Which VHS handheld radio should I buy ???

[Jonnymac]

Hi,

I am looking at investing in a VHF handheld radio and have reviewed so many. Each review seems to contradict another.

Can anyone please offer any advice or assistance.

Also some have said buy a fixed radio as they are better ???

Look forward to hearing from you.

[SeaSkills]

"Better" is subjective, Jonnymac. What's better for you may not suit everyone. It will depend on a number of factors and you could be thinking about where you keep your boat, where (and how far) you go etc.

A fixed radio will output more power. That won't mean a correspondingly greater range (range is more a function of the height of your antenna), but a fixed radio running off your boat's battery will give you greater battery life, a greater range of functions, and controls that most people would find easier to use.

A hand-held has the obvious benefit that you can take it with you when you leave the boat. Until recently you couldn't get a handheld with a DSC Distress function (one button push to make a Mayday call), but now that option is available it makes handhelds more attractive

A good idea is to head to a good local school and do the Short Range Certificate course. You'll need the ticket anyway, and the instructor will be able to talk to you about the advantages and disadvantages of radios

[Jonnymac]

Thanks for the speedy reply,

The majority of times I travel no more than one mile out to sea to wakeboard or to fish.

However during the summer I had a couple of fantastic trips to the Isle of May from North Berwick and would like to start venturing out more like this.

The Isle of May was approx 10 miles away. Would a handheld radio have the range for this.

My rib already has an antenna fitted and the wiring in place.

[Max...]

I have only good things to report on my HX751 - superb spec, price, build, performance.

[actions]

I can offer some advice having just been in exactly the same situation as yourself.

I already had a handheld which was / is an icom m23. I found it very useful and certainly wouldnt go out without one. in fact there was an article in this months edition of rnli news that stated a chap who only ever went a few hundred yards from shore only ever took a mobile. However long story short he ended up in trouble his phone got wet and he had to resort to flares to have his life saved.

I don't want to scare you but it just shows it can happen even when close to shore.

I now also have a fixed vhf. If im honest this is so much better. Better clarity, better range due to aerial, more functions when out with other ribbers and of course its linked to gps. So if i ever have to hit the "oh shit" button at least they will know where i am roughly.

So in my honest opinion. Get a vhf. Fixed for clarity, handheld for ease and cheaper if you take into account aerials and mounts for a fixed set.

I know have both and always will and looked at it as a safety must rather than a gadget want.

Hope this helps. If you search under my postings you will find lots of talk about it when i asked a similar question.

Matt.

Sent from my galaxy s2

[Pikey Dave]

I have a fixed vhf & an Icom M71 in the grab bag. In the dim & distant past we found ourselves stuck out at sea with flat boat batteries, hence no VHF, never again. The M71 is a nice bit of kit

[kerny]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

I have a fixed vhf & an Icom M71 in the grab bag. In the dim & distant past we found ourselves stuck out at sea with flat boat batteries, hence no VHF, never again. The M71 is a nice bit of kit

I'll second the M71 superb battery life as well

[ShinyShoe]

Originally Posted by Jonnymac

Thanks for the speedy reply,

The majority of times I travel no more than one mile out to sea to wakeboard or to fish.

In theory that should be no problem with a handheld. But beware that you wont be 1 mile from wherever the CG mast is. That said it would probably be fine.

However during the summer I had a couple of fantastic trips to the Isle of May from North Berwick and would like to start venturing out more like this.

The Isle of May was approx 10 miles away. Would a handheld radio have the range for this.

Tricky - as seaskills says a lot to do with transmitter aeriel height.

If you have two handheld radios at 1m height and clear sight then their horizon is both 3miles away so *theoretically* they could transmit 6miles. Stand up to get 2m of height and you might get 8miles (if both are stood up). Sitting down (50cm height) and it drops to 4miles.

But thats handheld to handheld. Handheld to a mast will go further...

You say you are travelling 10miles to Isle of May - but unless my geography is wrong Isle of May is to the Northern side of the Forth Estuary. The transmitters on the Forth are located North of the Forth until the Forth Road Bridge (its on the South Side) Since Fifeness Coastgaurd Station (Forth CG) is not far away and has a trasmitter mast I'd expect you would be working that. Can you see its mast on a clear day from North Berwick?

Fifeness mast is about 60m above the ground from the photo I saw. That would mean it can transmit to 0.5m handheld across about 22miles so you should be OK from an aeriel height. As said before - the aeriel height will be much the same for handheld or fixed unit. You may find WAFIs who say different - but they put their aeriel on top of the big stick. if you have an A Frame you might squeeze a few extra miles but the big difference will be from the CG Mast being as high as it is.

You may also want to monitor for port ops. Not sure where they transmit from? (?Leith ?Mast height).

A handheld radio can typically transmit at 1 and 5W, although some now do 6W. If I remember my physics right as the distance doubles from the transmitter the power quarters. A fixed unit will go to 25W which means its transmission will be the same strength as a 5W double the distance away. Most text books claim hand held to handheld of 5miles - so you *should* be able to get handheld to 25W fixed twice that distance (10m) but you might be able to hear and not receive...

SPR hangs round Ellie and may be able to comment what handheld comms are like locally which is fairly close to May.

As for which radio... ...you were brave to ask. 100 people... ...100 answers?

But I hear good things about Standard Horizons and have had good service from Icom. I know people who use Cobra, Silva etc with no issues. Beware the VERY VERY cheap - there is a reason check what its missing (3W max power?, No 37A/M1, No battery life?)

You want waterproof on a RIB (not water resistant). For HH You may want floating or you need to secure it ALL the time. For HH You need battery - Lithium has advantage of less memory issues and better results - I can run my Icom Euro M1 for 2 days on a fairly heavy transmit / receive ratio and still be showing full power (on d3 it will drop). On the other hand if I loose my battery power I am stuffed where most NiMH cells have a battery pack for AAs instead (but they need them as battery life is poorer!). As you have a 12V supply can you find a dry place that would let you charge from a cigarette type socket if your battery is dead and you need to get some juice for an emergency?

Fixed unit - 12V battery is great unless the reason you want the radio is your battery is flat. Added advantage of GMDSS - but if you don't have GPS then its not that useful, although GMDSS is quoted to send digital call up to 70miles.

[mark_j]

DSC - Superb bit of kit

[9D280]

The one thing about a dead boat battery is that assuming your alternator hasn't packed up, unless the battery has actually exploded the chances are the engine will provide sufficient juice to keep the VHF / GPS alive....

[SPR]

We use handheld to Forth Coastguard all the time from Elie bay, it's the shadow of May Isle might shield you...I had mobile phone reception from Bell Rock!

As a local watch officer told us carry both a mobile phone & VHF.

s.

[Rogue Wave]

SH for me everytime. But don't take my word for it have a good long look at the way the Battery contacts are made on the Icom and then the SH and you decide which one is gonna fail first.

Also definitely get a fixed ste if you can,

[biffer]

I've got an icom with speaker mike attached to my life jacket. When you're out blasting about the speaker mike is right next to my ear and when you grab hold of the mike to answer your hand stops all the wind noise

sent from a remote device

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by 9D280

The one thing about a dead boat battery is that assuming your alternator hasn't packed up, unless the battery has actually exploded the chances are the engine will provide sufficient juice to keep the VHF / GPS alive....

Errr, that's assuming that you can start the engine with a flat battery...,.....,,

ee lad, tha can't educate pork

[ShinyShoe]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Errr, that's assuming that you can start the engine with a flat battery...,.....,,

That was what i was thinking.

I haven't studied the contacts on the Standard H and the Icom's but wondering how likely they are to fail if you never remove the cell?

There are probably a couple of other considerations about Handheld vs Fixed that I didn't mention.

If you go in the oggin with a hh attached to you can whoever is left on the boat summon help if you are unable to? On the other hand if you go out single handed then having a fixed set on the boat and you are swimming after your boat but unable to get to it your gonna want hh. Same thoughts if the guys you go out with wouldn't know how / be able to be show how to call for help (I know press the red button - 5 seconds).

Ultimately the ideal is both a fixed on the boat and a hh in your pocket but you have to start somewhere

SPR comments about the land shadow of the Isle of May. As I understand it May is about 10km south(ish) of Fifeness. If we assume the mast is 60m high from sea level (thats probably an under estimate as the ground is nearly 25m above MHWS and the mast is tall) May is 45m tall at its highest. In theory that would produce a huge shadow. BUT its not that big and some of the signal will deflect round the island.

I'm assuming there is a light on the mast for planes. Is the light obscured by the island from the Southern Shore?

[Paul Cannell]

Originally Posted by Max...

I have only good things to report on my HX751 - superb spec, price, build, performance.

+1 for the S-H

[SPR]

if you at altastones in the may isle it's all about angles! but somebody will hear you...of course this will affect both hh and fixed radios ..

I only know the fife coast ... I prefer the sun on my face when looking out to sea!

[Festinghouse]

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

If you have two handheld radios at 1m height and clear sight then their horizon is both 3miles away so *theoretically* they could transmit 6miles. Stand up to get 2m of height and you might get 8miles (if both are stood up). Sitting down (50cm height) and it drops to 4m.

at the risk of opening a can of whoopass, i would have to disagree with this staement as a radio can only recieve a signal that reaches it, and not "draw it in". so if the signal travells 3miles to the horizon then thats all it will do, it will not suddenly double itself to reach someone another 3miles over the horizon.

aerial height is the key, that is why you can speak to the coastguard out to a much greater range than perhaps your mate only a few miles away.
one problem i got told about with height was that blackpool rnli used to have problems talking to liverpool coastguard as the cg aerial was on blackpool tower, which meant that the radio signal went straight over the top of the station below and could not be heard!

[Rogue Wave]

[QUOTE=ShinyShoe;424973]That was what i was thinking.

I haven't studied the contacts on the Standard H and the Icom's but wondering how likely they are to fail if you never remove the cell?

how do you think I know! buy the Icom give it a few years and you will understand! I can't reall explain it without pictures but I genuinely belive the SH is far better built and more waterproff

There are probably a couple of other considerations about Handheld vs Fixed that I didn't mention.
If you go in the oggin with a hh attached to you can whoever is left on the boat summon help if you are unable to? On the other hand if you go out single handed then having a fixed set on the boat and you are swimming after your boat but unable to get to it your gonna want hh. Same thoughts if the guys you go out with wouldn't know how / be able to be show how to call for help (I know press the red button - 5 seconds).

Ultimately the ideal is both a fixed on the boat and a hh in your pocket but you have to start somewhere

Everybody on your boat should be able to operate the radio and summon help, I believe it is part of SOLAS 'law' to have instructions on sending an SOS, if you don't familiarise your crew with radio operation and then your not doing it right. good safety info is available from the RNLI inc a radio sticker. When you are in trouble (and I hope you never are!) you will be glad to have all teh bases covered.

VHF works on line of sight, make sure you are at the top of the wave when transmitting from your short antenna at 5 watts buy both if you are in trouble in remote conditions then you'll be very grateful for the extra 20 watts a fixed gives you. .
SPR comments about the land shadow of the Isle of May. As I understand it May is about 10km south(ish) of Fifeness. If we assume the mast is 60m high from sea level (thats probably an under estimate as the ground is nearly 25m above MHWS and the mast is tall) May is 45m tall at its highest. In theory that would produce a huge shadow. BUT its not that big and some of the signal will deflect round the island.

I used to love trig at school


by thwe way you can usually start an engine with a Pull cord even if the engine doesn't come with one , if you intend to go out with an iffy battery might be worth having a go try tying a string of Pork Saussages around the flywheel and giving it a pull

[EnglishLes]

I think the point about the horizon is that the HH signal travels in a straight line to the horizon and then continues on in a straight line to the other HH.

Imagine a see-saw with a HH on each end with the horizon in the middle where the see-saw tilts back and forth, the HHs are still in line of sight of each other. Of course if the tx HH doesn't have the power to reach the end of the see-saw no signal would be received.