VHF Marine Radios

So just wondering if anyone has preferred to go with Hand Held VHF marine radios rather than fixed units?

Would love to hear opinions, problems, solutions, pro's con's of both fixed vhf and hand held vhf units.

 

Cheers

Chris


Posts: 4561

Date Joined: 01/02/10

 Range is the biggest

Tue, 2014-07-15 09:52

 Range is the biggest consideration. A hand held will never come close to matching a fixed unit with a decent aerial. 

 

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Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

scotto's picture

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Date Joined: 21/04/08

as above,

Tue, 2014-07-15 10:17

bigger the unit/ariel, better the coverage.

that being said though, I have a 1500mm VHF antenna on my dinghy, and I often give the handheld VHF to the missus at camp (gnaraloo), to radio me if needed.

at one point, she was over 14 nautical miles away, and it was clear as a phone call.

Posts: 53

Date Joined: 28/03/13

 VHF range is what's known as

Tue, 2014-07-15 11:07

 VHF range is what's known as ' line of sight'. Meaning the two station (transmitting/receiving) should be visible to each other. The higher your arieal the greater range in theory. Saying that you can get skip due to atmospheric condition increasing the range, you'll find the range will increase at night because of this. I quite often here VHF radio (crap) at night at ranges that VHF shouldn't work. If you are in an area of heavy traffic a handheld should be fine as it's a requirement for all commercial (rec???) VHF equipped vessels to monitor ch16 if you find yourself having to swim.

CC106's picture

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Ok, so range coverage is a

Tue, 2014-07-15 11:50

Ok, so range coverage is a pro for the fixed unit.

Can anyone vouch for range with a hand held unit calling another hand held unit?

carnarvonite's picture

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Range

Tue, 2014-07-15 17:06

Hand held to hand held is approx. 2nm at best.

Swompa's picture

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Disagree. Can clearly pick up

Tue, 2014-07-15 19:41

Disagree. Can clearly pick up Freo sea rescue from Penguin Island.

5w can get us 8 miles easily.

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Date Joined: 01/02/10

 I don't think freo Vmr will

Tue, 2014-07-15 21:16

 I don't think freo Vmr will be running a hand held somehow mate.

____________________________________________________________________________

Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?

Swompa's picture

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Date Joined: 14/10/12

I didn't say that, I said

Wed, 2014-07-16 08:34

I didn't say that, I said that we (using a hand held) were able to get Freo sea rescue from near penguin island.

Using a hand held doesn't limit you to only talking to a hand held.

I also understand that they have a tower and are quite elevated.

carnarvonite's picture

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Read again

Wed, 2014-07-16 14:32

His question was, how far would the range be for using a hand held to ANOTHER hand held

Swompa's picture

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And he should get 5-8 miles,

Wed, 2014-07-16 18:17

And he should get 5-8 miles, trusting everyone is on a flat surface. Add some elevation then it increases by 2 miles per meter of vertical I believe

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Date Joined: 08/08/11

 That could be boosted by a

Wed, 2014-07-16 06:28

 That could be boosted by a repeater.  We spoke to denham from steep point via a hand held a couple of years ago.  No line of sight there, but there is a repeater out there now.

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Fish! HARD!

Swompa's picture

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Date Joined: 14/10/12

I just picked up a GME unit

Tue, 2014-07-15 12:39

I just picked up a GME unit GX600, for $250 including antenna.

I normally used a hand held VHF but forgot it so many times, also forgetting to charge it was a pain in the bum too.

A hand held is a great backup for sure but you cannot beat the range of a fixed unit with a 6 foot whip on the console.