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VHF Radio funeral


Jed

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>Does anyone remember shen that group purchase of radio's

>happened? My HX460 died a couple of weeks ago and needs

>either a new battery of replacement. Any help appreciated.

The purchase date was March 2003. It's still under warranty. Call Vertex, and they will probably take your word on the purchase date for repair or exchange. It does take a while. Others have done this (like Brian). I shipped mine to them a couple of weeks ago after it appeared to sustain damage from water entering the charging port.

--David.

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Y'know, I just must have gotten one of the few good ones of these... mine even survived the car fire :-)

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What appears to be a battery issue with the HX460 is usually a charger port problem. The symptom is that the battery will not take or hold a charge, but the radio will run fine with the charger plugged in. The cause of this is a short in the charger port, which causes the battery to discharge. A new battery doesn't help. Expect the repair to take six weeks, possibly more if you don't keep after them to get it back to you ASAP. It seems that they are frequently out of parts for common repairs. Their policy is if they cannot fix it within six weeks, they will replace the unit.

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Coincidentally, mine just came back from Vertex after about four weeks. To be exact, it's a new one -- nope, refurbished.

Great... now I can seal the mic port with silicone caulk -- again -- and watch the charger port leak -- again. I guess I should have asked them for credit toward the newer model instead, the one with the drop-in charger. Well, I now have an ICOM IC-M88, which has a drop-in charger and no vulnerable ports, so the Standard Horizon will just be a backup.

Still, anybody have any ideas how to protect the charger port on the Standard Horizon? One idea: a tigthly bound, heavy duty rubber band across the charger port. If placed carefully, it seems to sit right under the display and above the "up arrow" button, and does not interfere with operation of the transmit or lamp/lock buttons on the side. It might work, but gee is it ugly! A piece of bungee might work as well.

--David.

http://triadic.com/NSPN/VHS-RubberBand.gif

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OK, I'll look into the drop-in charger for the HX460S. I wonder if it's the same as for these...

Meanwhile, looks like Vertex has come out with two new models in the same vein as the HX460S and HX470S (small submersibles) which may finally hit the sweet spot of the market. The HX270S and HX370S both have drop-in chargers and similar features to the HX460S. The HX370S has a built-in strobe (!) and presets. Otherwise they appear the same, at least from the feature blurbs.

Now the really good part... pricing: the HX270S is available online for about $130 and the HX370S for under $160!

After having spent over $200 ~each~ for ~two~ radios, one of which is likely to fail in regular kayak use, I must refrain from expressing my emotions. But a hearty "mazel tov" to anybody who hasn't bought their VHF yet. These seem worth looking at. (But don't forget to seal all external ports.)

--David

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  • 2 weeks later...

Brian:

Good solution, but sealing the DC input port would make it difficult to use the cigarette lighter adapter to recharge on the road. I've found that a plus when on remote trips where the rental car is the only source of power. Or overseas when you don't have an adapter for the local plugs.

Scott

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Brian:

Where can you buy the drop in charger for the HX-460? I looked on Standard Horizon's site and couldn't find that product.

I've just been gluing my port shut with silicon each time and then peeling out the silicon when I recharge it. Haven't had any water problems but it's a pain in the butt to do it.

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