Handheld Radio and EPIRB Recomendation
Submitted by SpotHound on Wed, 2014-02-12 13:36
After all these dudes getting lost at sea, thought I would buy a radio for my tinny.
Any ideas on the best brand to get?
Same deal for EPIRB.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8673
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Hand held
If you are going more than a couple of nm offshore I'd forget buying a hand held and go straight to VHF.
Most of the sea rescue groups in the north either don't or soon won't monitor 27 meg because of its limited range
sstevee
Posts: 472
Date Joined: 15/11/11
Mate I got myself a
Mate I got myself a Raymarine hand held vhf when I had my tinnie.. Worked great for what I was using it for.. Now it's on board as my back up radio.
One thing to take note of is how it is powered. Mine can take rechargeable AA's in a little pack (supplied with radio) or I can just put in any old AA's. also if you get one be watchful of the battery indication. I got a little complacent with mine once and left the batteries in it for a while. All good I thought as it still showed full batt power.... Until I went to log on and it died. Had to use a mobile
chris raff
Posts: 3257
Date Joined: 09/02/10
The better 406 epirbs are gps
The better 406 epirbs are gps equipped .. thus giving instant and exact co ords , worth the extra coin IMO .
“Intelligence is like a four-wheel drive. It only allows you to get stuck in more remote places.”
Redchoppa
Posts: 102
Date Joined: 15/07/12
GPS Epirb
You need one if your going more than 2 nm offshore or 400m off Garden, Carnac or Rottnest (or any island 2 nm from the mainland).
VHF over 27meg also, and do a ROCP course, teaches you a few things that you might need to use one day ( or even just do a few of the practice questions on their webpage).
clogwog
Posts: 265
Date Joined: 01/02/11
I use a lowrance lhr-80 GPS
I use a lowrance lhr-80 GPS hand held combo. pretty good hand held radio, I really only fish upto 15km out and still receive a strong signal from fremantle sea rescue. The radio has some pretty good features has a distress function that when pressed alerts any boats using the same frequency of your gps coordinates. I can't work out how to fricken use the gps though. Also waterproof which would be pretty Handy if you went into the water.
I purchases it as my main radio but will use it as a back up once I fit a fixed VHF.
carnarvonite
Posts: 8673
Date Joined: 24/07/07
Transmit power
The problem with handhelds is that the majority of them only have a max 5 watts transmit while a full size set has the option of 5 watts or 25 watts plus the bigger aerial.