Earthstar Forums

Ref: Small, reliable round face comm radios.

For those of us who are interested in saving weight and getting the best performance for your money, I'm curious about the real world experiences with the MGL comm radio.

It has a lot of seemingly obvious things going for it, but with new products, there may be a down side.

To share my experience with a small & light weight radio, a few years ago I chose the XCOM (Australian made with lots of features). After a laborious and careful installation of the wiring/battery/alternator/transponder/comm setup the radio was trouble. I have the third copy of this radio which is working fine now for the past several seasons.

My next comm radio panel installation will be small and light but it will be another brand.

My current short list of favorites:

-Filser, small round face with VOX intercom, active & standby, TSO'd (German)Available at Airplanegear.com

-Becker, small round face, hot mike intercom, active & standby, TSO'd (this one however would require a separate intercom (German)Also available at Airplanegear.com

-Other newcomers such as MGL & similar small sized round faced radios

*As a portal for feedback on lots of sport aviation related stuff, I highly recommend the RV Web Site, "Van's Air Force". It's full of technical info about many aviation things.

Any info you can share would be great.

Skot

I'm a cheap skate, and am sticking with my $169.00 Vertex Standard handheld that sits on it's own bracket. It does what most of what I want out of a radio, and a velcroed on push-to-talk switch on the stick. I take the whole set-up off in two minutes, and transfer to the C-150 that I also fly. The panel is way too crammed to fit a radio, so the side panel is just fine for now.

kb

Hi Skot
I went through the same thing with a handheld radio that I even had sent in and calibrated. It still worked like a piece of crap. So I bought the digital MGL V-10 it is extremmely light and easy to hook up. While I was at it I got a high end coax and redtip bent antenna.
It works fantastic and pulls in signals from an unbelievable distance.
The intercom feature is also very clear. But once again you only get what you pay for. and it is pricey. I am glad I made the move.
Fred