VHF transceiver that will do air band (AM) and VHF FM

[PDradioExpert]

Hello. A friend of mine is a pilot and is in the Civil air patrol, which use FM vhf radios. Is there any radio out there that anyone knows of that will transmit and receive on am air freqs as well FM vhf freqs? Thanks

[mike m]

Wulfsburg/Cobham RT5000 (29.7 to 960 MHZ/ AM/FM STANDARD AND P25 IN OPTIONAL VERSIONS) but they are expensive, they are in the 5 digit price range.

Til, Technisonics Industries may also have some that are a bit cheaper but still in the 5 digit price range also.

Personally a separate VHF com FM radio and a Garmin AM comm such as a GTR200 or equivalent is a better and much lower priced and modern way to go.

[Jim1348]

At the risk of pointing out the obvious, radios used for Civil Air Patrol must be on the list of Commercial (Narrowband Capable) VHF-FM Equipment Evaluation Report. Surprisingly, the Wulsberg is NOT compliant! I agree that two serparate radios is the way to go, but that is just my not so humble opinion!


https://comm.capnhq.gov/equipment/vhf_list.cfm

[Astro Spectra]

It much much easier and arguably safer to have a TSO'd ariband separate from the role radio.

I'm not certain how the PIC is going to fulfil his obligations if the radio is on FM unless VFR in the middle of nowhere. Even then flight following is recommended. If something goes wrong flying is the priority not fiddling with the radio changing modes...

[mike m]

Your correct on the FCC CERT comment but only for the OLDER main ANALOG RT MODELS.

The RT5000 is narrowband capable and it has narrowband, standard band, wide and extra wide band as well as narrow and wide AM built in to the original design from 1990 and later 1996 redesign/cleanup.

But since the FCC certification for the main RT ANALOG radio was done on a redesign of the analog transmitter in 1996 prior to a brief integration with King Radio in then Olathe Ks, the intended FCC certification was only for 25KHZ FM channels and STANDARD AM whereas the other capable modes were more or less icing on the cake.

I did the original certification test for the 1990 version and then for the 1996 redesign and later for the P25 MTM integrated modules based on the first xts3000 modules in 2000 and then the xts5000 modules in mid 2000 and at no time was the main RT5K radio considered for testing as tor 12.5 KHZ CAPABILITY even though it was capable to a degree.

The limiting factor was the extremely poor synthesizer phase noise which resulted in poor receive and transmit performance in 12.5 K channels and as a result the radio was never even considered for NB compliancy by Cobham management nor for proper redesign which was capable, to bring the radio to NB compliance.

The newer RT5000P AND D models may be narrowband compliant as they were coming to market when I resigned from Wulfsburg at the end of 2010 and they were supposedly scheduled for total DO160 CERTIFICATION TEST.

These radios are now old by todays standards and with Cobham running Wulfsburg for the past 14 years or so, my opinion is they have serious parts procurement issues due to not upgrading the design for so many years and as a result I wouldn't recommend a RT5000 anymore.

[PDradioExpert]

Thanks for all the help gents, sounds like two radios is the way to go