Hand held radios

[BTAZ]

Started flying my LSA using an ancient ICOM A2 radio. Worked great for about ten hours but then intermittently became "carrier, no voice". Given I fly out of a Class D airport, I decided it was time to upgrade.

Spent considerable time researching options and settled on the Yaesu 450L as opposed to the ICOM A6. Main reasons were the Yaesu was Lithium Ion with "smart chargers"(instead of NiMh and "Don't leave plugged in for more then 12 hours") included the 12V adapter($49 extra for ICOM) and had a much better display set up.

Received it and all seemed good. However, as soon as I got around a mile from the airport, the squelch broke and a strong interfering signal meant all I could hear was badly distorted music. In another mile, all cleared up again but as I was working my way out across the city I ran into it twice more. I did all the troubleshooting I could while flying(squelch levels, rearranging cables etc.) but no joy.

Tried it the next day with a different set of headsets but still had the same interference issues. This time on the return was chewed out by the tower since the interference was within a few miles of the airport and I couldn't hear their instructions for about 30 seconds.

Borrowed an older ICOM A22 from a friend and had no issues. At that point, I thought I had a bad Yaesu radio and was waiting for Monday to arrange an exchange.

The an odd coincidence happened. I struck up a conversation with another person at the airport without providing anything more then I was chasing down some "handheld issues". I didn't mention the brand of radio ore even what the issues were. He said, "Me too" and went on to describe how he purchased a Yaesu 550L(basically a 450L with nav) at Oshkosh last year but has had nothing but interference issues when using it here in town. He used his RF technician/ham radio background and test equipment to isolate some filtering issues in the front end of the radio and claimed to have spoken with Yaesu where they "Duplicated it but aren't doing anything about it".

So I returned the Yaesu and purchased the A6(including spending a ridiculous $49 for a DC to DC adapter). Flew with it yesterday and all was fine.

Disappointed because the Yaesu did seem to be the better value and a newer design but it became a "Other then that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play" experience.

Hats off to Gulfcoast Avionics They paid for the return shipping of the Yaesu and also sent the A6 out second day air on their dime.

[jaredyates]

Are you using an airframe-mounted antenna?

[BTAZ]

Yes, mounted to the aluminum belly pan just behind the gascolator.

Nothing changed between the radios except the necessarily different headset adapters and appropriate DC supply. I tried the Yaesu on battery power alone with no difference and I also tried two different headsets with the same result.

Otherwise, same mounting location for the radio, same headsets, PTT switch, and antenna hookup, and same overall cable routing..

Once outside of the interference encountered with the Yaesu, they all had great reception and Tx range. I could easily hear/talk with the tower better then 15 miles away.

[JimParker256]

Because my Citabria's push-to-talk switch has been acting up, I've been using my Sporty's SP-400 quite a bit lately. I do have an external antenna installed and connected, and have been impressed with the capabilities of the radio. There were a couple of times when I was unable to reach a new ATC after hand-off (using flight following), but within 5 minutes I was good. Part of the issue may have been that I was flying at a fairly low altitude because of headwinds. I was able to talk to tower from > 20 miles away (at 4500 feet).

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I'm VERY pleased with the SP-400, and especially with the battery life using Alkaline cells. I bought a spare battery holder, and keep fresh batteries in it, ready to swap when needed, but despite using the radio to listen at OSH all day on the first Sunday, and using the radio for a couple of shorter flights (1-1.5 hours), the first set of batteries lasted another 4.5 hours before finally indicating <25% power, which is where I switched them out. I'm using "bulk" AA batteries ("extended life alkaline") at CostCo, and they seem to be as good as the expensive name-brand batteries.