Sportsman’s Market (Booth 1357) is here in Orlando highlighting the various products offered by its many divisions, which range from the popular Sporty’s Pilot Shop to the company’s flight school–Sporty’s Flight Center–to airport management, avionics repair and installation, aircraft sales and a seemingly endless cornucopia of general aviation services. One of the products that has long been of interest to the business aviation market is the SP-400 portable radio, which now has a new screen that is easier to read in sunlight and a lower price of $349, down from $399.

The SP-400’s new screen now comes with an adjustable backlight and better contrast. But what makes the radio interesting is that it not only is a backup com radio but also contains a VOR navigation display with CDI and an ILS with cross-pointer needle display, which could enable a pilot to fly a glideslope in an emergency situation where cockpit instruments are unavailable.

Unlike many handheld radios, the SP-400 doesn’t require the pilot to use memory positions to store frequencies; just type in the frequency, which can be done with one hand, and that’s it. That said, there is a visual memory recall feature that shows five memory channels per screen. The last frequency used is retained so it can be flip-flopped with the new frequency that was just entered.

According to Sporty’s, the keypad is large and easy to use in turbulence. Battery power is via AAs, which last five to 15 hours, and an extra battery pack is available. Separate squelch and volume knobs make tuning the radio simpler.

In the nav mode, the CDI display includes bearing-to-station information. Other features include a built-in NOAA weather radio receiver, dedicated 121.5 emergency button and a sidetone so pilots can hear themselves talk when using a headset.