Sporty's PJ2 initial impressions

My handheld backup radio arrived a few days ago and I've had a chance to play around with it a bit. I haven't actually used it yet, but I wanted to give my initial thoughts on it.

First of all, it feels well made. It's pretty dense, even without the battery pack installed, and it seems to be pretty rugged. The controls don't feel flimsy or delicate. It appears to be designed to throw in a flight bag without worrying about whether or not it's going to break. I have my amateur radio license, though I haven't used it in a long time, and I have a handheld radio transceiver that I purchased back in the 90s. It's an Alinco DJ-580T and I was impressed at the apparent quality of its construction. The PJ2 reminds me of that.

One of the selling points of this particular radio is that you can plug a standard headset into it directly without requiring an adapter. I've tried this, and the headphone and mic jacks fit firmly and snugly in the sockets on the radio. This is extremely convenient and I think it's a feature that other manufacturers of handheld aviation radios should consider adding to their products.

The operation of the radio is relatively simple. I did have to read the instructions to figure out how to use the frequency memory list but it turned out be actually a bit simpler than I thought it was; I was actually overthinking it a bit.

I was planning to go out to the airport this past weekend and check on the plane, and I was going to take the radio with me and try it out. However, a 50-year snowfall happened so I've been pretty much stuck in the house. I'll probably go out next weekend, or possibly one evening during the week. I'll take the radio with me and verify that it can transmit and receive properly.

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A Man and His Airplane

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