I consider buying a waterproof handheld VHF to be used as some sort of
reserve radio in case mast and antenna are lost, fixed VHF fails or
need to abandon the boat...

What about radios that use AA cells instead of rechargable battery
pack? As far as I understand, rechargable batteries need to be charged
every now and then even if the radio is not used. And alkaline AA
cells, though have lower capacity, do not decay. I plan to leave the
radio in my grab pack, and would not like to worry about charging NiCd
pack every month...

Any suggestions for a good handheld? What about Icom M-31 ? Or some
similar reasonably priced set?

Mika

In each price range, you will probably notice that each radio offers the
same features.
If you buy one that uses rechargeable batteries, there's an advantage to it
if it can also run on several AA batteries.
My radio came with a NiCad Battery pack that fits in a holder. The Battery
pack can be removed from the holder and replaced by AAs.
I also bought a spare rechargeable NiCad battery pack.
The one disadvantage of my radio is that the battery pack needs to be in the
battery while being recharged, and isn't to be operated while charging. So,
if a battery pack runs down while I'm out, I can replace it, but I can't
recharge it and use it at the same time.

"Mika the Spamkiller" wrote in message
...

I consider buying a waterproof handheld VHF to be used as some sort of
reserve radio in case mast and antenna are lost, fixed VHF fails or
need to abandon the boat...

What about radios that use AA cells instead of rechargable battery
pack? As far as I understand, rechargable batteries need to be charged
every now and then even if the radio is not used. And alkaline AA
cells, though have lower capacity, do not decay. I plan to leave the
radio in my grab pack, and would not like to worry about charging NiCd
pack every month...

Any suggestions for a good handheld? What about Icom M-31 ? Or some
similar reasonably priced set?

Mika

Mika the Spamkiller wrote in
:

What about radios that use AA cells instead of rechargable battery
pack? As far as I understand, rechargable batteries need to be charged
every now and then even if the radio is not used. And alkaline AA
cells, though have lower capacity, do not decay. I plan to leave the
radio in my grab pack, and would not like to worry about charging NiCd
pack every month...



Oh, that rechargeable advertising is really effective.....(c;

If you're going to use this only for an emergency radio, I highly recommend
using Alkaline AA cells instead of a rechargeable battery pack (which will
kill itself in 3 months). What they don't tell you is a good, brand-name
alkaline battery has 4-8 TIMES the AH capacity of the finest rechargeable.
For instance, an Alkaline D cell for the flashlight is now around 15 AH!
They've gotten much better. AA cells are around 5AH, now. Shelf life on
an alkaline cell is 5 years, so change them out and use the old ones every
couple of years. DO NOT LEAVE THE BATTERIES IN THE RADIO! Radios only
switch the lower-powered parts of the receiver, NOT the big transmitter IC
that provides the RF power output. So, there is always a tiny drain
current you're not supposed to notice leaking away all the time. A marine
walkie will kill its rechargeable in a month of not being charged by it.
Put the alkalines already in their battery holder pack in a ziplock storage
bag attached to the radio for emergency use. That will keep them dry and
reduce leakage caused by salt corrosion in the boat.

Just put them all in the grab bag, but not plugged into the radio and
they'll be ready when you are....Test the radio every 6 months to make sure
it's still working. I have 4 Icom ham radio walkies with perfectly good
batteries that were stored in a closet. ALL FOUR of them failed just
sitting in the air conditioned house whos temperature never varies more
than 2 degrees from 70F. Crazy, eh?

--
Larry

Mika the Spamkiller wrote in
:

Any suggestions for a good handheld?

Someone gave me a Standard H-262 walkie they'd left in a lazarette and
forgotten about. The screws are rusted and it was awful looking. The
battery pack was toast, so I took it apart and hauled the cells up to
Batteries Plus store here and had the nice boy build me a new pack using
2,500 mAH Ni-metal hydride cells, instead of the cheapassed Ni-Cd crap all
the OEMs use in their $120 battery packs.

The abused Standard fired right up and is now my favorite marine HT! It's
much better than my Garmin 725, easier to operate. Already "rust tested",
I cleaned off the bilge crud and replaced the rusty screws. It takes
almost 2 days to fully charge these monster hydride cells from the little
trickle charger, then you can operate the thing all weekend, 24/7 in normal
use and never hear it start beeping about dead batteries. I'm very
impressed with these Standard/Vertex walkies. Of course, they ARE Yaesu-
made...my favorite ham equipment...so I'm a little prejudiced...(c;

--
Larry

On Mon, 21 Nov 2005 20:12:11 +0200, Mika the Spamkiller
wrote:

I consider buying a waterproof handheld VHF to be used as some sort of
reserve radio in case mast and antenna are lost, fixed VHF fails or
need to abandon the boat...

What about radios that use AA cells instead of rechargable battery
pack? As far as I understand, rechargable batteries need to be charged
every now and then even if the radio is not used. And alkaline AA
cells, though have lower capacity, do not decay. I plan to leave the
radio in my grab pack, and would not like to worry about charging NiCd
pack every month...

Any suggestions for a good handheld? What about Icom M-31 ? Or some
similar reasonably priced set?

I used to be an ICOM partisan, but Standard has converted me. My
HX350s came with a built in rechargeable battery, an AC charger, a DC
charger, and a standard AA battery back as well. It's a good little
radio and I love the separate squelch knob. I think the HX370s is the
current version. It deletes the squelch knob but adds a strobe, I
think. It's probably not a great strobe, but it does sound as if it
would go well in a ditch bag. They go for about $150 on ebay, I
think.

For your specified use, stay away from rechargeables. If you want
rechargeables, you still want a standard aa battery pack so you can
toss in (relatively) inexpensive NiMH AAs instead of buying
proprietary battery packs. Rechargeables can't be beat for
price/performance in regularly used equipment, but the self-discharge
rate is unacceptable for emergency gear.
__________________________________________________ __________
Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com
To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious.

Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and
logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/

You don't want "waterproof", you want "submersible".

"Waterproof" means "kinda sorta splashproof and we'll replace
it on warantee if it gets wet". "Submersible" means "3 feet,
30 minutes."

And what Larry says about the AA alkalines is right on.


"Mika the Spamkiller" wrote in message ...

I consider buying a waterproof handheld VHF to be used as some sort of
reserve radio in case mast and antenna are lost, fixed VHF fails or
need to abandon the boat...

What about radios that use AA cells instead of rechargable battery
pack? As far as I understand, rechargable batteries need to be charged
every now and then even if the radio is not used. And alkaline AA
cells, though have lower capacity, do not decay. I plan to leave the
radio in my grab pack, and would not like to worry about charging NiCd
pack every month...

Any suggestions for a good handheld? What about Icom M-31 ? Or some
similar reasonably priced set?

Mika

the Icom units are great.
Capt. boots
"Mika the Spamkiller" wrote
in message
...

I consider buying a waterproof handheld VHF to be used as
some sort of
reserve radio in case mast and antenna are lost, fixed VHF
fails or
need to abandon the boat...

What about radios that use AA cells instead of rechargable
battery
pack? As far as I understand, rechargable batteries need to
be charged
every now and then even if the radio is not used. And
alkaline AA
cells, though have lower capacity, do not decay. I plan to
leave the
radio in my grab pack, and would not like to worry about
charging NiCd
pack every month...

Any suggestions for a good handheld? What about Icom M-31 ?
Or some
similar reasonably priced set?

Mika