gould0738 wrote:
I would suggest stepping up enough to get DSC.
They may not even offer VHF without digital
select calling anymore, I haven't checked
recently. My VHF is 15-20 years old and still
going strong, as are a probable majority of
units from the same era. My next VHF will have
DSC, and maybe one of the microphones that can
change channels etc.

Yes, I agree that having extra controls available
on the mic is not inconvenient... but I think
the recent fad of "wireless mics" is... *INSANE*.

Yeah, I'm weird.

But, again, I've already had one cell-phone jump
off my belt and head for the bottom of the Gulfport
Marina. My daughter was concerned whether the fish
would eat it and got a laugh when I told her I was
more worried that they'd make long distance calls
with it...

If your boat is a single helm model, save enough
money for a decent hand held VHF to go into the
spares locker. The odds of both radios crapping
out at the same time are almost zero, but you
will have more limited range on the hand held.

Not just a spares locker-- a spares metal box that
will shield spares from the EMP of a "nearby"
lightning strike. A coupla packets of silica gel
would probably not hurt either. Keep a hand-held
(spare?) GPS in there too.

On a sailboat the main VHF unit is not always
immediately accessible so a hand-held is also nice
to get bridges open...

If travelling in a group of boats, consider some
FRS radios which don't have much reach but don't
need much when travelling close enough together.
Less interference on the marine channels and the
like... but it'd be *real* nice if some of the
bridges down here were monitoring something other
than VHF ch9. (These FRS rigs are very handy at
other times, too, like w/ multiple cars, visiting
Home Depot or Lowes and the like.)

It's strange but when looking for "basic electronics"
(be it GPS or VHF or whatnot) the prices don't look
quite so insane compared to a simple 3:1 boom vang.

--
John R. Campbell Speaker to Machines soup at tampabay dot rr dot com
"Grace is sufficient so Joy was let go." - Heather L. Campbell
"Faith manages ... even though she didn't get promoted" - me
Why OS X? Because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows