Another thing we learned on that flight was that handhelds aren't worth
crap inside the airplane. We both had handhelds, and we tried them
both, to no avail. First, hearing anything over the cabin noise was
very difficult (neither of us had adapters to plug our headsets into the
handheld radios). Second, the little rubber ducky antennas don't work
for ****, especially inside a metal airplane cabin.

What I think would make the most sense is a way to connect your handheld
directly to the external antenna in the plane, and make sure you've got
a way to plug your headsets directly into your handheld radio.

I did exactly that with my 172 and it works well. The avionics shop
installed a small jack that is connected to the #2 Com between the radio and
the antenna. When the cable is plugged into the jack, it disconnects the
built in radio from the antenna and connects the handheld directly to the
external antenna. I have a headset adapter attached to the lanyard clip on
the handheld so that it is always at hand, and the antenna adapter cable is
in the glove box along with a spare flashlight and a pair of vice-grips (in
case a knob falls off of something). I have tested the setup while flying
VMC and it works well. The only problem with it is that the internal VOR
capability on the handset (ICOM A22) doesn't work well because the antenna
orientation is wrong, but during a real failure I'll choose communications
with ATC over a NAV radio every time.