It used to be easy. Slap in a couple of King KX155 navcomm radios and you’re good to go for VFR, IFR and everything in between. These days, the buying decision is muddied by WAAS GPS, the concerns of signal outages and whether a ground-based nav receiver makes sense for a backup.
But there is still a need for standalone comm radios, and the good news is we found some good performers that have generous feature sets at reasonable prices. But installation issues can quickly drain limited budgets, and for the best performance you need to go all in. In this article we’ll offer buying tips as we scan the VHF transceiver market.