Handheld radios?

DesertNomad

DesertNomad

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DesertNomad
I am looking for a good handheld radio. I only really need COM, not NAV. It needs to work with a headset as well as the PTT switch (so I can talk through the headset, without holding the radio up to my mouth).

I am looking for one with the best range without hooking to an aircraft antenna as the rentals I use do not have a hook up. It should however have an antenna hookup so that when I buy my own airplane, I can install a hookup to an external antenna for better range.

I have looked at the Icom A24, Yaesu FTA-550AA and Sporty's but they all seem to have mediocre reviews.

Thoughts?
 
No hand held will work with the built in aircraft PTT unless you have some special wiring to re-route the handheld mic audio through the yoke PTT, usually. Some systems may be wired with the mic jack in parallel and work... but don't count on it.

You can get adapters to headsets and put a portable PTT inline with that adapter cable set that will velcro to the yoke if you need it. Usually it's just simpler to hold the radio on your lap and key it with the built in PTT... for the short period of time that you'll actually need it.

As far as the brands/reviews... the Icom and Yaesu are both fine, as is the (very large) Sporty's no-name one. They all have antennas that are removable and adapters are readily available for BNC/SMA/whatever is on the top of them, to feed them into a pre-plumbed connection in the aircraft to an outside antenna (usually by disconnecting the on-board radio from the antenna, or a separate antenna).

Not hooking to an outside antenna, they'll all have limited range. Just the nature of transmitting from inside an aluminum Faraday cage.

The user interfaces are fairly different, none are "great". Recommend getting them from places that will let you return them if the UI doesn't make sense to you.

Rechargeable batteries are great... IF you maintain them. If you're planning on this being a "ride around in the bag until I need it" radio, get a battery pack that allows you to stuff AA batteries in it, and keep a fresh set of AAs buried in the far corner of the flight bag for when you realize the ones in the radio are dead.

Personally, I like the Icom rigs... they're in the same physical case that their commercial HTs are for much harder duty, and I've seen one dropped from an 80' tower and bounce on concrete and still work. If Kenwood made one, like the other commercial radio manufacturer's do, I'd like the Kenwood for UI and audio quality, but they don't. An aviation HT in the Kenwood TH-F6A form factor would be ideal for me.

I also personally HATE the Yaesu UI, which is very similar to the two Yaesu ham radio HT's we own... one is Karen's (she likes it) and one was dad's. They sit unused, and the TH-F6A gets the duty call unless more front-end filtering is necessary, then the pre-buyout GE land-mobile commercial HT's come out to play. None of those are available in the Aviation band...
 
I use the sportys with a cheap external ,belly mounted antenna. Works great.
 
The ICOM headset adapter has the PTT connected to it.

The Yaesu can be keyed with the radio PTT button even when talking through the headset (probably works for others as well).

As DenverPilot points out, you can probably plug the external PTT into the adapter as well.
 
Its not recommended, but it works. Put a T in your aircraft antennae coax and piggy off it. I know, I know, but I tried it and it worked fine, almost as good as its own antennae. Actually I wouldn't recommend it. Its gotta be some kind of rulelike 'you cant do that man'. Besides you want as much range as possible right? Whatever you do its not gonna be that much fun to use. Just get a handheld and use it raw is the least hassle. That's cool man. But only 5 miles or so, so wow, what good is that???
ya know what I mean????
 
I know that the aluminum in an airplane drastically affects portable radio range, but what about carbon fiber?
 
coloradobluesky said:
Its not recommended, but it works. Put a T in your aircraft antennae coax and piggy off it.
Click to expand...

There's a number of good reasons it's not recommended...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_line

http://www.phys.hawaii.edu/~anita/new/papers/militaryHandbook/rcvr_sen.pdf

(And I quote... "For communications and commercial broadcasting receivers, sensitivity is usually stated in micro-volts or dBμv." You're shoving lots and lots of RF into a port designed to hear stuff at the micro-volt level.)

If you have a "T" in there, why not just use a female to female instead of a "T" and disconnect the on-board radio completely when you hook up the HT?

Then, you're not transmitting into the much more expensive radio's receiver with orders of magnitude more power than it was designed to take in.

Straight through adapters without the "T" are readily available... then just mark the correct side to disconnect and plug into.
 
yea that's the theory, but it works anyway...at least it did for me....still,,, don't do it. it was just an experiment. Does somebody make a Com that fits in your radio rack that has TWO radios in it? Or is this for a glider? Whatever it is, it will work better with its own outside antenna.
 
They do make impedance matched "splitters". That may actually be ok. Weir would know Im sure. I dont know the answer to that one. There are powered splitters too. A powered splitter would probably be as good as its own antenna. Not sure which one though.
 
Get an after market 1/4 wave whip to extend the range of your handheld. I don't like the support I got from Icom. I have a A-6. I use it all the time in my Champ wired to an external antenna. Anything is better for transmitting than the rubber ducky that comes on them.
Check out battery packs. In some cases, they are OK for receive but don't have enough power to transmit.
Get something that is easy to enter frequencies, preferably with one hand. If you decide to program one, investigate how they are programmed. Are they easy to use one-handed while you steer with the other?
Headset interconnection essential to hear and even to speak.
I have an Icom IA-6 and get along with it but don't like Icom's support - that's another story.
I have a Yaesu hand held ham radio I seldom use. I dislike Yaesu's menu system but some like it.
I've used a Sporty's. they're big and clunky.
If it were me, I'd buy the Sporty's.
 
Putting a T on the coax for a comm antenna will just make you buy a new comm radio. You're going to either blow up your portable, or blow up your blow up your comm. Use a BNC barrel so you an disconnect one and plug in the other. Or put in another antenna.

Transmitting without an antenna is also a great way to blow up one of the radios. So a dedicated antenna is probably the best.
 
Last edited:
coloradobluesky said:
Its not recommended, but it works. Put a T in your aircraft antennae coax and piggy off it. I know, I know, but I tried it and it worked fine, almost as good as its own antennae. Actually I wouldn't recommend it. Its gotta be some kind of rulelike 'you cant do that man'. Besides you want as much range as possible right? Whatever you do its not gonna be that much fun to use. Just get a handheld and use it raw is the least hassle. That's cool man. But only 5 miles or so, so wow, what good is that???
ya know what I mean????
Click to expand...

Oh, PLEASE PLEASE do this. I make my living fixing fried radios. Guaranteed to fry.

Jim
.
.
 
RalphInCA said:
I know that the aluminum in an airplane drastically affects portable radio range, but what about carbon fiber?
Click to expand...

All aluminum does is make the RF power bounce around until it is either absorbed by something else (like the salt water sack on the pilot's chair) or escapes into the outside world through holes and windows in the aluminum.

Carbon fiber, on the other hand, is a very large resistor that turns that RF power into heat and nothing escapes.

Jim

.
 
coloradobluesky said:
They do make impedance matched "splitters". That may actually be ok. Weir would know Im sure. I dont know the answer to that one. There are powered splitters too. A powered splitter would probably be as good as its own antenna. Not sure which one though.
Click to expand...

A splitter is just that ... a splitter. It takes one signal and splits it into two signals. It does NOT take two signals and add them together. It doesn't work that way.

Jim
.
.
 
I carry one but 1) it's hard as hell to hear it in the cockpit when you take your headphones off and 2) I really only anticipated using it to hear not transmit on. I figure maybe within a few miles you might be able to get them to hear you but in all honesty now I use it from the hangar when I'm doing preflight to pick up ATIS and listen to the CTAF to hear what's going on the pattern, etc...
 
weirdjim said:
All aluminum does is make the RF power bounce around until it is either absorbed by something else (like the salt water sack on the pilot's chair) or escapes into the outside world through holes and windows in the aluminum.

Carbon fiber, on the other hand, is a very large resistor that turns that RF power into heat and nothing escapes.

Jim

.
Click to expand...

Interesting. So, I guess this means that if I carry one in the Remos, it will be useless, unless I attach to an external antenna?
 
So is it worth it to buy a handheld with a NAV feature? I'm ready to purchase a radio but not sure I need more then a backup COM in the plane. Opinions?
 
FlyingTiger said:
So is it worth it to buy a handheld with a NAV feature? I'm ready to purchase a radio but not sure I need more then a backup COM in the plane. Opinions?
Click to expand...
It was a nice feature back in the days before hand held GPS units and iPads.

Nowadays, I think it is pretty much a waste.
 
Are you ever in a situation where you must have a VOR receiver with no backup?

I ended up getting a nav/comm because that was what was on E-bay for cheap. The only thing I've used the nav for is demonstrating it to CAP cadets (along with a TAC), without bothering to haul out ground power to the aircraft.

Personally, VFR, if my panel blows up, I'm using pilotage and landmarks to find the airport. Comm is sorta useful for Class D.
 
FlyingTiger said:
So is it worth it to buy a handheld with a NAV feature? I'm ready to purchase a radio but not sure I need more then a backup COM in the plane. Opinions?
Click to expand...

I've just bought the Yaesu FTA-550AA, mainly just to have as a back up comms. But it does have VOR facility, screen auto changes to VOR display when it picks up the feq. signal

Another feature it comes with adaptor to plug in the headset.

Haven't tried it on range yet, but happy with the product/ price
 
Any idea what it costs to add an external antenna? Specifically in a 182. Just a ballpark, couple hundred or closer to an amu?
 
One of my favorite hobbies is obsessively researching hypothetical purchases, and the Yaesu FTA-230 and FTA-550AA looked pretty good to me.

Xscaliber said:
I've just bought the Yaesu FTA-550AA, mainly just to have as a back up comms. But it does have VOR facility, screen auto changes to VOR display when it picks up the feq. signal

Another feature it comes with adaptor to plug in the headset.

Haven't tried it on range yet, but happy with the product/ price
Click to expand...
 
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