Marine Radio

[Eddie O'Neill]

Hi folks,
Being new to boating and thinking of safety I plan to put a fixed marine radio in my pontoon. My lake is fairly large, Candlewood in CT, about 11 miles long, 3 miles wide.
I'm after a bit of advice, there seem to be so many choices out there. Any recommendations welcome.
Being a Scot, I don't want to break the bank
Best Regards
Eddie

[Hawk_308]

Im a standard Horizon /Vertex guy but alot of it is ford chevy debate . When it comes down to it almost all of the reasonably priced ones are made in china . Correct Antenna is more important that the radio for the most part .

[Rascal]

Who is monitoring the VHF emergency channel on your lake? Coast Guard?.....

Rascal

[cwag911]

We have a Uniden handheld and it works fine. We're on a large lake and it's monitored by Boat US and Coast Guard Aux. And you don't have to drill holes in the boat.

[Eddie O'Neill]

Who is monitoring the VHF emergency channel on your lake? Coast Guard?.....

Rascal

I understand it is the lake authority. They have a number of vessels patrolling the lake. I am new to boats, does it matter who monitors the emergency channel?

[Hawk_308]

Here Alot of boaters at lest run dual watch if not full time channel 16 , then the is the businesses around the water here normally have a radio on not to mention coast guard aux ,and the game department .


On a side note the coast guard aux uses Icom stuff for their in house stuff
http://www.d1south.org/Downloads/Docume ... 140318.pdf

Icom makes some goos stuff in the ham radio world .

[Mosnowman]

I also agree you should consider handheld. The Uniden MHS125 is a waterproof radio that floats. Boat goes down so does your radio.....unless you have a handheld floating radio to make the call. Reasonable priced as well....great range.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=epphwRsGFII

[Hawk_308]

If you go handheld the Standard Horizon 370 has 40 LMR programmable channels so you could add vhf MURS channels , Ham , or public service if you are legally allowed to transmit on them .

[zoom650]

Most gear I have is old, coming off other vessels. That includes the 12 yr old Icom handheld. Waterproof, big screen, heavy and would likely sink like a rock but it has always worked. Kept as a spare on the old boat, it is primary now on the toon.

For as much good as radios do, I generally look up all relevant emergency numbers and store them in my iPhone. This works fine, even offshore in state waters.

[Eddie O'Neill]

Thanks for the information guys, most helpful.