Backup Handheld COM Recommendation?

[MikeS]

That Sporty's 200 that a couple people have mentioned was one good radio. I drug it all over Africa for several years and never had a problem. Transmitted and received just fine with the rubber ducky inside C-310's and 402's.

It and my flight bag got stolen when I got back from Africa (ironic, that) or I'd still have it. Good radio and if you can find one it'll probably be cheap. I used two alkaline battery packs. One for the radio and another for back-up. Headset adapter a good thing - actually it's a necessary thing. Good luck finding one, they're getting pretty old.

I think the rest of the radios mentioned are also fine.

[grubbat]

Two handhelds come to mind. A Garmin GPSCOM 190 or a Vertex Pilot. The vertex has both COM and VOR functions. The Garmin has COM and GPS which is nice. I use both from time to time as backups.

Edit: After rereading your post, I don't think that my two suggestions are worthy as they are no longer offered new. I bought both used and have been very happy, especially with the Garmin.

[lr172]

Originally Posted by MikeS

That Sporty's 200 that a couple people have mentioned was one good radio. I drug it all over Africa for several years and never had a problem. Transmitted and received just fine with the rubber ducky inside C-310's and 402's.

It and my flight bag got stolen when I got back from Africa (ironic, that) or I'd still have it. Good radio and if you can find one it'll probably be cheap. I used two alkaline battery packs. One for the radio and another for back-up. Headset adapter a good thing - actually it's a necessary thing. Good luck finding one, they're getting pretty old.

I think the rest of the radios mentioned are also fine.

That adapters are easy to make. They used standard 2.5 and 3.5mm plugs. I wired two receptacles into my panel and made a patch cord to connect the sportys 200 handheld. It 'removes the comm radio from the circuit and patches in the handheld. Intercom behaves as normal and use the same PTT on my stick. $8 in parts from digikey. I also have a BNC termination nearby to plug the handheld into my external comm antenna. My handheld is my IFR backup radio and wanted to insure that using it wouldn't increase workload. Only downside is that it doesn't support a direct 12v power connection.

Larry