Icom A5 handheld transceiver and garmin 296. Worth it?
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Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: winnipeg, manitoba
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Icom A5 handheld transceiver and garmin 296. Worth it?
Looking at 2 pilot gear things here. The first is the icom A5 portable handheld transceiver that I put a down payment and want to get but before I drop down more money to actually buy it, I want to make sure I'm not wasting my money. Can anybody tell me about the A5 and is it a good quality, clear crisp audio radio or is it garbled a lot at times? Is the reception good and does it have good range? One thing I had to look at is the wattage power and it said 5 watts so is that a good amount?
The reason I want the icom A5 is the fact that I don't have to wear a headset in flight but is this recommend with all the noise or is it something you get used to? I mean, back in the 70's, they used the handheld mics in the plane and had no headsets so obviously they did do it at one point but could you be able to hear it with all the noise? Using it inside the plane, would there be any dampening effects from the plane? There better not be and having to use an external antenna because that would defeat the whole purpose of using a handheld. That's my biggest question. And it would defiantly help in the event of a comms failure as a back up. I also like the recording feature incase I ever had to recall a clearance that is if I remembered to turn it on. Just want to make sure I'm not wasting my money.
Then there's the new expensive garmin 296. I really want a handheld portable GPS and the 296 is really calling out to me. I can afford it as I have quite a bit of money saved up for something like this but again is it worth it? I know its new and not much people have experience with it but I like it so much because it seems to give a great map detail in brilliant colors so you always know where you are. This would be great on long cross countries that I will have to do soon but for $2300 (CDN), would you buy it if you had the money and still not be poor after?
The reason I want the icom A5 is the fact that I don't have to wear a headset in flight but is this recommend with all the noise or is it something you get used to? I mean, back in the 70's, they used the handheld mics in the plane and had no headsets so obviously they did do it at one point but could you be able to hear it with all the noise? Using it inside the plane, would there be any dampening effects from the plane? There better not be and having to use an external antenna because that would defeat the whole purpose of using a handheld. That's my biggest question. And it would defiantly help in the event of a comms failure as a back up. I also like the recording feature incase I ever had to recall a clearance that is if I remembered to turn it on. Just want to make sure I'm not wasting my money.
Then there's the new expensive garmin 296. I really want a handheld portable GPS and the 296 is really calling out to me. I can afford it as I have quite a bit of money saved up for something like this but again is it worth it? I know its new and not much people have experience with it but I like it so much because it seems to give a great map detail in brilliant colors so you always know where you are. This would be great on long cross countries that I will have to do soon but for $2300 (CDN), would you buy it if you had the money and still not be poor after?
