I live on a private strip. When I’m working in the shop, I’d like to just head the local traffic in the background. How do guys have their setups? DC inverter to power an old Radio? Thanks for the ideas.

Personally I’d just get a handheld, maybe plug it into a speaker if you need more volume. My Yaesu came with a powered base to bench charge it. Can always put an antenna outside and wire it into the building if you need better reception. And now you always have a spare radio you can walk away with.

Thanks!!! I’ll look into it.

I just have an old scanner that works on airband. I think sportys sells one now that will do music, then prioritize air traffic over the music.

Or you could try this $99 Belite Radiant Pocket Radio: http://www.beliteaircraftstore.com/radiant-pocket-radio
I think it's pretty slick. (No relationship with Belite other than as a satisfied customer.)

We have one of these in the Club Hangar..

https://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/air-s ... upttm.html

bought an old scanner on ebay for 15-20 bucks. Works great, if you like you can listen to ems as well.

JP256 wrote:Or you could try this $99 Belite Radiant Pocket Radio: http://www.beliteaircraftstore.com/radiant-pocket-radio
I think it's pretty slick. (No relationship with Belite other than as a satisfied customer.)

losbright1 wrote:We have one of these in the Club Hangar..

https://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/air-s ... upttm.html

Can either of you describe the difficulty of programing frequencies? Are either of these simple and easy to use?

I had a handheld iCom that I was going to use in the hangar but it was so difficult to program that I gave it away.

kg wrote:

JP256 wrote:Or you could try this $99 Belite Radiant Pocket Radio: http://www.beliteaircraftstore.com/radiant-pocket-radio
I think it's pretty slick. (No relationship with Belite other than as a satisfied customer.)

Can either of you describe the difficulty of programing frequencies? Are either of these simple and easy to use?

I had a handheld iCom that I was going to use in the hangar but it was so difficult to program that I gave it away.

I should have made it clear that I don't actually own one of these Belite Radiant Pocket radios, but own several other products they've produced, and like them all. But here's what the user manual (which you can access from their listing above) has to say about tuning:

Use the tuner buttons to increase or decrease the frequency. A very short press advances one channel spacing; a short press will cause it to scan for the next active station. A long press speeds things up.
Honestly, tuning is a trick, especially in the AIR or VHF band. It takes some practice to easily tune a station. That’s why the MEMO channel saving function is helpful – you can skip tuning.

I feel your pain with the ICOM hand held... When I went looking for one, I tried basically everything out there at the time. The only one I could reasonably operate (do most functions) without referencing the user manual was the Sporty's SP-400, so that's the one I purchased. It's been great, and I'm glad I made that choice. (I'm also glad I bought it, since I've had to use it three times due to COM failures, two of which were in the DFW Class Bravo airspace...)

About 3 years ago I bought an Icom A14 handheld,
$204 from pilotmall.com, free S&H.
Deadnuts simple to use-- just type in the frequency,
no programming required unless you want "memory channels".
Works great to monitor freq(s) in the hangar,
plus as a walkaround com & as a backup in the airplane.
The only issue is that it hisses when I have it docked & charging,
which really isn't that big a deal-- I just charge it when not in use.