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Anyone tried this thing? (Sportys handheld)

Handhelds

No experience with this model since it's new...and the ILS feature looks cool.

Having said that, I'd take a hard look at battery life between brands and types of batteries. I compared radios a couple of years ago and bought an Icom A14 with Lithium Ion battery pack. It works as advertised with approx 18 hrs of battery life (example: I used it during five days of airshows at Oshkosh last year/three hrs per day with no recharging during the week). No regrets. However, if I install the alkaline battery pack it will only run 3 hrs or so.

Plane to plane comm is good with the rubber ducky antenna, but plane to ground comms are generally poor in metal planes (I've tried it in Cessnas, Pipers, and RVs) since the signal is blocked much of the time by the airframe. Based on this experience, I'd want to do an in-the-air test of the ILS feature of the Sporty's model.

Bottom line: if you're serious about using a handheld as a backup comm in an F18 I'd recommend you discuss an antenna adapter with your avionics tech to allow use of the planes VHF antenna and buy one that will give you sufficient battery life for the mission plus some reserve.

Good luck
Mike
 
Sig,

Used a similar rig (comm only) in an F-4. Problematic at best with an antenna we built. Useless with antenna supplied. Very limited range when working--about 10 miles or so for talking to a ground station. Worked O.K. for VHF inter-flight. Your life support folks can likely rig up the patch cord/PTT for the comm side.

Never had an issue with hand-held GPS reception unless there was an LOS problem with the satellite. Drop outs during maneuvering normal.

Cheers,

Vac
 
Yeah I had my doubts about reception. Not really interested in it as a radio, but for the ILS capability. Not having the ability to shoot a presicion approach (other than a PAR) can be unnerving at best when the weather goes down. NORDO in bad weather and you're really screwed.
 
In my experience, pretty much worthless outside of 5 miles, and scratchy outside of 3. It would work to talk to tower for a NORDO landing, that's about it.
 
ILS capability

Sig600 said:
Yeah I had my doubts about reception. Not really interested in it as a radio, but for the ILS capability. Not having the ability to shoot a presicion approach (other than a PAR) can be unnerving at best when the weather goes down. NORDO in bad weather and you're really screwed.
Click to expand...

I think I understand what you are saying. Seems like a humane response in this situation would be for you to have some kind of backup. Also, as a taxpayer I'd like to see our pilots have one, considering I invested in your training and helped buy the bird :D

As far as your peformance requirements, what are you needing? Do you assume radar vectors would get you on the glide slope? How far out on the glide slope?

I carry a Vertex handheld backup. It has lots of bells and whistles including a VOR, but no glideslope. My only problem with the unit- it is a bit to complicated for rare usage. I forget how to use all the features, so I carry an abbreviated manual and make a point to use it every few months. I think if I were buying again for emergency backup, I'd buy simple and intuitive. Sporty's advertises it as "easiest to use" and "one handed operation" so it really might be the hot ticket. Install some of the spendy lithium double AA (stay charged for years), toss it in the flight bag and go flying.

If you do get your hands on one for flight testing, please be sure and let us know how it goes.
 
Got one

I just received my SP-400. I wanted it as a backup and for use on the ground at fly-ins, Oshkosh, driving around town, etc. I live about a mile from our Class D tower and the reception is great. I'm also above the field by about 300', so the conditions are pretty ideal. When I get level with the field in town, and more than 2 miles or so away, reception is poor, although I can hear planes overhead on approach just fine. I haven't tried it in the air yet, so I can't report on that or the range of the ILS. The layout is nice, really big screen, pretty good ergonomics. It takes 8 AA batteries but I don't know how long they last yet. I'll have it at OSH if anyone wants to take a look. I plan to buy the BNC antenna cord so I can connect it to a BNC connector (to aircraft antenna) on my panel to improve reception.
 
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Sig600 said:
Yeah I had my doubts about reception. Not really interested in it as a radio, but for the ILS capability. Not having the ability to shoot a presicion approach (other than a PAR) can be unnerving at best when the weather goes down. NORDO in bad weather and you're really screwed.
Click to expand...

I have never seen a hand held VHF nav radio that was very good. You can shoot a very low emergency approach with a handheld GPS that will be dead on... In a mayday situation, fly the non-precision approach to a one mile final to an ILS runway and at 1 mile push the nose down to 200 ft at half your ground speed. 140 kts = 700 fpm descent and you will be inside a protected area and breakout on the VASI.

My experience is the ILS on a handheld would wander so much you would never be able to follow it in a hot airplane.....

I cant remember the last time I flew IFR in anything without a battery backup powered GPS onboard and running.

Buy a GPS, better yet, get one with downlink weather.....

Doug Rozendaal
F-1 Rocket
 
VHF range

I have no experience with VHF handheld use in planes but based on 20 years of hamming, I think the limitations are about 90% due to antenna placement.

VHF range has almost nothing to do with power nor should the radio itself be a limitation. Similar handhelds with similar antennas have been often used to communicate with the space station and space shuttle and I have used them at 5 watt power levels to communicate over ranges of about 60 miles mountain top to mountain top with a rubber duckie.

If I were to buy one, I would keep it with an antenna that I could mount by suction cup to the glass to get it as out of the airplane as much as possible. An aluminum airplane is basically a Faraday cage. Being able to reposition the antenna for best effect would be good.
 
O0ps

I popped off without looking at the specs! 1 watt stinks. Similar ham handhelds that I own put out 5 watts. The presence or absence of obstructions is still supreme but with rubber duckie antennas on VHF, for ground based work there is a big difference in effective range between 1 watt and 5.
 
KurtB said:
I popped off without looking at the specs! 1 watt stinks. Similar ham handhelds that I own put out 5 watts. The presence or absence of obstructions is still supreme but with rubber duckie antennas on VHF, for ground based work there is a big difference in effective range between 1 watt and 5.
Click to expand...



Sporty's 400 --
Transmitter Power
1.5 Watts ? 20%, 5 Watt (PEP) at 85% modulation

The Icom IC-A24 shows the same, in it's specs.

L.Adamson
 
SP-400 question

I bought a SP-400, planning to sell my SP-200 as a trade up and it arrived today.

The radio is super cool with one exception....Screen contrast stinks or at least it does on the one I got...

Anyone else see a problem with theirs?

I called Sporty's and they said send it back and they will look at it. They claim the one on their desk was fine.

Problem is I do not know what fine is. I could spend my dime to send this back and it come back as "Thats normal".

To me the one that I received does not look anything like the pics on the box or the promo video but I know marketing folks have a way of making stuff look better than it is.

What say you that have seen or have one of these? Send it back or is it normal?
 
I've got one and tested it a few times while approaching airport and landing. It was quite good. Had no trouble picking up loc and gs 5 miles out and it was accurate throughout the approaches. At one point I had sent my radio (SL40) off to Garmin for a SB and I hooked the SP400 up to my external antenna and headset. I did a couple of flights like that it worked surprisingly well. Overall a great backup unit for the money.
 
SP400

I bought one as a backup comm & nav radio.

I think they're fine and the display & key size is large enough for old guys with fat fingers.

As far as power goes, 1.5W is adequate for a backup radio.

Connected to an exterior antenna would be better.

I think my panel radio is only about 5W (doubling power = 3db) and it works well.

With my 2m ham handie talkie with 150mw (0.15w) and a short antenna,
I can nail a repeater about 70 miles distance (line of sight).

Of course its NBFM not AM like our aviation radios and slightly shorter wave length.

Just my $0.02

Dave
 
I compared my new SP-400 with one local on the field today and I am definately sending this one back. The other one had much more contrast that was instantly noticable when held side by side.

Strange they did not give you an option to control screen contrast on these radio's. Most devices these days do????
 
Got one for Christmas and love it. Both the comm and nav aspects of the radio work very well. As far as the contrast goes I couldn't be happier. Had no difficulties seeing the screen under direct sunlight and also works well with the backlit screen/numbers at night.
 
Yeah, I have a SP-200 that I will be selling that always worked as advertised on the VOR/LOC.

The testing I did today looks like this one will work just as well in that regard.

I think I got a dud in the screen department or they just need to tweak the contrast (they should have given us control of that). The backlight works great, it is just that the graphics are all washed out due to low contrast. The one I compared it with today was much better.
 
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