Re: Good VHF radio?
i boat on inland lakes and the missouri river. i got a fixed vhf. it wasn't hard to install. just plan your drill holes carefully for mounting.
If VHF is in use in your area then it is much better than a cell phone, but if no use in the area then the cell phone is better.
this is true. in the 2 years i've had my vhf. i've not transmitted once. i've also not heard much chatter come from it. some though. mostly from the uscg when i'm on the river. i got it mostly for river runs as more folks seem to have vhf on the river as you can be pretty isolated on the river at times. i had a incident this last summer on the lake though. i wanted to use my radio, but since there was only one other boat out in the high winds that hosed me, it was useless. the other boat was a sailboat, my distress was being beached so bad i couldn't get off myself (blowed up on the beach). i did get help, with a cell phone, though it wasn't instant help. if others would have been around, i think i'd have transmitted a pan pan.
i still like the idea of having it though. any communication devise that you can have when yer in trouble is comforting. i do like getting the weather channel too.
l went with the fixed for the better range.
as for a good radio, i wanted a icom. but they were kinda pricey. i ended up with a uniden oceanus that came as a package with a shakespear antenna. from what i get, the better antenna ya get, the better off ya are. the package i got didn't come with the better antenna, but for the use it gets, i feel i was satisfactory for the type of boating i do.
