller unit (about 2/3's the height),
lighter and has a lithium-ion (Lion) rechargeable battery. The price
point with the ICOM-A4 is the same, around $200. It uses a different
adapter cup (AD-106). The A14 has a full keypad setup but you can
purchase the A14s which has a simple keypad like the A4. Oddly, the
A14 and A14s are sold at the same price point.

The club likes the size and weight of the A14. However, I soon
received complaints of distorted audio from the tow plane. Oddly, the
A14's transmissions were receive just fine by the A4's. However, the
tow plane's Microaire reception was "unintelligible". We were
surprised to find that there is a microphone gain adjust on the A14 -
which we reset from High to Low. The audio was better and was
considered "OK" to "Good" especially when the speaker held the radio
5-6" away from his mouth (as the manual states). It appears that the
microphone is super sensitive or the radio is just plain defective.

I would be interested in hearing about other user's experiences with
the A14.

Thanks, John DeRosa