An 'aviation' two-way radio that is capable of 2-way communications with any other aviation-transceiver equipped aircraft - which includes just about every civilian aircraft as well as control towers and FAA flight centers.
To say it "can communicate with pilots" is a being GREATLY simplistic (but then, this is a NEWS report).
Would it KILL these guys (the author(s) of this story) to list the make (manufacturer) and model number of this 'aviation radio' that was found?
Also, what frequency was set in when the radio was discovered? Were there frequency "presets", and if so, what were they? Do any of these frequencies match the frequencies in the WTC plane radios when they were crashed? Do any of them match the NY ARTC frequencies or common military frequencies? Did they swab the mike for DNA?