Radio

Here is one for the gallery I have an RV3 the mission is local with the occasional 200 mile flight to moms. The plane currently has one of the older ICS plus radios weighs a ton. I am thinking about replacing it with one of the portable types, but don't know much about the performance of the portables such as range and ease of use. Any thoughts and ideas would be appreciated.

I would suggest a XCOM 760 in a 2 1/4" dead guage hole. I just installed one in my -3 as I was using a portable and the range was really weak. Yesterday, with the XCOM I talked to a guy in the pattern (1,000' AGL) 165 miles away, and I was at 2,500' AGL.

http://www.xcom760.com/

It has some really nice features. Dual watch (listen to 2 freqs at the same time) scan, memory, music input fade, a built in voice activated intercom.

Any good hand held will work okay if you don't want to spend that much right now. Just get the external antenna set up properly with an VSWR meter, and a good switchable 12V power source, but don't expect the same performance as a panel mount.

Good luck! Keep us updated.

dustman said:

Here is one for the gallery I have an RV3 the mission is local with the occasional 200 mile flight to moms. The plane currently has one of the older ICS plus radios weighs a ton. I am thinking about replacing it with one of the portable types, but don't know much about the performance of the portables such as range and ease of use. Any thoughts and ideas would be appreciated.

Click to expand...

If your looking into a handheld portable I'd suggest the Icom A6. http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/icomA6.php. Good bang for the buck! It's the com only handheld. This is what I have. If you want nav on it go with the A24. Then you can add this switchbox, http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/avpages/icomswitchbox.php, so you can use your planes antenna instead of the rubber duckie on the handheld. This way your range will be as good as a panel mounted radio. This switch box is easy to install and if you want to add a panel radio later just plug the radio antenna onto the switchbox and your done. I have the A200 panel mount radio. This will allow the external antenna to be used by the panel radio when the handheld is not plugged in. When the handheld is plugged in it bypasses the panel radio antenna so there isn't any issue of cooking your radios.

The A6 is quite a handy little radio too. It has many features that ease the work load of switching between freq. This can be done with the storing of freq. in the memory bank(s).

I frequently fly to Kingman, AZ from Phoenix, AZ and when I'm at 6500-7500 and 15 miles out from Kingman, I still get Eloy traffic (some 150+ miles) behind me.