VHF Radio Opinions.

[jaalex]

I'm looking to upgrade the radio on my sailboat. I would be interested in opinions. I would like it to do the following.

VHF
WX,
Remote Mic, (Wireless or Not)
DSC,


On my previous boat I had a Uniden UM525 with the wireless wam mic. But It doesn't look like they make those anymore.

Thanks,
Jason

[mdbee]

I bought an Icom 422 and added the wired remote mike for the cockpit.

They seem to have a good rep in the commercial market or so Iv'e been told.
Only problem, I haven't figured out all the features yet. I did hook it to my GPS for DSC emergency calls.

[BarryL]

Hi,

I think that just about all fixed mount radios will meet your requirements. How much money do you want to spend? On the low end you can spend under $100 for the radio (I don't know how much the remote mic will be) and at the high end you can spend over $500 for the radio. Some additional features you may be interested in include:

• display of GPS information including boat speed, course over ground, etc.
• display of received AIS information
• fog horn signals
• loud hailer
• NMEA 2000 connectivity

Good luck,
Barry

[night0wl]

Matrix 2100 with AIS.

Radio for $300
Ram Mic for $90
Extension cable $30
NMEA cable from plotter to Radio $30
A 1/2 day of labor to install

For $500, you'll have a great radio with AIS receive (only) with DSC with GPS coordinates as well as AIS data on your plotter...hopefully at your helm.

[QuickMick]

i got one of these from a sailnet affiliate on clearance for 95 bucks. list price = 700. the only trick is that due to new regs you need to register and get your mmsi number before (IIRC) the 25th of the month (march 2011) to be grandfathered in.

Northstar NS100SS VHF Radio Single Station Dark Gr

SailNet.com

the second link is the hookup

[fairbank56]

The new regs have nothing to do with mmsi numbers. They are about sc-101 dsc radio's which cannot be legally sold or installed after this month. Why waste your money on something that was a bad idea to begin with. Get yourself a class d dsc radio.

Eric

[Rangernewell]

Hi Eric...I acually just bought 2 from the sailnet store for the same price as mick did. One is for a chum of mine. Unfortunatly the first I heard of these regs was from your post. I checked the internet and did find a article on them. And yes as of March 25 2011 they cant be ..sold, bought, installed etc..Being I'm a newbie, I did not quite understand there reason for the new regulation. I bought the radio to replace the older, large unit on my boat.I sail in inland waters, but have a trailer for my Mirage, if I choose to try other areas. I guess what I'm asking you or anyone acually, did I just throw my money out the door. Now I know why the sailnet store was selling them off so cheap.....

[fairbank56]

The main difference is that class D radio's that meet IEC 62238 specs have a separate dedicated channel 70 receiver that monitors for DSC calls even if you are listening to a transmission on another channel. SC-101 radios do not have this. They simply scan channel 70 and if you are actively receiving a transmission on another channel, you will not receive a DSC call at all. There are some other differences that cause problems between true class D and SC-101 radios. There are some radios sold in the U.S. that claim to be class D but do NOT have the separate receiver. These radios only meet the ITU spec which does not require the separate receiver.

Eric

[jrd22]

I bought a Standard Horizon 1500? two years ago and a RAM. Both went out on me the first summer and had to go in for repairs. The next summer the RAM went out again, in for repairs. Maybe I'm just having bad luck with them (their support and service are good) but the Icom I have in another boat has been flawless.

[Rangernewell]

Thanks Eric ...That cleared things up ...Why could they of just not said that.....I guess they did ...but just in a way i didn't get it
Thanks again
Rob