Guide to handheld VHF's

[Ernest T Bass]

Rafiki,

Thanks for the info on the rebate! I did not know about it, and am sending it off tomorrow in the mail. I got the battery adaptor fairly quickly from the retailer, and did not have any problems with either that or the radio. I think you should be fine getting the radio from Amazon. Rarely do I ever have a problem with them. You should have a good cushion of time before you leave.

I believe the weather alert they refer to is the feature that some weather radios have where they sense the signal that is broadcast when there is a severe weather warning. I am not entirely certain how this would impact battery life (I would think the radio would need to be left on). I plan at this point to just use the radio to check the forecast daily and to radio for assistance if there were any type of emergency. From the time that I have spent looking at the instruction manual, it is pretty straight forward. My interactions with mine have not been very extensive, but the time that I have spent playing around with it has been pretty fun! I will pass anything interesting that I find out along to you.

Again, thanks for the heads up on the rebate! What are the dates of your trip? Is it on the calendar or boards yet? Hope you had a great 4th as well!

Cheers,

ETB

[Rafiki]

Hey Ernest. Instead of getting the VHF Radio from Amazon, I decided to go with the same retailer that you did. Going that route will save me $10, but more importantly, it should get the radio to me sooner rather than later. In the past Amazon has told me that items that I purchased would ship out in three to four weeks, but once the time rolled around for some of them to ship, they got delayed another month and in one two instances, Amazon was unable to locate my items and automatically canceled my order. I do not want to find out that I do not have a VHF radio on the day of my departure due to a similar type of error that could occur. Hopefully the company I bought from is reputable. You seem satisfied so that gives me some peace of mind.

In terms of when our trip is planned, we are leaving for the island during the second week in August and coming back on the same day I believe you will be arriving. Unfortunately, our paths with not cross on the account of you starting in Windigo and us leaving from Rock Harbor :/ Oh well maybe we eventually bump into each other in the years to come

[Midwest Ed]

I just received the Standard Horizon HX300 I got for $125. In stock with ground shipping from east coast in 3 days for $8. There is also a new $20 rebate valid for purchases from 8/1/13 thru the end of the year. Looks great. Floats, LED flasher turns on automatically when floating even if radio is turned off. AAA battery adapter on back order.

[Midwest Ed]

Standard Horizon is again running a rebate through 7/31/2014.

http://www.standardhorizon.com/pdf/10-2 ... _x_8.5.pdf

[johnhens]

An update on handheld VHF radios from West Marine:
http://www.westmarine.com/choosing-a-vh ... 0107-_-VHF

[hooky]

I picked up a cheap little Baofeng UV5R to mess with this winter. For less than $30, I thought it would be a worthwhile way to putter around. No ham license so I just listen to HT, but it's a decent little radio once you figure it out.

http://www.amazon.com/BaoFeng-UV-5R-Dua ... B007H4VT7A

[Tom]

I picked up a cheap little Baofeng UV5R to mess with this winter.

I have the UV-5RA (cosmetic variant) and will agree, for the price, it's hard to beat. I've carried it out on the Isle my past few trips; it's a solid receiver for NOAA/WX.
It's not FCC certified for Marine or other use (I am ham licensed) but I have those frequencies plugged in. In a true emergency (where life might be at stake) it could be keyed up.
Hopefully you bought the programming cable; CHIRP is the way to go...

[hooky]

I read reviews and nearly everyone talked about how much easier it was to program with the cable, so I bought it. Glad I did. I agree on the certification issue. I'll pay the fine if it's an emergency. I'd rather be a little lighter in the wallet than in a bind that I maybe can't get out of with my life.

I've been goofing with it for about a month now. I'm not as lost as I was when when I started, but I still have a long way to go.

[Tom]

I'll pay the fine if it's an emergency. I'd rather be a little lighter in the wallet than in a bind that I maybe can't get out of with my life.

I don't think the rules are different for licensed amateurs or regular citizens; there is no fine or punishment for "any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available."

In a real emergency, we have a kindler, gentler FCC...

[hooky]

I didn't realize that was the case. Thanks, Tom

[Midwest Ed]

I'll pay the fine if it's an emergency. I'd rather be a little lighter in the wallet than in a bind that I maybe can't get out of with my life.

I don't think the rules are different for licensed amateurs or regular citizens; there is no fine or punishment for "any means of radiocommunication at its disposal to provide essential communication needs in connection with the immediate safety of human life and immediate protection of property when normal communication systems are not available."

In a real emergency, we have a kindler, gentler FCC...

Exactly correct. No penalty for "illegally" using licensed or regulated radio communications strictly for truly emergency purposes, which generally means the protection of human life, recovery of injured personnel and the protection of property (in most cases). This last one regarding property has been more open to interpretation. This also applies to the use of marine radios being unlawfully used from land based locations (your boat on a trailer is land based and standing on shore/not in your canoe/kayak is also land based) or using marine radios from a vessel for non-marine/non-navigational purposes.