wrote:
I don't think the radio affords
then very much protection. In order for it to "work," there would have
to be an aircraft overflying their area *and* it would have to be low
enough for the handheld signal to reach it

If your hand held can't reach out to a plane 40,000 ft up and 20 miles
out, it is junk. Now contacting someone on the ground, is another
story. You would probably only get 3 to 5 miles, maybe 10 if your
really lucky, and have a good antenna. Speaking of which, the antenna
can make or break your ability to communicate. I'm not to familiar with
what is available for aviation hand helds but I know for 2 meter
(144Mhz) ham radio hand helds you can get very nice after market
antennas that preform much better than the stock rubber duck. 121.5Mhz
is far enough from 144Mhz, that the antennas for a 2 meter radio
wouldn't work very well. Using a power meter with swr functionality you
could always build and tune a pretty simple antenna that your friend
could roll up and put in his back, then string it up a tree if he needed
it. A twin lead J-Pole antenna does a pretty good job, is very simple
to build, and can be made for less than $5.

A ham radio friend of mine here in OKC used to talk to a pilot who flew
through Oklahoma on a regular basis. The pilot had a hand held 2 meter
radio in the cockpit, and as long as he was heading toward the city, my
friend could talk to him over 100 miles out. If instead of the little
antenna on the hand held, he were using a belly mounted antenna on the
plane, the signal would have been even stronger.

--
Chris W
KE5GIX

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