Hi Don;
I'm in the same boat with you on the headsets. I'm in need of upgrading to a newer model. My old Dave Clark H10-30 has just about given up the ghost. I've gotten years of good service out of it, but its definitely not a new fangled model. The Dave Clark works well in the 152 and pretty much everything else. There are so many copy cats out there, its hard to tell which ones are at least equal to it in function with the same reliability.
With your 1200 ft. strip, I can say that there's lots of folks who operate stock 150s and 152s out of strips that long. However, careful planning will always prevail when it comes to considerations of density altitude and weight & balance. A STOL kit will sure help out on a stock airplane. You mentioned possibly building a 150 as opposed to purchasing. If you decide to build definitely go with the 150 h.p. engine and the STOL kit. That way, you've got the closest thing there is to a helicopter and the runway length is a non-issue.
Shelby.
