Hi
My son has just bought a second hand 23 ft motor cruiser which was very
basic to say the least, not even one piece of safety equipment with it,
however he has started to kit it out. I do not know anything about boats and
their equipments but my wife and I were considering buying him a VHF radio
as a Xmas present (the licence he can get himself) .I was looking at a Silva
S10 DSC priced at £129.00 UKP or $221 USD or a handheld Star M-298 £57 UKP
or $97 USD He will probably never be more than 3 miles offshore and the boat
will be used purely for leisure and maybe a bit sea angling in the west of
Scotland. The radio would be just for any unforseen emergency.

I'm not sure which to go for, a fixed or handheld. Would the fixed radio set
be rather extravagant for the purpose ?
Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

On Fri, 25 Nov 2005 16:24:47 GMT, "killie"
wrote:


I'm not sure which to go for, a fixed or handheld. Would the fixed radio set
be rather extravagant for the purpose ?
Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

I'm tempted to say there's no such thing as extravagance where safety
gear is concerned. In the best of all worlds, you have both. They are
somewhat complementary.

In over 40 years on and around salt water, I'm pretty sure a handheld
would have worked for everything I've ever really needed to do. The
limited power generally isn't a problem. The downside is if something
goes wrong, you are limited to the quantity and quality of batteries
on hand. Also, anything not attached to the boat might go missing
when things start to go wrong. In my personal experience, handhelds
have not been as reliable as fixed units.

The fixed vhf will have better reach if you need to yell for help on a
noisy channel. On the other hand, a significant percentage of the
things that go wrong on a small boat result in a dead electrical
system either immediately or eventually, making the fixed vhf useless.
You will need to mount an antenna, of course. You are tied to the
radio by the mike cord, maybe not a problem on such a small boat.

Bear in mind that this is not necessarily just emergency equipment.
On the US side of the pond, vhf radios also receive weather forecasts.
They are needed to communicate with bridges and locks. You can
contact marinas to request a slip. You can ask another boat how the
fishing is where they are. You can hear the Coast Guard broadcast
that there's a shipping container floating a few inches under the
surface in your path. For these routine tasks, a handheld is
sufficient and convenient. But if I ever seriously need help, I'll
reach for the fixed unit first. I really like having both.






__________________________________________________ __________
Glen "Wiley" Wilson usenet1 SPAMNIX at world wide wiley dot com
To reply, lose the capitals and do the obvious.

Take a look at cpRepeater, my NMEA data integrator, repeater, and
logger at http://www.worldwidewiley.com/

killie wrote:
Hi
My son has just bought a second hand 23 ft motor cruiser which was
very basic to say the least, not even one piece of safety equipment
with it, however he has started to kit it out. I do not know anything
about boats and their equipments but my wife and I were considering
buying him a VHF radio as a Xmas present (the licence he can get
himself) .I was looking at a Silva S10 DSC priced at £129.00 UKP or
$221 USD or a handheld Star M-298 £57 UKP or $97 USD He will probably
never be more than 3 miles offshore and the boat will be used purely
for leisure and maybe a bit sea angling in the west of Scotland. The
radio would be just for any unforseen emergency.

I'm not sure which to go for, a fixed or handheld. Would the fixed
radio set be rather extravagant for the purpose ?
Any advice would be much appreciated

Thanks

4 watts or 25 watts. I know which I would go for every time.