I've always been a suporter of VAL as a budget radio, having 2 of them installed new 10+ years ago. BUT...the reliability has been less than Garmin or ICOM and the design is archaic. Not as happy with VALs service as I once was either.
ALL in ALL...a decent product though for the money I guess. In retropect I'd be inclined to pick the ICOM 200 as a budget choice.
Just my $.02
