Warbird Information Exchange

I'm considering getting a tranceiver. (Yeah...yeah...another "toy" that Mrs. Mudge has to pay for. ) I see Pilot Shop has some on sale. I know I'm asking a "semi-loaded" question here 'cause there's gonna' be 96 different opinions. That's OK though. I want to know from those who've got the different brands, what they think of them. I don't need all the "bells and whistles". Just a good, reliable piece of equipment. Something that's also easy to carry. Like with a belt clip or something.

Mudge the researcher

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Land of the free because of the brave

We use Icom equipment at the Texas Fly-In and I have one personaly. You can't go wrong with their equipment. Now for the other 95 responses.......

Hey Mudge,

My Dad bought a Motorola, I forget what version, but it works really well, it has quite a few bells and whistles that I don't seem to use. He got it for the purpose of listening to the frequencies at airshows, but then it found its wayinto my flight bag during my flight training as a back-up radio if ever needed in flight, or in the event of a forced landing on a long cross country flight.

It sure is handy. The one he got was very tiny. The body of it is smaller than the palm of your hand, and the antenna is about 8 inches long. I think it came with a belt clip too. I can't remember exactly, but it's a good little thing. It put him back a bit. They are quite pricey.

I hope that helps.... then again, reading over it, probably it probably won't.

here's Motorola's list of products. I hope the URL works:

http://www.motorola.com/governmentanden ... i/id_1388i

Cheers and happy/safe flying,

David

P.S. A good way of convincing Mrs. Mudge to let you get one would be to say that you're getting it for safety reasons when flying, like I used mine for... or luckily, never needed to use mine for.

Mudge, an urgent pirep! You better be getting some toy for Mrs. Mudge first, maybe take her shopping when the local ladies handbag or shoe store has a sale. That said, I carry the small handheld transciever from Sporty's. Aviaton Consumer says it is about as good as Icom and it is a lot cheaper. Be sure and let her know you are getting the least expensive one. I have one in my Bonanza and the Spitfire as safety item in case I had(hope not) a forced landing, Also use it to listen to ATIS or call the fuel truck, etc. Have you had any good weather yet, keep us posted.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

Just purchased an Icom A6 for the Cassutt Racer yesterday. It's a little handheld that does a great job. Nothing fancy, but they work quite well. Also comes with a headset adapter.

Gary

I just ordered a Icom IC-A24 from Mypilotstore.com. Should be here tomorrow.
Good luck,Phil

Mudge,
I like Icom, and have one of their older units which works great. I considered buying a hand-held during my training but decided not to for several reasons and mostly because I didn't really need it. Although from where I am sitting, I can pick up all the conversations of BWI and that was good training at the time, a headset was better for me as I flew in a bunch of planes without a spare headset and also found rental headsets to be in some cases (although rarely) not the best. In another light where you are flying or immediately flying, a better thing to have would be a hand-held ELT. A hand-held com, with mostly line-of-sight capability, isn't going to do much for you in any "untoward" event in the mountains of West-By-God. A portable ELT can be carried away from an aircraft and used once activated. Just a thought.
Beyond that, if you do buy a hand-held com, buy a spare battery and keep it charged. I have two chargeable batteries for mine, and one which takes AA batteries. I use the chargable ones as my primaries, and replace the AA batteries every three months for my emergency spare.

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REMEMBER THE SERGEANT PILOTS!

Hi Mudge!

I have a Vertex Standard Pilot. I have programmed all of the towers and atis's around my area in it. It also has a VOR reciever in it and I've programmed some of them in it too. I can plug my headset into it too.

I got it because I wanted a backup in case of an electrical or radio failure. Like Bill G, I mostly use it to listen to ATIS and call the fuel truck. Thats cool because you don't have to power up the panel to call them. I like that, especially with G1000 equiped planes that suck electricity like nobodys business.

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DEEP THOUGHTS BY KIDS:
"If we could just get everyone to close their eyes and visualize world peace for an hour, imagine how serene and quiet it would be until the looting started. Age 15 "


Deep Thoughts,
Jack Handy

Can't go wrong with an Icom. I've had an IC-A23 for a few years and it makes a great portable and backup. Also very useful for the "play by play" when you're sitting on "Vulture's Row" at Osh watching the arrivals on a gusty day!

Thanks for the input. I'm gonna' look at a bunch of 'em and keep in mind what youse troops have told me.

Bill...Thanks for the PIREP, BUT...Mrs. Mudge has been shopping (big time) recently. She's lost enough weight to get down to a size "0" petite.
New clothes all over the place.
She looks GREAT.

Mudge the fortunate

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Land of the free because of the brave