My review of the SP200 handheld Nav/Com

[Brantel]

I know most of us think of the handhelds as for backup use only but never the less here is my experience with Sporty's SP-200 radio.

This radio has good transmission and reception range but do not purchase The SP-200 radio if you care anything about the following:

1. Poor noise rejection. This unit will pick up interferance from anything! Don't even think about trying to use it near a computer or in your vehicle. The ANL and AGC circuitry does not work or is very poor.

2. Poor off channel rejection. Tune to any frequency with a signal and you can tune two or three channels to each side of the center frequency and still hear the original reception. This is most likely associated with #1.

3. Poor squelch circuitry. The squelch is marginal at best in that it never fully squelches the static. When you wear headphones its almost as if you have no squelch at all even with the volume turned way down. Also due to the problems with #1, sometimes you can't get it to squelch at all. Even with the squelch wide open, the high noise and interferance prevents the radio from being squelched.

I recieved this as a christmas gift. Tried it out and found the issues above so I contacted the customer service department. They in turn contacted the technicians that service these radios and I was assured that this performance was not normal. They offered to replace the unit and sent a call tag with an RGA. Upon receiving the unit, someone else called me back and stated that these radios all have these traits and that there was nothing they could do about it. They sent me a new one with a different serial number and it has the same if not worse issues.

The only reason to keep this thing is because of the LOC function that no other radio in this class has. The review's they post on their site for this radio are biased, limited to the positive and you cannot add your own review. They must have paid off the magazine that promotes this as the best radio in its class.

[weezbad]

the one time i tried to transmit with it it would not.
howevr there is a guy with a pixie swears it will transmit several (40) miles..the nav function seems to work well. i could have caused the transmit error. i was listening on the planes radio and transmitting on the sp 200. niether would transmit at the time. i am not overly or at all impressed either
i bet the freakin light was comming on the whole time i was transmitting in the voice of napolean dynamite "idiot" it did transmit loud and clear on the ground....duh

[Brantel]

I am really impressed with its transmittion ability, I can talk to planes in the pattern of KMOR from my house which is 30 miles away. They tell me that it is just like I am right there in the pattern with them. If it were not for the other issues, I would be really happy.

[RV7Factory]

I can talk to planes in the pattern of KMOR from my house which is 30 miles away.

I just hope you are saying things like "Cessna 123AB, cleared to land"

[svanarts]

I hope it wasn't too expensive. Do you feel you got what you paid for?

[weezbad]

I hope it wasn't too expensive. Do you feel you got what you paid for?

i guess , i havent used ay other ones and i feel that the staements made are true as far as range and such....all in all id probally get it again.