marine radio help
 

I recently bought a Hobie kayak. I have been running around in Mission Bay to get the feel of fishing in a kayak. When I do get a little more experienced I would like to get out in the ocean. Thinking safety first I wanted to get a marine VHF radio. What I could use help on brand names and features that you guys here
would recommend. Thanks,doug

I have a Standard Horizon Marine floating transceiver HX 290 works for me,and I like it. Its a 5 W. I got it from Cabela's because I had points to spend. I think most people get theirs from West Marine for the warranty.

I picked up a Lowrance Link-2 VHF/GPS Handheld Radio, ~$200

It's a solid waterproof floating radio with high ratings. It is also supposed to interface with the Lowrance Elite 4x DSI Fish finder, which I also recently purchased, but have yet to verify the two together.

Here's some of the info. The rest of the specs are on the ads on ebay or websites that sell it.

Handheld Class D DSC-compliant Marine VHF Radio with Built-in GPS. Floating handheld VHF radio that is Class D DSC compliant and features Man Over Board functionality and storage for up to 300 waypoints. It is full Class-D DSC enabled VHF and has digital selective calling (DSC) capacity that meets the United States Coast Guard standard for all recreational vessels.

• Large 128 x 128 pixel LCD with adjustable contrast and backlighting
• Loud 700mW speaker for clear communication
• Easy-to use soft keys and push to talk button
• Fully waterproof and floats
• Battery life up to 11 hours (with GPS off)
• NMEA 0183 output from charger base
• Battery and charger meet new CEC smart-charger requirement introduced this year
• Meets ITU-R M.493-13 DSC regulation
• Convenient size to store in an emergency kit

I would personally go with the basic West Marine model (under $120 I believe). Nothing can beat the hassle free nature of bringing it in and them swapping it out. The waterproof design is better then the Standard Horizon model I used to use, charging does not require opening any part of the radio, unlike my old SH which requires you open a small hatch for charging (one less seal to leak!). Plus the only seal (for the battery cover) is screw tight, so I would be impressed (by the water) if it found a way in.

I purchased a Standard Horizon HX300 a little over a year ago, and it stopped working after about 7-8 months. I had everything sealed up tight like it was supposed to be, but somehow water got in (it wasn't even submerged, just received a heavy splashing on occasion). I'm going to try and go through the warranty procedure, so I'll let you know how it goes, but save yourself the trouble and got West Marine.

If you want to talk to other people out on the water anything that is waterproof will do. If you want to call for a rescue than get a VHF that has GPS and DSC functions. The DSC enables your ID and exact location to be sent to rescuers with the push of a button. If adds $100 to the cost for a total cost of $225 for radios like the Standard Horizon HX851 or the Icom M92D at $238 (when I bought mine). It is not the place to try to save $100 for a purchase that is may save your life and is going to be used for years.

Most boaters are clueless when it comes to how to read a GPS and provide their location properly over the radio. A boater did this last summer off Newport beach and it took the rescue/tow boat an additional 8 hours to find them as they had provided their location incorrectly. The difference between decimal minutes and seconds can be 8 to 13 miles difference in location.

For search and rescue the international standard is to read Degrees, Decimal Minutes (DD, MM.mm). For example:

<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--> When speaking Latitude and Longitude coordinates for
39° 36.06' N by 76° 51.42' W stated as:


“Three nine degrees, three six decimal zero six minutes North by seven six degrees, five one decimal four two minutes West.”


The words, “degrees,” “minutes,” and “decimal” must be spoken. Decimal denotes the decimal point "." in the string of numbers.


OR you can buy a VHF radio with a DSC button.



I also like redundancy so having a GPS and compass with the VHF radio in addition to the fish finder plotter is appealing.





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