Which hand-held radio?

I'm extremely pleased with the Vertex VX-220. Good price and excellent build quality (Japan). Without an external antenna, you're probably not going to be very successful, depending on the type of airplane. I have an external antenna and with it, it works almost as well as my GNS-430.

The one with integrated ILS is from Sporty's. Very expensive, large and heavy. Nice add-on but I was not impressed by the package.

I think that in case of a complete electrical failure, using the OBS mode on my handheld Garmin will be more than good enough to perform an approach into low visibility. Given that we fly Cat A aircraft, we can descend slowly and we can stay above glide slope and still have enough runway to land on.

PS: The VX-220 comes with a BNC antenna adapter and a standard 2 plug headset adapter. You can also buy a battery compartment that works with standard AA cells. I carry that in addition to the standard rechargeable so I am 110% covered.

I have an Icom A6 which is my primary radio for microlight flying, and a flight bag backup for other flying.

I am delighted with it - cheap, lasts well, very clear. You do want some extra cabling to put it onto your headset however, and also a separate PTT to use it with a headset.

Once upon a time I'd have gone for something with VOR or even the Sporty's ILS device, but since I fly with a portable GPS nowadays I can't really see the point.

G

If you can still find one the Icom AC21 has VOR and with a 12 volt source it can be powered off the a/c electrics. I bought mine in the USA off eBay.

Strictly speaking this model is not approved in the UK, but the A20 range IMHO remains the best 'handheld'.

The little Vertex is also reliable but no VOR & for continuous use requires a lower voltage, they do supply a cigarette lighter which does that from 12v source.

Like others say I never seem to need the VOR capability.

mike hallam

I've got an A24 (incl VOR), bought in Germany some years ago. Great piece of kit.

Strange to buy an Icom in Germany - I got my A6 in the UK. The price difference even justified the ticket for the ferry-boat!

Approvals are bit of a vague area, some say certification is only required for apparatus permanently fixed to the plane. There must be shady passages or even voids in some national books of law.

I am quite happy with the A6 but an external antenna has been recommended many times. I have one and even then I get complaints about poor Tx performance. Might have to check the antenna and its cabling, though; I particularly suspect the ground plane is too small.

But the A6 has been very dependable, and even with my less-than-top-of-the-bill Peltor headsets and my ageing ears I have no problem understanding what is said. Comprehending is harder, sometimes...

One more model to consider is JRC JHP-520, a.k.a. Rexon RHP-520. Roughly equivalent to ICOM IC-A24 in functionality at half the price.

I bought a Vertex Pilot 111 some years ago and it works fine. At the time I was going to buy an Icom but couldn't get it to work with any headset without lots of feedback. It was apparnetly a known design fault. I presume it's been fixed now (at the time in the dealers we tried different radios of that model from stock and every type of headset they stocked - none worked).

Quite a few handhelds don't work with headsets.

I have an Icom A22, which I bought immediately upon getting a radio failure in my PPL training, in 2000.

It's always worked perfectly. I bought a new battery pack for it at some stage, NIMH, to replace the original NICD one.

It works perfectly with a headset (Bose and others) via a headset adapter, and a PTT switch.

I got a loop put into the plane's COM2 antenna and it can connect into that and then I get a range which is practically/apparently the same as with the KX155A radio i.e. good enough.

There is even a DOS program for connecting a PC to the A22, with a cable, which allows the preset frequencies and their names to be programmed from a PC. I actually got this working once...

So on that basis I can recommend a used A22 which does exactly what it said on the box

The VOR tracking is unlikely to be of much use IF you carry a handheld GPS also. A long time ago there were a few products which combined GPS with a radio (Garmin did one) but I don't see any now.

I don't have any navigation equipment in my plane (other than a handheld GPS and my paper map) so I was thinking about getting either the Sporty one with ILS or one with a nav function.

However my instructor pointed out that he couldn't listen to and identify the VOR on his handheld, so he couldn't be sure he was tuned to the right one.

Do any handhelds allow you to "listen" to the morse VOR / localiser identity?