"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.