I have had a couple instances of needing a handheld radio at my local club, and it would be nice to have one at the ready. There are more than a few choices out there, but many intended for the power plane crowd. Yaesu, ICOM, Sporty's, and I am sure there are more.

I am really looking for ease of use, long battery life and durability. Do you all have any recommendations? Thank you in advance!

Mark
Tucson AZ

On Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 9:10:50 PM UTC-5, allm...@gmail.com wrote:
> I have had a couple instances of needing a handheld radio at my local club, and it would be nice to have one at the ready. There are more than a few choices out there, but many intended for the power plane crowd. Yaesu, ICOM, Sporty's, and I am sure there are more.
>
> I am really looking for ease of use, long battery life and durability. Do you all have any recommendations? Thank you in advance!
>
> Mark
> Tucson AZ

I really like ICOM radios. Yeasu are good too. No idea about the Sporty brand. You certainly don't need navigation models.

It seems the only currently available "simple" ICOM aviation handheld is the A16 (https://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/avionics/handheld/a16/default.aspx).

To save money look for older model ICOMs on eBay. Stick with lithium battery technology, not Ni-Cd.

For 15+ years my club has owned and used ICOM handheld radios for club member use. These are ICOM A4 radios (no longer sold) which have definitely stood the test of time. The A4s are simple radios but are difficult to change frequency (no keypad) - this isn't a big deal as we lock them to the airport frequency (to prevent inadvertent channel switching). However, the A4s use Ni-Cd batteries which are old technology and have to be replaced from time to time.

My $0.02.
John (OHM)

....And lithium batteries don't need to be replaced? I just replaced the
lithium battery in my laptop within the past several months. Gave it
new life.

AND I replaced the Ni-Cd battery for my 37-year old STS AV-7600 VOR hand
held radio a couple of years ago. Works just fine. There are at least
three of them on Ebay right now priced at or below $150.

Dan
5J

On 3/20/22 23:34, John DeRosa OHM Ω http://aviation.derosaweb.net wrote:
> However, the A4s use Ni-Cd batteries which are old technology and have to be replaced from time to time.

On Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 10:10:50 PM UTC-4, allm...@gmail.com wrote:
> I have had a couple instances of needing a handheld radio at my local club, and it would be nice to have one at the ready. There are more than a few choices out there, but many intended for the power plane crowd. Yaesu, ICOM, Sporty's, and I am sure there are more.
>
> I am really looking for ease of use, long battery life and durability. Do you all have any recommendations? Thank you in advance!
>
> Mark
> Tucson AZ
I've had great luck with my Yaesu and AA batteries. Less expensive up front and the cost of AA's plus not needing to stop transmitting for several hours to recharge is a hassle saver. If needed, you could also add an external antenna to increase range, but that may not be an issue that you need addressed. Yaesu is as intuitive as these things get: not completely intuitive, but close enough. I think the same can be said for I-com as well.

On 3/21/2022 2:18 PM, Jay Campbell wrote:
> On Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 10:10:50 PM UTC-4, allm...@gmail.com wrote:
>> I have had a couple instances of needing a handheld radio at my local club, and it would be nice to have one at the ready. There are more than a few choices out there, but many intended for the power plane crowd. Yaesu, ICOM, Sporty's, and I am sure there are more.
>>
>> I am really looking for ease of use, long battery life and durability. Do you all have any recommendations? Thank you in advance!
>>
>> Mark
>> Tucson AZ
> I've had great luck with my Yaesu and AA batteries. Less expensive up front and the cost of AA's plus not needing to stop transmitting for several hours to recharge is a hassle saver. If needed, you could also add an external antenna to increase range, but that may not be an issue that you need addressed. Yaesu is as intuitive as these things get: not completely intuitive, but close enough. I think the same can be said for I-com as well.
If the OP uses the handheld infrequently, AA's might be the best choice: they have a very
long shelf life, they are cheap so you could keep a spare set on hand.

--
Eric Greenwell - USA
- "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorgliders/publications

On Tue, 22 Mar 2022 07:10:31 -0700, Eric Greenwell wrote:

> On 3/21/2022 2:18 PM, Jay Campbell wrote:
>> On Sunday, March 20, 2022 at 10:10:50 PM UTC-4, allm...@gmail.com
>> wrote:
>>> I have had a couple instances of needing a handheld radio at my local
>>> club, and it would be nice to have one at the ready. There are more
>>> than a few choices out there, but many intended for the power plane
>>> crowd. Yaesu, ICOM, Sporty's, and I am sure there are more.
>>>
>>> I am really looking for ease of use, long battery life and durability.
>>> Do you all have any recommendations? Thank you in advance!
>>>
>>> Mark Tucson AZ
>> I've had great luck with my Yaesu and AA batteries. Less expensive up
>> front and the cost of AA's plus not needing to stop transmitting for
>> several hours to recharge is a hassle saver. If needed, you could also
>> add an external antenna to increase range, but that may not be an issue
>> that you need addressed. Yaesu is as intuitive as these things get: not
>> completely intuitive, but close enough. I think the same can be said
>> for I-com as well.
> If the OP uses the handheld infrequently, AA's might be the best choice:
> they have a very long shelf life, they are cheap so you could keep a
> spare set on hand.

I have a Yaesu FTA 250 that I bought when they appeared, so 2-3 years old
now. I got it for my own for general ground handling use: letting me hear
traffic when I'm towing out, etc. I like it a lot: solidly made,
relatively cheap, easy to use, and came with antenna, belt clip, battery
and charger.

It claims around 5 hours operation on a full charge. It has a replaceable
clip-on battery, which is still showing a low self-discharge rate - I
hadn't charged it for 6-9 months until now and its still showing around
20-25% charge left.

I've gotten +20 years of good service from my Yaesu Pro II Aviator. Parts (including spare battery packs, chargers, headphone/mic adapters, etc.) are still available. I buy a new battery pack about every 7 years.
ROY