Hand Held Radios (Com + Nav)and GPS...Help?

That's not the cleverest plan in the world, is it? Some of the data is ten
years old, and some was done last week.

Ten years ago, it WAS 3% a day. Five years ago, it got down to 2, and now it is
1 and still dropping.

Instead of using the highest, why not use the current data?

Jim



john smith
shared these priceless pearls of wisdom:

-
-I have gone to different sites and read different values, so I use the
-highest.

Jim Weir (A&P/IA, CFI, & other good alphabet soup)
VP Eng RST Pres. Cyberchapter EAA Tech. Counselor
http://www.rst-engr.com

The rechargable was a major reason for switching from a Sporty's to
the Yaseu (aka Vertex) for me.

My handheld is my only radio, so buying AA batts was a real drain for
me. By the same token, I know that if I'm going to be flying for a
couple of hours, I probably should charge up the radio.

For a backup radio, it would be a more difficult call. Why not
recharge on the first day of every month?

On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 00:34:24 -0500, "Morgans"
wrote:



NiMH have a self-discharge rate of 3-5% per day. If you are going on
extended trips, purchase an alkaline battery pack.

You need to google about that to see for yourself. They self discharge at
slightly over 1% per day. Given the fact that they have a higher capacity
than alkaline, they will still have more capacity left over, even
considering self discharge, than alkalines for at least two or three weeks.

- I am the type of person to prepare by charging things often, so it is
ablsolutely no problem for me. If you do prepare for a long trip by
charging, you have around two times the capacity than alkaline, so where is
the down side? Add to that a charger to run off of ship's power, and you
can go long, indefinitely.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email: (requires authentication)

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

well ill throw in my $.02 even though im still technically a student. i
bought a Airmap 500 ($400 ebay) and am impressed w/ it. great on vfr flights
for double checking my checkpoints. think my cfi is debating on getting one
now. pretty easy to use too. although i need to get some tint for the screen
as its too bright at night. its well worth the money being $500 retail. the
HSI feature is great! and comes w/ all kinds of accesories in the box (yoke
mount dc adapter external antenna and mount map making software etc etc).
anyway i thought it was the best for the $500 price range after looking at
the few that are that inexpensive. may upgrade in the future once i get my
commercial certificate but for vfr its great. -Nick
"JJS" jschneider@REMOVE SOCKSpldi.net wrote in message
...
probably purchase the Airmap 500 or 1000 unless someone that owns one
of these units and doesn't like it changes my mind . It seems they

I may go with the Icom A5 and save a $100,
as in my experience, the nav feature on the IC-A22 has limited range
and usefulness, (at least with the supplied antenna).

I've been considering buying a handheld radio. A couple of weeks
ago in absolutely perfect weather, the radios in the FBO's plane
were being intermittant. Although no emergency, it helped me
decide I want a radio especially since I've started my IFR
training.

After some research, it was a toss up between the Vertex
with a few more gizmos and NiCd cells or the ICOM A5
with NiMH cells. Both were withing $30 or so from
various places since ICOM was offering a few
headset adapter for the A5 that was included with the Vertex.
Well I found LC Flight (www.lcflight.com) had the same
price as most other discount shops and was offering
a FREE alkaline battery pack for the A5. It came to $280
with the headset adapter from ICOM and the alkaline battery
case from LCFlight + 6 S/H. I haven't gotten it yet but it
will probably get here on Monday.

I ordered from them once before and they were quite on
par with Sportys. I ended up dealing with them more than
I wanted to as the DC 10-60's they sent to me had a very
short cable between the two ear cups so they couldn't
be extended far enough. I ended up sending it back for a refund
minus the shipping and was minimal hassle.

(and no, I do not have any affiliation with them).

Gerald

OK.. we are tricking out our new (to us) 172...

"Tricking out"? I love it! Are you an ex-motocrosser or something?
Didn't think that euphamism was used in these here environs....

Looking at/comparing the ICOM IC-A23, and the Vertex Standard
VXA-210.

Well, I'll throw out that my JRC JHP-500 works great and is a good bit
cheaper than the ICOMs. I have no complaints.

I have to agree about the JRC JHP-500 , works great, easy to use and came
with a headset adapter. Used it for several years and I can't complain.

Ardna


"Paul Folbrecht" wrote in message
hlink.net...
OK.. we are tricking out our new (to us) 172...

"Tricking out"? I love it! Are you an ex-motocrosser or something?
Didn't think that euphamism was used in these here environs....

Looking at/comparing the ICOM IC-A23, and the Vertex Standard
VXA-210.

Well, I'll throw out that my JRC JHP-500 works great and is a good bit
cheaper than the ICOMs. I have no complaints.

ICOM is more $, but a known quantity/quality.

Completely unfamiliar with Vertex quality/service..


That's just you. Vertex has been around for years now - and they are
getting rave reviews. Check out Aviation Consumer or Avionics West, for
example.

Same for the Lowrance.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

I too was saddled with this question recently and bought the ICOM IC-A23
Sport. I figured it had a very good reputation and since I was planning to
use it as a backup, it was easier to carry a couple of sets of spare
alkaline batteries with me than worry about the last time I charged it. By
buying the sport, the price was quite reasonable. I also got (at the time a
rebate like offer) the headset adapter.

Other than testing it at my FBO and using it to listen to weather on the way
to the airport, I haven't had a need for it as of yet but feel very
comfortable having it within reach at all times.

As for a GPS, I have a Garmin 196 and find it totally adequate. Color while
nice, I don't think is worth the premium. Also the size is good and fits
nicely in my Cherokee with bow-tie yokes. I will note that the yoke mount
that Garmin ships would not work directly in the 172R's I trained in because
of the yoke shape. I'm not sure if this is a problem with all yokes, but it
required me to keep it on the passenger seat. Just as well, since I was
training at the time I really only used it to verify my checkpoints.

Hope this was of some help,

Tom


wrote in message
...
Hi All!

OK.. we are tricking out our new (to us) 172...

Looking at/comparing the ICOM IC-A23, and the Vertex Standard
VXA-210.

ICOM is more $, but a known quantity/quality.

Completely unfamiliar with Vertex quality/service..

Any experiences you would share with us?

And....

GPS....

The GARMIN 196 seems to be a fav, but we are attracted to the
features/screen size of the Lowrance Airmap 1000.

Short of "holding out" for a Colour 196 we are asking for
advice here as well..

Any owner/user comparisons/recommendations?

Thanks in advance....

Dave

I used to have the top of the line Yaesu with all the accessories.

It disappeared a year or so ago and I replaced it with an Icom, a
simpler com only that only has a AA battery pack, though rechargable
cells are avaiable for it. It cost about half as much as I originally
paid for the Yaesu. I don't think it has much transmission range from
inside the cockpit with just its little rubber duckie antenna, but it
receives well and picks up NOAA broadcasts too.

My experience with the Yaesu Nav functions were that they were 100%
worthless. I could pick up the VOR with my naked eye before the stupid
little thing would find it. The NiCd cell in the Yaesu would auto-discharge
in about two weeks, making it impractical to leave in a flight bag.

I've also tried navigating with a Sporty's. It worked MUCH better than the
Yaesu. Even with the little rubber ducky antenna, sitting on a Cessna
glare shield it worked almost as well as the panel mount VORs. It's not
as slick a package as either the newest Yaesu or Icom, but performance was
excellent. I do believe I could navigate VOR to VOR and maybe, in an
emergency, even shoot a localizer with just the Sporty's. I've been intending
to try that, but have not so far.