Hand Held Radio for Aviation?

[Cherokee_N7471W]

Hello fellow aviators,
Have any of you satisfactorily used an ICOM A24 with an intercom and headsets?

I purchased my A24 at the 2005 EAA fly-in at KOSK. I've used it on the flight line, and have had it running nearly daily in my truck for years... and have been pleased...

Now my #2 Nav/Com quit, so I wanted to use my A24 as a back up.... This is the first time I tried it with a headset.... ICK!!!!!!

I installed the ferrite beads per ICOM and it still does not work consistently.

For the more technically inclined,
1.) The A24 manual lists the phone output as 8 Ohms and the microphone as >100K Ohms. That sounds about right for HiFi… but I would expect something like 600 Ohms for General aviation<?>!
2.) I have 3 headsets (Sigtronics, Pilot, and MarvGoldman) and a portable intercom (Sigtronics SPCC-2). The Sigtronics headset did work with the OPC-499 adapter and rubber duck antenna with external PPT switch. The other two headsets and the SPCC-2 all “Growl”.
3.) I do not believe this is RF rectification because:
a. I have the ferrite beads installed,
b. I had this radio on the bench to check it with avionics tech. The check was made with the A24 terminated in a proper 50 Ohm non reactive resistive load (a Can-tenna which does not radiate much!!) HP frequency counter, modulation test set… etc. Yet the problem occurred even in this RF sparse controlled environment. Thus it seems to me that the A24 was not designed properly for proper impedance matching to general aviation headset in the first place.

SOOOOO! Has anyone had success with an intercom – ICOM A24 mating? Has anyone had ICOM actually fix this issue?

Thank you
Walt.
SEL & Glider
EAA, AOPA