"buttman" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Sep 22, 5:20 am, Jay Honeck wrote:
I'm in the market for a handheld scanner.

For transmitting/receiving/handhelds, I like ICOM. I've owned two of
them, and they are as close to bulletproof as I've found.

Just an FYI. It ain't "handheld", but we've also got that Sporty's
scanner with "aviation interrupt", and it's great.

It's locked on the local NPR classical music station, playing nice,
tinkly music in the lobby, but it automatically interrupts when
someone talks on Unicom or Cedar Rapids approach. (You can program
more frequencies, if you want.)

It's a nice unit that fills two real needs. My only gripe is that
programming is completely non-intuitive -- I have to dig out the
manual every time.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Does the ICom model you have tried receive military transmissions?
What about the sporty's?


I have an Icom R5 receiver only. It is a terrific little scanner, fits
in my shirt pocket, gets VHF, UHF, weather, Am and FM. Essentially, it
receives everything except cellphones, and there are unblocked versions for
that. As I remember, you can pre-program about 1200 frequencies and search
bands. It goes with me whenever I even approach an airport. With
re-chargeable batteries, it is around $200. I agree with Jay, it is not the
easiest to program. There is an application you can run on your PC that will
program the entire unit.

Al G

The transmit job is a little different. You will want bigger batteries
and a specifically tuned antenna. This will probably be a second radio