Hangar Flying

Congrats on the decision to learn to fly.
My 2 cents: Spend your money first on noise cancelling headsets. To hear your instructor and the tower and other airplanes is paramount to anything else.
Second on learning to fly. I cannot remember needing a personal transceiver. Most training planes have good radios, usually 2. A receiver while on the ground to listen to pattern traffic is helpful to learn the communication: "who am I, where am I, what I will do" like "Cessna 123AB, right crosswind for 27, cleared to land". Flight sim programs do this too. If you are feeling like a transceiver is necessary, ICOM have been good to me, with the provision that they do not fit universally into intercom systems. I fly with an ICOM 22 bracket mounted into my Varieze with a intercom that won't interact with the upgraded ICOM 23A. The new ICOM Sport is nice, too. Save your money until your ticket is in hand.

Tim,
You should find a wiring diagram in the Chilton guide at your
auto parts store. We could help you once you have that.

As an aside, one should request wiring diagrams with the plane you buy from the builder. :oops:

Mr. Ghost,
I can almost see what you are about.
The Varieze is a day, VFR aircraft. That said, you can add a landing light to your craft by bracketing to your front landing gear leg. Therefore not complicating your plane with a  retraction system. Or move the pitot from the nose and install it there with a plastic lens. Some will put it into the belly under the thigh support and swing it out with a lever. Some have added two, to the ends of the canard. Remember to provide for cooling and switch load current. Think of adding pulsing circuits to attract the control tower's attention. Go to some airshows where experimentals show up. You can adapt a lot of good ideas. There isn't any one way. Have fun. (the last is my permission, sometimes no one ever gives it.  

I have a 108 lyc 0232C2C for sale with a Varieze motor mount for sale. This engine with logs has about (don't quote me!) 750 hours since major, been sitting for 15 years unpickled so the price is $4500 (core) no accessories. Just right for an experimental upgrade for high compression pistons, etc.

My hangar mate, Phil, flies with a Catto 3 blade prop and gets 165 mph or more. His extra weight (necessary for lyc) in his a/c's nose is a redundant battery.