B Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 Knowing that you all are up on the latest and greatest Marine radios which radio is best at the moment? I need a new one. BB Bob Burnett Sr. Sea Kayak Instructor/Guide Seattle Raft & Kayak Seattle WA 206-321-0011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin B (RPS Coach) Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 Bob, The icom m88 still seems to be the favorite, although some have gone for the icom m72 and now the new one icom m34. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael_Crouse Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 I've had an icom m88 for a few years now and it's great. It holds a charge for an incredibly long time and it's durable. It's much better than my old garmin vhf that you made fun of ;-) A lot of folks had problems with the standard vhfs that were purchased many years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RogerPollock Posted April 23, 2007 Share Posted April 23, 2007 M88. Had it a year. Been dropped three times from the top of a tall bookcase. Gets taken every time, submerged, neglected. Holding up fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Nystrom Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 I'm still using an M88 as well, but the M72 looks pretty nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Bolonsky Posted April 24, 2007 Share Posted April 24, 2007 Hey Bob, for what it's worth, and since you're a guide, consider a VHF with DSC and MMSI. It's the coming way the CG plans to implement ch. 70 for DSC automated broadcasts of distress calls. The MMSI would include your boat name and description; the DSC could then also be programmed to automatically transmit your lat. and long. in conjunction with the distress call. Weird thing is however, the FCC hasn't yet added to the MMSI descriptors anything that would identify your boat as a kayak. Makes me wonder why Andrew McCauley wasn't equipped with a DSC radio on his trip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B Posted April 25, 2007 Author Share Posted April 25, 2007 Thanks guys! BTW, I co-taught a class with Buddy and Dotty Hogan out here this past weekend. Glad you are all doing well. Bob Burnett Seattle WA 206-321-0011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 Adam, I was looking at what radios have DSC and it seems that the fix mounted radios are the ones that are required to have DSC/MMSI. The law that required this change has excluded handheld radios for now. Info from the CG on DSC: http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/marcomms/gmdss/dsc.htm Looking at the few handheld radios (I could find 2 Standard, 1 Uniden and 0 Icomm ) with DSC. The Standard they need to be cabled to a GPS via a cradle which doesn't seem like that will help in case of issue in/near a kayak. http://www.standardhorizon.com/indexVS.cfm...=3&isArchived=0 The Uniden has a built in GPS and thus might be the only option today with DSC. http://www.uniden.com/products/productdeta...?product=MYSTIC It doesn't look like it could take the abuse of a M88 etc. I just found this link where they are talking about the issues with attempting to get a MMSI descriptor for a kayak and DSC in general. http://www.westcoastpaddler.com/community/...ewtopic&p=19048 -Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Bolonsky Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 thanks for the addition links, Jason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shewhorn Posted April 25, 2007 Share Posted April 25, 2007 >The Uniden has a built in GPS and thus might be the only >option today with DSC. >http://www.uniden.com/products/productdeta...?product=MYSTIC >It doesn't look like it could take the abuse of a M88 etc. I believe it is the only hand held option with this feature built in at the moment (that's practical for us). When doing my research it appeared as if talk time and range on the Uniden wasn't that great (no surprise if it's powering a GPS and a radio) so I opted for something that would have better talk time at max output and better range (the M72). Cheers, Joe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.