Which hand held radio for small grassy airport?

[ILblog]

I have saved small grassy airport in Prague and I am preparing to operate it. Traffic will be occasional and very very low there, as was request from city hall, that enabled airport to survive.

Right now we are preparing for airfield operation

Hand held radios have usually poor transmit output power, so they are not so good for communicatin with airplanes in vicinity of airport.

But anyway, if I want to keep airport personal low, and my AFIS person will be in trcator or doing some other job, is there any hand held radion, with BIG, BIG transmit power and good antena, that would be good for grount to air communication?

[Comms Boy]

Hello,
The output power of a typical hand held airband transceiver is about 4 to 5 watts which is good for around 5 to 10 miles depending on terrain. The limiting factor with this type of radio is the battery and the antenna which are a compromise. Also worth considering is will you be able to hear the speaker on such a radio while operating a tractor or other noisy machinery?

Increasing the range of a handheld radio is possible but there would be cost involved.

A better solution would be to use a "mobile" type airband transceiver such as the ICOM IC-A110E with a dedicated antenna.
This would require a 12v supply but the results would be far better than using a hand held.
Regards
P

[GyroSteve]

Most microlights use hand-held radios and they work just fine - often as well as or better than traditional panel-mount radios. The limiting factors tend to be the antenna and the battery. Many of the problems I've seen with using hand-held radios as ground stations are down to the fact that the battery is flat - either not properly charged or old and worn out.

I'd suggest a decent hand-held radio with a good quality battery (I like the Vertex VXA-220 - nice radio, waterproof, NiHH battery). If you are in a vehicle (eg the airfield tractor) then connect it to the vehicle power supply using an adapter and (if possible) mount a 1/4 wave antenna on the vehicle and use that instead of the "rubber duck". An external speaker-mic is also a good investment as it means you don't have to pick the radio up to trasnmit!

[welliewanger]

My experience with handheld radios (Icom) is that they're great in the air, but poor range when on the ground. I imagine you'd need more specialized equipment to have sufficient battery operated range than a small walkie talkie type radio.

[magpienja]

With a good external ant the transmit to an aircraft at altitude should be fine,

I use a very old icom A20 and can talk to our ground stn from 30km at 2000ft no problem but he is using an external ant, the ant is the key to success.

[microlight600]

On a related note, I have been tasked with finding a replacement antenna for my local airfield (only because I mentioned out loud that I have a Ham licence)

I have identified a couple of possibles, the Watson WBA-20, and the Diamond D-777. It doesn't need to handle much power, but it *does* need to be able to transmit, so most 'scanner' antennas would seem not be suitable, even those tightly tuned to the air band.

Are there any specialist avionics shops in the UK that would have this sort of thing? Any advice/caveats/tales of woe would be appreciated.

[magpienja]

Have you got access to an SWR meter to cover the freq req?????

Nick.

[Comms Boy]

The Diamond antenna looks like a dual band (VHF/UHF) antenna and as i suspect you won’t be using UHF for TX is a bit over the top.
The Watson VHF air band antenna looks good, especially for the money (2.15dBi over band)
£33 from radioworld for the Watson seems like a bargain, but do check that this antenna is suitable for the licence which your airfield holds.
A commercial Air band antenna will set you back £500+

I have used antennas from both manufactures in the past without problems. Make sure that whatever you end up using, is checked for VSWR with the radio you are using and don’t skimp on the coax. Decent coax (RG213, UR67) doesn’t cost much and will give you better results.

If possible, try to make the cable run less than 10Mtrs.
Regards
Pete

[microlight600]

@magpienja: Yes, the club has an AVR600 VSWR meter which covers 1.8-500mhz

@comms boy: Enquiries has shown that annoyingly, although the Diamond is pre-tuned and has more gain, it's not rated for transmit, so the Watson it is. A 'ham' solution would be to get a diplexor, buy both anyway , and use the Diamond for reception :8 It would be pretty useful just to hear incoming traffic from as far away as possible.

I'm happy with Watson and Diamond kit, in fact I do most of my operation on a Watson 627, 4.5db gain on 2m, simplex range 100+ miles, from my car..

I'm still amazed that there's nowhere obvious to buy this stuff from, ringing the usual ham supplies shops shows that there's not much demand for these. Or is that nail->head, no demand hence limited supply?

[Spitoon]

Whilst all this technical stuff is way beyond me, if you want a robust and reliable bit of kit you might like to look at Dittel (http://www.stangl-funktechnik.de/en/flugfunk/handfunkgeraete.htm)radios. I used one of the handhelds for a similar application - using a small roof mounted antenna when indoors - and it was perfect. Cost a bit more than an ICOM but it will last a lifetime!

[Dave Sharpe]

I have used an Icom and have a Dittel handheld and its a fabulous bit of kit and while its more money its almost indestructable and very well supported by the factory- I can hear traffic at 500 foot at an airfield 20 miles away

[Gulfstreamaviator]

Congratulations on your achievement.

Not every body can say they have saved an airfield.

To answer your question, and not as typical Pprune, answered every one elses.

Almost any Radio TX/RX will do the job you require. Short range is not a problem but the ability to hear the calls, and respond is important.

1) External power from Tractor system.

2) External aerial connected to unit, and mounted on hood of tractor, as far away from ingintion interference as possible.

3) Remote speaker, and probably microphone.

The ability to remove from the tractor, and carry by hand, on own power is equally important.

Dont forget the little light on top of the tractor.!!!!!!!

Glf