Gee, I'm still using an FT-530. I have replaced the knobs, antenna
and about 4 battery packs (all still available) and did some maint on
it. It was a good deal at roughly $230 just before being
discontinued. They are probably very cheap now and have the neat
feature of not having to sharpen your lil' pinkie to use the keypad.
Speaker is kind of small (aren't they all now) but if that's a
problem, get a big commercial HT.

Years ago, real hams made bids on old HT-200s and rebuilt them to get
on the air. The really fortunate found HT-220's in good condition.
My first "HT" was a packset that required several batteries to power
the tube transmitter. After replacing the Transmitter strip with a
VHF Engineering kit board, it could go anywhere and go weeks on a set
of batteries. There was even room for extra pencils, paper and
Logbooks in the battery tray.

I would suggest for starters, join ARRL and check out the QST product
reviews on their website:
http://www.arrl.org/tis/ and look at the many ham ads.

PS You wont find airband TX anywhere in a ham radio. If you NEED an
airband radio, get one. You don't scrimp on AV gas do you? There
may be some that will work in the ham band. There are portable
Airband radios that will do everything from GPS to ILS.


"Howard" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 24 Mar 2005 23:16:30 -0500, "John Harlow"
wrote:

I'm looking at a Kenwood TH-F6A and an Icom IC-T90A. I think the
Kenwood is
a bit better but of course $50 more.

Is there a better choice I might be overlooking?

P.S. I'd really like to find an airband TX as I'm a pilot too...


Yaesu makes (or at least made at one time) the VXA-700 which is 2
meter & airband, it shows up on the AES site but not on the Yaesu
site
........ isn't a bargain either at $420!
AES: http://www.aesham.com/index.html

As to the TH-F6 it is a decent handheld, though don't expect much
from
the HF receive. It does allow you to monitor two bands at a time
and
that can be a plus - not familiar with the Icom to offer any useful
comments. Also, the TH-F6 it is a bit more prone to intermod than
either the Yaesu FT-50 that I used to use (and keep as a backup).
It is hard to compare the Kenwood and Icom in that the former
offers
220 mHz and the later 6 meters - not quite apples to apples
comparison. Given that difference, I'd look at which of those 2
bands
(6 meters vs 220 mHz) has more activity in your area and let that
drive your choice. I've owned & used products from Kenwood, Yaesu
and
Icom and have been satisfied with all - each one does have it's own
quirks in regard to how they get programmed, default step sizes
etc.

Hope that provides some help,
Howard