Hi, I just found (thankfully) this forum just few minutes before purchasing KT-A16. I looking for radio to comunicate with TWR, because I want to fly in CTR with my paramotor and it is very important for me, to be intelligible for them from the air (air-gnd). TWR is almost 10km far.
Can someone recommend me some (cheap if possible) type, which will be usefull? Thanks, Jirka
In honesty, I’ve now sold a lot of these and not one adverse comment. They’re cheap and seem to be quite tough. The latest versions now do 8.3KHz channels so for the price they’re hard to beat. Yaesu and icoms are better built, heavier and a different type of product but the price hike is significant.
I responded to your post - review from January. So has the situation changed?
I think I did it a disservice - the squelch is adjustable, and certainly once I had a few out on an airfield, ground to air (let alone air-air) has useful range and sensitivity. I can hear aircraft on approach to Norwich airport, about 30 miles out. I can live with the more plasticy feel, and now that the chanelisation means it’s actually on the right channels, it’s hard to find fault with such a cheap radio. Sensitivity could be a little better to make it behave like things like the Icoms, at over 3 times the price, but that is a big jump. It requires a bit more button pushing to access rarer features, but most users don’t need these. I have some older Icoms and the latest ones and they are all more solid, and do have a bit better sound - but the cheap ones are usable.