I own a new 21 foot boat, and will probably get a marine radio since
some of the lakes in Minnesota are big enough, and a few times a year
I'd like to tour near-shore Lake Superior and Michigan, e.g. Apostle
Islands and general lakeshore.

Questions:

1) What brand radio is a reasonable feature/price ratio? A personal
communication from a rec.boat-er recommends Standard Horizon.
2) Do they pretty much all have weather radio?
3) What's the consensus on handhelds? Ones I have looked at do have 1
& 5 Watt switches so it seems transmitting power is good.
4) What other uses are there when there's no emergency and you will
seldom if ever need to talk to a bridge operator or use ship-to-ship
or marine telephone?
5) Should I be able to find someone to install it for me in the
Minneapolis/St. Paul area? I'm squeamish about cutting holes.
6) Is there an antenna that is easily removed or bent down to get it
out of the way of the cover?

Mitch

All the radios, fixed mount and handheld, are about the same when comparing
features in price ranges, and they all have weather radio.
The cheapest radios may not monitor weather radio for emergency broadcasts -
a nice feature.
It's nice to have a radio to call for help if you need it. It's nice to be
there if you hear someon else call for help. It's nice to know what's going
on around you, by monitoring several channels.
Any place you buy a radio should be able to refer you to some one to install
it. Installation is pretty easy: plan ahead where you want the radio, where
you will get power for it, and where you can mount the antenna and get the
antenna cable to the radio. It's just making the first hole that hurts.
Most people get an 8' antenna with a ratchet type mount that is very easy to
lay down when not in use.

"Mitchell Gossman" wrote in message
om...
I own a new 21 foot boat, and will probably get a marine radio since
some of the lakes in Minnesota are big enough, and a few times a year
I'd like to tour near-shore Lake Superior and Michigan, e.g. Apostle
Islands and general lakeshore.

Questions:

1) What brand radio is a reasonable feature/price ratio? A personal
communication from a rec.boat-er recommends Standard Horizon.
2) Do they pretty much all have weather radio?
3) What's the consensus on handhelds? Ones I have looked at do have 1
& 5 Watt switches so it seems transmitting power is good.
4) What other uses are there when there's no emergency and you will
seldom if ever need to talk to a bridge operator or use ship-to-ship
or marine telephone?
5) Should I be able to find someone to install it for me in the
Minneapolis/St. Paul area? I'm squeamish about cutting holes.
6) Is there an antenna that is easily removed or bent down to get it
out of the way of the cover?

Mitch

On 14 Jun 2004 19:12:13 -0700, (Mitchell Gossman)
wrote:

I own a new 21 foot boat, and will probably get a marine radio since
some of the lakes in Minnesota are big enough, and a few times a year
I'd like to tour near-shore Lake Superior and Michigan, e.g. Apostle
Islands and general lakeshore.

Questions:

1) What brand radio is a reasonable feature/price ratio? A personal
communication from a rec.boat-er recommends Standard Horizon.
2) Do they pretty much all have weather radio?
3) What's the consensus on handhelds? Ones I have looked at do have 1
& 5 Watt switches so it seems transmitting power is good.
4) What other uses are there when there's no emergency and you will
seldom if ever need to talk to a bridge operator or use ship-to-ship
or marine telephone?
5) Should I be able to find someone to install it for me in the
Minneapolis/St. Paul area? I'm squeamish about cutting holes.
6) Is there an antenna that is easily removed or bent down to get it
out of the way of the cover?

Mitch


If you're considering a hand-held, while most features are standard,
battery configuration could a major consideration. My Hummingbird VHF5
uses 8 AA batteries as opposed to a battery pack. While less
convenient, it's easy (and cheap) to carry a fresh pack of Alkalines
as a backup. When used regularly, Ni-Mh work well and will reduce the
running costs. Replacing a dud, sealed battery pack could cost almost
as much as the radio it'self.

One feature I wish it had, is a 12 Volt Aux. plug, and a charging
circuit, but this could just more stuff to go wrong?

Out of interest, the elevation of the antenna has much more relevance
than the Wattage output. 1/2 Watt FRS radios can shoot a signal 70 to
100 miles in a line of sight situation. The curvature of the Earth and
transmitting over water, both contribute to reducing the range.

Ideally, a fixed, and a hand-held, onboard covers most situations.

"Mitchell Gossman" wrote in message
om...
I own a new 21 foot boat, and will probably get a marine radio since
some of the lakes in Minnesota are big enough, and a few times a year
I'd like to tour near-shore Lake Superior and Michigan, e.g. Apostle
Islands and general lakeshore.

Questions:

1) What brand radio is a reasonable feature/price ratio? A personal
communication from a rec.boat-er recommends Standard Horizon.

Standard Horizon makes very good radios. ICOM is another excellent choice.

2) Do they pretty much all have weather radio?

Yes, any modern VHF marine radio will be able to receive all weather
channels

3) What's the consensus on handhelds? Ones I have looked at do have 1
& 5 Watt switches so it seems transmitting power is good.

But not nearly as good as the 25 watts a fixed-mount radio will transmit,
and with nowhere near the antenna height as an 8' fixed-mount antenna will
provide. Another advantage to a fixed mount radio is that you rarely have
to worry about not having a well-charged power source, as is often the case
with a hand-held. The best approach is a fixed-mount radio and antenna with
a hand-held backup.

4) What other uses are there when there's no emergency and you will
seldom if ever need to talk to a bridge operator or use ship-to-ship
or marine telephone?

You may wish to converse with other boaters in the area with non-emergency
traffic. Also, keep in mind that emergencies happen to others as well, and
you could very well someday make a critical difference in the outcome of
someone else's emergency simply because of your proximity and the fact that
you were monitoring channel 16. Boaters depend on each other as good
samaritans.

5) Should I be able to find someone to install it for me in the
Minneapolis/St. Paul area? I'm squeamish about cutting holes.

Depends on the severity of your sqeamishness. All that is required
electrically is a good fused connection to positive and negative 12v sources
of power, and a coax cable connection from the radio to the antenna. As far
as the mounting goes, get a good stainless steel ratcheting antenna mount,
and you can mount the radio with the supplied horseshoe bracket, or some
radios allow for flush mounting. The brackets will require small round
holes to be drilled, flush mounting will require a large hole to be cut with
a saw. If any of this makes you sqeamish, then pay someone to do it for
you. It's really not a very big job, so the labor shouldn't be all that
expensive.

6) Is there an antenna that is easily removed or bent down to get it
out of the way of the cover?

See above, re stainless antenna mount.