handheld nav/com

Anybody here using a handheld nav/comm as a primary (with external antenna).

I was thinking of starting out with something like the Icom IC-A24.

I guess my biggest concern is comm range with an external antenna.

Any comment would be very much appreciated!

Daver

A lot of people do exactly what you plan on doing here in Italy, as some stupid law prohibits ultralight (our version of LSAs) from having *fixed* radios onboard, go figure...

I don't believe you should be concerned about comm range all that much, provided that your antenna has a good ground plane and a nicely assembled cable and connectors.

If anything, I'd have more concerns on the receiving side of things, as an external antenna might end up overloading the receiver front-end, particularly in areas of high RF pollution. This is due to the fact that handheld radios are designed to work with a rubber duck antenna, which effectively has negative gain, and so they try to compensate the poor antenna with high gains in the receiver. Well, sometimes this creates issues when you use an external antenna instead of the default rubber duck.

Go ahead and do it, and then check how it works. You'll be surprised!

If you're curious, you can check how my friend has installed his handheld radio on his ultralight here:

http://gianmarco.com/raid2007/slides/DSCN4953.html

Ciao, Luca

know a guy

here that does it in a pixie (slow and low) says it works well and can pick up the vor 40 miles away.... he is using sporty's sp 200. i have one but i havent tried that yet. i will have a coax to hook it to in the event of radio or power failure. he's not using an external antenna.

In the Rans S-6 I helped build last year, we used a Icom A6 for the comm. Works great. Range with a external mounted attenna is >30miles and crystal clear. I don't recall what intercom he hooked it through, but had the battery eliminator to run off panel power.

Thanks!

Thanks for the input guys.

My only experience with handheld radios is 2m (146Mhz) ham.

A couple of watts and a mag mount 1/4 wave whip antenna on a rental car and I could easily hit repeaters miles away.

Of course the 2m stuff is FM. Don't know if that makes a difference.

Anyway, I'm just thinking ahead on these issues and gathering info.

Just finished 1 aileron for my RV9A. Hope to order my fuselage kit this year.

Got a long ways to go

Dave

I use an Icom A-24 through a Sigtronics intercom and it works great. Outside antenna gives a lot more range too.
I have been flying this setup in a pretty noisy Champ with great results.

I used this setup for several years in my -4. Always seemed to work OK. The Icom Nav/Com antenna feed went to a CS10 power amplifier (check *** & others), which then put the boosted signal out to the external belly mounted antenna.

The Icom required a headset adaptor with push to talk switch, which I velcro'd to the stick.

Three or four years ago, I installed an SL60 GPS/COM, but the Icom still rides along as backup with a "rubber ducky" antenna and the headset adapter within reach in the map box between my knees.

Good luck with it,

Mel Barlow.
N114RV, 1040+ hrs and still smilin

I use this setup. It works well!

I have an Icom A-5 Comm hand held that I have mounted on a RAM mount in my Challenger II. I ran coax up to the center section above my head, glued a large piece of aluminum (aluminium for you Ausies) as a ground plane for the antenna mount on the fiberglass gap cover. I bought a bulkhead BNC fitting for the antenna and use the radio's rubber duck antenna as the external antenna for the radio. In addition I bought some power connectors wired to the airplane batter from Radio Shack. I have a power cord running into the AC jack of the radio so I have the radio running off of the airplane battery. This all works great. I have all the range I ever need. I have been able to receive from 40 or 50 miles away once in the air and everyone who receives my transmissions states it sounds clear as a bell.

The radio came with the headset adapter and a push to talk button that I have plugged into an inexpensive intercom system. Everything works great.

Gary Bricker

I am in the market for a hand held for general use. Has anyone used the vertex Standard 300 or others that they like.

Gary Bricker said:

I am in the market for a hand held for general use. Has anyone used the vertex Standard 300 or others that they like.

Click to expand...

i have the vxa-220, which i like a lot. it replaced an old sts-7600, which was o.k. in it's time, but "bigger" and "older." i recently found a 3.5mm 4-conductor jack at digikey and a male-to-male patch cord, so i'm going to wire it in for com3 on the gma-340. i'll also put a bnc antenna link on the panel next to the setup.

got the 220 at osh in '05. this year at osh i got an extra battery for it. can't remember if it's li-ion or nimh, but i know it's not a nicad. there was nothing wrong with the original battery, but i wanted a spare.

i have used it for when students are soloing, or to get the atis prior to engine start. works just fine, thank you.

i got the 220 specifically because it did _not_ have built-in vor. i have a handheld gps for backup nav -- i wanted backup com only. ymmv.