Handheld radio

[J-Lopez]

I'm looking for advice on a handheld marine radio. I looked on Amazon. I don't want to spend a ton because I will only need it a handful of time a year. But I don't want to need to use and find out that it's worthless.

 

 

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[bobpugh]

Any handheld from Cabelas or Bass Pro will work fine.  I paid $79 for mine.  Works well.

[Sk8man]

The handhelds may be fine for close to land use but the 1 W or 5 W power although it is better than nothing out there but it is also quite limited compared with a 25 W unit with the proper antennae. The antennae on handhelds is quite limited in range. Good antennaes properly matched to the unit and placed correctly on the boat are essential to good reception and transmission.

Edited March 1, 2017 by Sk8man

[mudflat]

I've been extremely impressed with the performance and durability of the Standard Horizon handheld radios over the years.

I have some HX600S's that get used every day at work with no problems after 4 years.  

 

On my boat the handheld is used as a backup to my main radio and as a ditch radio.  This year I'm upgrading to a HX870 because it floats, will transmit at 6w and has built in GPS and DSC which is all great for a ditch radio but this model sells for around $200.  I see several other models w/o GPS (ie. HX300) on Amazon for around $100 that are still waterproof, floating and transmit at 5w.

[J-Lopez]

Thanks for the info, I'll probably start with a floating handheld. I don't go offshore much but Sk8man is probably right. I should probably get base radio eventually. Doesn't hurt to have two.


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[hard knox]

I would go online and take a look at a 5w icom handheld good radio for under 200 i have one and really like it ., read a few reviews and pick the one that you like.