portable transceiver question

[oscarmike]

Originally Posted by acuba 290

but where is possible to get it in Europe?
I see only ICOM in all catalogues and there is also VERTEX in USA on market, but maybe somebody sells it in Europe too?

Got mine from Martin Lynch & Sons in the UK

http://www.hamradio.co.uk

regards

OM

[acuba 290]

Originally Posted by Kyprianos Biris

Just from memmory:

http://www.transair.co.uk/

http://www.gps.co.uk/

and I am sure there are more.

negative! they sell only very expensive ICOM, but not Sportys or VERTEX, which is same but 2 times cheeeper

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

Originally Posted by topcat450

For what it's worth, the problem with the latest ICOMs does seem to be a little hit & miss. For example, mine when I've tried it with a headset, a DC 10-13.4 and the headset adaptor supplied it's been fine. The problem doesn't seem to effect every unit and/or headset combination.
Also, even if it didn't work perfectly with the headset, I'd still carry it as back-up and not class it as useless. As mentioned above, when I had a genuine failure I wasn't bothered about getting it all working nicely with my headset and a/c intercom system - it was intended for use as a backup when the chips were down and thats exactly what it did. I could talk with ATC as I approached and within the circuit - a handful of calls.
I'd rather have a hand-held radio than nothing at all when the main comms fail.

We tried several new Icoms in the dealer's shop, with several makes of brand new headset. We couldn't get any of them to work. The old Icom model he had in stock worked absolutely fine with any headset.

And that makes it completely useless as an emergency transceiver - certainly in a Chipmunk, which along with a lot of other 'interesting' aeroplanes is far too noisy to use the unit without a headset.

SSD

[Mariner9]

An ICOM is an expensive bit of kit for something you only plan to keep in your flightbag as a back-up. Possibly useful if you fly IFR in IMC regularly, waste of cash if you're a mostly (or wholly) VFR pilot IMHO. Far cheaper just to squawk 7600!

[acuba 290]

Originally Posted by Mariner9

Far cheaper just to squawk 7600!

well, i don't like this solution very much..still prefer backup radio in the bag

[fly_sd]

I recently purchased an ICOM A23 sport - primarily to get more familiar with ATC communications as I found I could not concentrate much on the radio side of things while learning to fly the plane. I used to go sit with it in my car at the airport and listen to comms and really found it useful as a learning aid. I became very comfortable with ATC after about 3 such sessions. I picked it up on sale at one of the local pilot supplies places (marvgolden) but they don't seem to sell it anymore. It is the same as the A23 without the charger and rechargable battery pack but you can pick up aftermarket packs off ebay for much cheaper (which I did). Also has a built in VOR but never tried that yet. Also found I can pick up ATIS at home on it (just about) - useful when setting out to go fly. Not tried any headsets on it so no idea if it works or not.