Which hand-held radio?

The A6E/A24E sets have a maximum external DC input of 11V

So they say, yes, but I have my skepticism. My little darling came with a semi-permanent installation of an A6, fed directly from the battery/alternator, and it never showed any problems. I will be creating a low-drop 11V-regulator for it, just to be on the safe side; but I heavily suspect Icom of having created this 11V= maximum rather artificially, to boost their sales of 11V regulators AND to limit their warranty liabilities - they'll sure have a way of protesting "but it has clearly been operated at more than 11Volts!"

"The only unit which offers 8,33 is the (low price) Vertex 220, which looks very nice. Unfortunately, for some reason it looks like this is only for receiving, whilst for transmitting, it's only 25Khz. Can anybody confirm this? Certainly, transmitting with the hand-held will normally be required only in emergency situations (where channel spacing is not of prime importance) but then you might want to use the handheld for requesting start-up clearances and so on.."

Yes I can confirm that this is the case. Still a cracking handheld mind you

One notable thing is how few Icom radios come up on Ebay.

I've been looking to see if I could sell my IC-A22 and then buy the IC-A6. Nobody is selling an A22, or anything much else, so it looks like people keep these very reliable radios for many years.

This stupid 8.33 business might change all that...

The A6E/A24E sets have a maximum external DC input of 11V, so if you plan to power the new radio from the aircraft, use the CP-20 dc-dc convertor inline with the aircraft supply to the radio

My old Icom came with a cigarette lighter socket adaptor lead, and that's the only thing I've ever used to connect it to an aircraft power supply. There's a cylinder on the lead.

I am very pleased with VX-220, while operation it without a headset. Question: did any of you ever used this transceiver with a headset? I can listen but am unable to transmit with any of several headsets I tried (:

Addendum to my post #36

My question relates to transmissions with only the standard aerial (the one supplied with the set). I tried numerous headsets under various menu settings; transmissions were all "unreadable"!

What am I doing wrong?!

Nobody is selling an A22, or anything much else, so it looks like people keep these very reliable radios for many years.

My A20 is now exactly 20 years old and has been with me on every flight. Most of the time it stays in the bag, but I needed it twice already due to electrical failures in training aircraft. And now in winter time it is useful when you are number 15 for startup due to de-icing in progress and "would you please monitor the ground frequency".

This stupid 8.33 business might change all that...

It will be a long time (if ever) until ATIS and ground stations will be assigned "odd" frequencies. And if I have ever have a com failure on an IFR flight, it is still better to communicate on 121.5 via radio than to communicate by hand signals with some fighter pilots :-)

BTW: My ICOM is now on it's second set of batteries. If you ever need to replace the battery pack, don't buy it at the pilot supply shops for 80 Euros. ICOM uses the exact same battery packs on a variety of other application (shortwave, firefighting, police,...) where they sell the replacement packs for 28 Euros...

I can recommend the Sporty's SP400. Includes 8.33khz, VOR and ILS capability.

I have always carried a handheld in my flight bag as a backup in the event of radio or electrical failure....although I have never had call to use it in that capacity....I had a KX99 for many years with an alkaline battery pack (and headset adapter)....worked fine for monitoring ATIS etc....but the screen cracked and went black and now I have the Icom A6...my main observation is that one should ensure the rechargeable battery pack is recharged before every flight....even if you plug it in to ship's power....or better still get an alkaline battery pack...

Also as I said I have never had to use it in-flight but, based on reception range of TWR / GND / ATIS, I suspect the built in whip aerial is very range limited so I would suggest installing an external aerial connection in your own plane....I agree with the previous posters that the VOR function is not required if you have a portable GPS (who doesn't?)...and besides (with the KX99 at least) it was not possible to monitor a Com frequency AND a VOR frequency at the same time...

AQ