Older transceiver for Airband

[Ablice]

Hi,

I couldn't find the appropiate forum location for this question so I'll toss it here.

I know someone who is working on getting a private pilot's license. They advised me that they would like to get a decent, affordable airband VHF handheld transceiver for backup purposes.

What is out there for this purpose? They don't want to fork out big bucks for an expensive ICOM or something brand new. Initially I had suggested a scanner, as there are loads of stuff to get picked up in the air, but the conversation indicated that a transceiver would probably be better.

 

[KD9KSO]

The old ICOM A-21 is a good choice if the batteries are decent. It will have the CDI indicator for nav. I think the scan memory is ten or twenty channels. I can't remember that long ago.

There are also the transceivers offered by Sporty's Pilot Shop, but I haven't heard anything good or bad about them. I stick with name brands for something as critical as communications and navigation.

Handheld nav/com's are not that much even new. If your friend is serious about safety, $300+/- is barely an afteroon's worth of flying.

 

[Ablice]

They nabbed a Garmin GPSCOM 190 on ebay for 140 bones.

I'll keep your suggestion about the older A-2X series in mind. Sure they don't have the fancy GPS overload and weather maps etc of the newer ones but sometimes that's not what is important, either. (Then again if your primary MFDs fail, then ... Well, pilots have been flying for 60+ years without full-color MFDs and computerized navs, so...)