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Gentlemen,
I ran across a bargin in terms of a telephone which is FAA approved and will work in a Lancair.  As you know the air-cell and similar makes start at around $4000 for the equipment plus a $800 antenna plus installation.

A very viable option to this is a Motorola Iridium 9505 model hand held sat phone which is distributed by honeywell.  It costs $1349 and is a hand held unit which has 12/24 VDC power adapters and a remote antenna option.   The phone is slightly larger than a conventional cell phone and can be mounted on a ram bracket (www.ram-mount.com) and the external antenna which is included can be glued to the glare sheild and this gives ample reception.  The phone can be interfaced with your headsets via a cell set adapter (www.cell-set.com) and the whole rig costs less than $1500.   Air time plans are $30/mo plus $1.49 per min.   It works off of orbiting satalites so coverage is from pole to pole!

While flying around talking on the phone may not be the safest thing to be doing, the ability to call from the air is you are diverting to another airport or running late could save your ground parties a bit of aggrevation.  Plus since we are all outfitting our planes like airliners in terms of avionics, this is just another step!

Dave

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