A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?


--
Email sent to is never read.

K Smith wrote:
Harry Krause wrote:
A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?



More self serving lies hey Harry, what the xmas edition??


It's not a holiday down under, Ms. Smith...why aren't you at your
non-existent factory, manufacturing your non-existent line of diesel
outboards you can sell to your non-existent group of commercial fishermen.

You sure are a sad sack. I'll bet you look like your boat: old, badly
designed, leaky seams and in need of a paint job.


--
Email sent to is never read.

Standard Horizon comes out at the top of the heap regularly in the
independent tests I've seen. They latest version is really tiny, but works
well.

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?


--
Email sent to is never read.

Keith wrote:

Standard Horizon comes out at the top of the heap regularly in the
independent tests I've seen. They latest version is really tiny, but works
well.

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?


--
Email sent to is never read.



Thanks. You're the third person suggesting a Standard Horizon portable.

--
Email sent to is never read.

Harry Krause wrote:
A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?



More self serving lies hey Harry, what the xmas edition?? Now there's
an idea you can have small selections bound & give them away as
unbelievable tales from the mentally deranged.

Backup radio for you boatS plural :-)

You just keep them coming!!!

Here's the current series but what we'll call the "my young bride
psychotherapist" series is coming & it's a hoot.

K

Here's some of Harry's lies for you, just to bring back old memories:-)

Here's just some of his prior lies (in his own words pasted);

I sold off nearly $3,000,000 in new motors and boats, depressing
the new boat
industry in southern Connecticut for an entire season. Everything was
sold...every
cotter pin, every quart of oil, 30 days after I started. For near
full-retail, too.


He had just under $1,000,000 on floor plan with a
syndicate of banks led by National Shawmut of Boston. He had been a
solid customer of that back for more than 20 years and they gave him
great rates.



As far as your other complaints, well, almost every president in my memory,
and I *remember* Truman, Eisenhower (who cheated on his wife), Kennedy,
Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Bush, lied and participated in
deceit to one degree or another, and on issues far more important than who
was giving them blow jobs.

Good lord. I met *every* president in the damned group except Bush, and I
worked once for his father.



My father used to pray that the north shore of LI Sound would be hit by
a mild hurricane. No
one injured, no on-shore property damaged, but lots of boats sunk.
Preferably early in July.


We had the Hatteras for two years. Last year, out of the cold clear, a
broker approached me with an offer to buy. Our continued Florida
lifestyle was somewhat up in the air, because the two breadwinners
hereabouts were about to be offered long-term but temporary assignments
they could not refuse in the Washington, D.C., area. So, after being
romanced a little, we sold the Hatt for almost precisely what we paid
for it. Not bad, after two full years of use. And I mean full years. So,
we didn't "make" any money off the Hatt, but we didn't lose any, either.
The proceeds were prudently invested.

The PWC was won as
a prize in a raffle.



Never mind that. Why does he have a Bilgeliner in front of his office?
Is it a display of "Boating Don'ts?"
Yeah, when we were in the boat biz, my father always had one or two


"around the back" that he was forced to take in trade. These were sold
as "as is, where is." He made sure the engine would start and run.
Beyond that, it was up to the prospective buyer to decide if he wanted
it. They moved off the lot pretty quickly, partially because my dad's
main store was on a highly trafficked commercial route with lots of
manufacturing and machining and aerospace plants near by. In those days,
workers at these places could fix anything.


Actually, Dipper, I don't think my father ever saw a Bayliner. But he still
called bumpers bumpers.
--



Bayliner wined and dined my father a half dozen times to entice him
into becoming its dealer. His operation was the largest small boat
dealership in its area of New England, and for 30 years, he was the
*exclusive* Evinrude dealer in a densely populated coastal county. He
also handled Mercuries. He never liked Bayliners, and referred to them
as "jerry-built."


From 1947 until he died, he sold more than 500 outboard motors a
year from his stores, accounting for a reasonably high percentage of *all*
outboards sold in his home state for those years.


This is a killer. My father was in the boat business dating back to
right after
the Big War. When he died and I was looking through his warehouse, I found
wrapped in a nuclear fall-out bag (no kidding), a brand-new 1949
Evinrude 8015
50 hp outboard. The motor was a gift to my father from Evinrude for
winning some
outboard stock utility or hydroplane race.

I gave the motor to a friend of my dad's, who worked at the shop as head
mechanic. I don't believe he ever used it and I'm sure it is still
brand-new. I
have no idea who might own it now.



He also built
boats, and I worked on a few, both wood, glass covered wood and
all fiberglass. After he died, however, we sold the biz and I've
just been an occasional boat owner.


Besides, I worked off and on in the
boat business and inherited it when he died. So, as I said, I'm
knee-deep in boat heritage.


Oh,
and I had some friends who died in the service, too, but it wasn't for
what they believed in. They were drafted, shipped to Vietnam and came
back in body bags.


During the war, he turned out experimental brass shell casings
for the
Army and hopped up outboards for the Navy, which wanted to use them on
smaller
landing craft. I had photos at one time of my father with Ole Evinrude
himself.
My mother knew one of Evinrude's wives...she was a minor movie star or
singer...I forgot which. Maybe both.



Have you ever sailed from San Francisco to Hawaii? I have.
Have you ever rounded Cape Horn? I have, twice.
Have you ever transited the Panama Canal? I have.
Have you owned more than 20 boats in your lifetime? I have.
Have you ever sailed large boats competitively? I have.
Have you ever been hundreds of miles from land in a powerboat under your
command? I have.


My father and his chief mechanic once crossed the Atlantic in winter in
a 22'
boat powered by twin outboards. Yes, it is possible, even the fuel. Got a
"fireboat" welcome in NYC.




Here are some:

Hatteras 43' sportfish
Swan 41' racing/cruising sloop
Morgan 33
O'Day 30
Cruisers, Inc., Mackinac 22
Century Coronado
Bill Luders 16, as sweet a sailboat as ever caught a breeze.
Century 19' wood lapstrake with side wheel steering
Cruisers, Inc. 18' and 16' wood lapstrakes
Wolverines. Molded plywood. Gorgeous. Several. 14,15,17 footers with various
Evinrudes
Lighting class sailboat
Botved Coronet with twin 50 hp Evinrudes. Interesting boat.
Aristocraft (a piece of junk...13', fast, held together with spit)
Alcort Sunfish
Ancarrow Marine Aquiflyer. 22' footer with two Caddy Crusaders.
Guaranteed 60
mph. In the late 1950's.
Skimmar brand skiff
Arkansas Traveler fiberglass bowrider (I think it was a bowrider)
Dyer Dhow
Su-Mark round bilge runabout, fiberglass
Penn Yan runabouts. Wood.
Old Town wood and canvas canoe
Old Town sailing canoe...different than above canoe



Sometime in the early 1960s, I was driving back from Ft. Leonard Wood to
Kansas City in a nice old MGA I owned at the time. About halfway home it
started raining heavily, I turned on the wipers, and EVERY SINGLE
electrical accessory and light in the car flashed on, there was a large
popping sound and it all blew out at once. And the car caught fire. I
pulled over to the side of the road, watched the fire, removed my
license plate and hitched on home. For all I know, that old MGA is still
there.

Sure was a pretty little car.


Puh-lease, Karen. You've not seen nor have I ever posted one example of
my professional writings on building structure and the effects on it of
hurricane-force winds and seismic activity. I haven't done any of these
in at least 10 year, but at the time I was field researching,
photographing and writing these reports, they were quite accurate,
topical and well-received by their intended audiences.


A small fleet of Polar skiffs were purchased by an inshore bait, tackle
and boat rental business on the ICW in NE Florida. These boats were not
used on open waters. Within 90 days, cracks developed in the liners that
also served as the deck over the flotation in the bottom of the hulls. A
guide I know, one whose boats and engines are supplied to him by
manufacturers, also had a Polar skiff go bad on him for the same reasons
-liner and then hull fractures.

WaIIy wrote:
On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 17:06:59 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:

A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?

I have an Icom IC-M1V and love it. It sells now for about $180.00.
This radio is waterproof.

They recently came out with the M3A and it is also a great radio for
about $140.00. I think it's the best deal around.
This radio is water resistant.


http://www.vitmarine.com/ico-m3a.html

Thanks. I like the M-88, too, but it's a bit pricey for a gift, although
there is a rebate.

--
Email sent to is never read.

I used to recommend the Standard Horizon 460S but am starting to have second
thoughts.
I bought mine almost two years at our local boat show but returned the first
one because of a defective 'lamp' switch.
Now, I just noticed that the 'keying' switch is very hard to depress.
It's not as if I use the thing a whole lot.
Believe I'm still under warranty but now I'm getting nervous about the long
term prospects for this radio.

Harry Krause wrote in message
...
A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?


--
Email sent to is never read.

Don White wrote:

I used to recommend the Standard Horizon 460S but am starting to have second
thoughts.
I bought mine almost two years at our local boat show but returned the first
one because of a defective 'lamp' switch.
Now, I just noticed that the 'keying' switch is very hard to depress.
It's not as if I use the thing a whole lot.
Believe I'm still under warranty but now I'm getting nervous about the long
term prospects for this radio.

Harry Krause wrote in message
...
A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?


--
Email sent to is never read.




Thanks. My old ICOM still works. I know because I use it once a month.
On the other hand, I just shipped my almost-brand-new ICOM 502 back to
the factory service center on the left coast because it wasn't
transmitting with any punch at 1 watt, and noisily at 25 watts. Horizon
has a new model, a 471S, that also works on the FRS bands. But it is $360.

--
Email sent to is never read.

It seems to be ICOM over here on the west coast?

--
Bill Kiene

Kiene's Fly Shop
Sacramento, CA
www.kiene.com

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?


--
Email sent to is never read.

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 17:06:59 -0500, Harry Krause
wrote:

A close friend down in Florida is buying a skiff/flats boat for inshore
fishing (Indian River lagoon area) and I can't talk him into installing
a "permanent" VHF radio with antenna. He thinks his cell phone will be
enough. So for XMAS, I plan on buying him a portable VHF as a gift.

But there are so many of them out there. I have a ICOM portable I use
(rarely) as a backup on my boats, but it is a few years old and probably
no longer in production.

Any suggestions? Since it is for a small boat, ruggedized and
water-resistance are important characteristics.

What should I buy for a good-quality VHF portable for a gift?

I agree on the Standard Horizon handheld. Submersible is important I
think. I keep a Standard Horizon HX350S strapped to a life jacket
closeby in the boat at all times in addition to my installed VHF.
I don't know that I want a small handheld. In cold water or with bad
conditions and cold hands I would want a radio that is easy to find
with big buttons.
John C.