Any recommendations for a low cost, mounted, basic VHF radio? The display
has given out on my old radio. I am considering the Uniden Solara and would
appreciate comments on this model or suggestions for others.

Mark (the rail & canopy hook guy)
www.ripnet.com/vtf/prod03.htm

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.

All of these VHF radios are relatively inexpensive, as boating gear
goes, as long as you stick to the basic functions.

It would be hard to wrong with ICOM, Uniden, Raymarine, or other major
brands. VHF (thankfully) is
usually trouble free.

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.

wrote in message
ups.com...
I would suggest stepping up enough to get DSC.

I agree on the DSC capability. Some low to medium priced VHF units are
capable of being interfaced with your fixed mount GPS. That is how I have
mine set up. However, there are now VHF units that have their own GPS.

Even if you don't hook it up to your fixed mount GPS, you may want to in the
future.

In my recent VHF upgrade, I went for the DSC, Hailer/with listen-back and
programmable frog horn/siren.

A note of caution: when you program your vessel ID into the new VHF, read
and follow the instruction carefully. In my Standard Horizon, I get only 2
tries and then it has to go back to Standard to erase the incorrect ID. This
was a no cost service but require that I have West Marine return it and that
took about a week.

Regarding my experience with Standard Horizon VHF. I have had 3 different
models over the past 14 years. One had a bad mike cord which I paid for the
repairs since it was out of warrantee, 2nd worked fine for 3 years until I
upgraded to get the above mentioned features, while the 3rd (and present
unit) failed last summer due to a heat related problem at the chart table.
It was repaired under warrantee and would have been replaced by West Marine
if that model had been current and available. Took about a week for repairs
at no cost.

Also I recommend watching for mfg'ers rebates. I got a $30 rebate off the
heavily discounted/sale price and ended up only paying about $180 for a $350
unit.

Good shopping

Steve
s/v Good Intentions

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

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.

Ain't that the truth!

"John R. Campbell" wrote in
:

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.)



The best feature of FRS radios is you can say whatever you like without
some kilocycle cop/boater or CG guy bitching at you to get the hell off his
channel....(c;

On Larry W4CSC wrote:
John R. Campbell wrote:
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.)

The best feature of FRS radios is you can say whatever
you like without some kilocycle cop/boater or CG guy
bitching at you to get the hell off his channel....(c;

Sorry, I was trying for an "almost British" level
of understatement in my post... and you said, in
plain language, what I was trying to say in a more
obscure form.

(shakes head)

Granted, I try for laughs...

The point, really, is that FRS radios have such a
low wattage that there's not much of a likelihood
of interfering with others. The low costs (take a
look around a CostCo or Best Buy or some such) and
you'll not that the prices are also pretty low as
well-- so losing one over the side isn't the utter
disaster that a VHF hand-held would be.

Of course I don't personally know if FRS can even
be *licensed* for use outside the USA much less,
if usable, what the rules'd be.

Granted, you have to remember to use a *real* VHF
rig in order to hail others ... especially distress
calls.

Additionally, one suggestion: regular hand-held
scanners are available for a lot less than a "real"
VHF hand-held (especially if you only want to cover
the marine bands) so one of *those* scanner would
be handy for whoever is on communications watch.

The real point being is that there is other tech
out there that, while not tuned perfectly for the
marine environment, is fairly usable... and cheap
enough to more easily cope with replacements.

While it makes sense to avoid "disposable tech", I
think there are times when you want to use it to
cut down on the "wear and tear" (of the PTT button?)
of the far more critical marine-grade tech.

Some tech obviously will not make the jump very
well to marine conditions... but finding the more
appropriate tech to carry over can be rather
entertaining to discover.

--
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

On Sun, 13 Mar 2005 04:46:38 GMT, "John R. Campbell"
wrote:


Of course I don't personally know if FRS can even
be *licensed* for use outside the USA much less,
if usable, what the rules'd be.

The USA and Canada have the same FRS radio allocations, so US FRS
radios can be used in Canada, and vice versa, without interfering with
other services (whether it is strictly legal is another matter...)

Other countries have similar services (and similar-appearing radios),
but often on different frequencies - In North America, FRS is around
460 MHz, but the similar service in Europe is on 446 MHz - use of
North American FRS radios in Europe, or vice versa, is likely to
result in interference with licensed services on the other frequency,
and is almost certainly illegal.

--
Peter Bennett, VE7CEI
peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca
new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq
GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter
Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca

In article ,
"John R. Campbell" wrote:

Of course I don't personally know if FRS can even
be *licensed* for use outside the USA much less,
if usable, what the rules'd be.

Quite possibly they're covered by the old 100 mw rule: Less than a tenth
of a watt was hardly considered a transmitter years ago, so you could do
anything you wanted without regulation. 'Course, things probably have
changed since.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

In article ,
Larry W4CSC wrote:

The best feature of FRS radios is you can say whatever you like without
some kilocycle cop/boater or CG guy bitching at you to get the hell off his
channel....(c;

God did Jackie Painter, bite your ass too..... He does get around...


Me