shopping for a new VHF radio. Thought and recommendations.

[Dave8792]

I am going to a local boat show this weekend in Rochester, NY and am in the market for a new VHF radio. I hope that there will be some good deals that I can take advantage of but I am not sure which brand to go with.

I have had an ICOM back in the day of flying and loved it. ICOM was the handheld to have when you asked any pilot.

I have looked at many brands and would like everyone's input on the brand and some of the specifications that I should be looking for.

Thanks:huh:

 

[Jdr01930]

Where does Uniden fit in to the picture? Are they not respected? I had a uniden hand held for years. Battery went, rather than spend $$ on battery one I picked up a Standard Horizon, which quite franky sucked in comparison. I ended up gettting the Uniden's battery pack rebuild and that's what I use to this day.

But the few discussions I've seen, Uniden is either not mentioned or dismissed?

I'm also considering a boat show VHF radio purchase to get a fix mount unit for my new SD220, and putting my faithful old Uniden handheld in a jump bag. I saw a West Marine branded Uniden (West Marine VHF 580) locally which looked pretty good for $150. (The guy at the store hinted I should wait till the boat show to buy one.)

 

[Banagy]

I have a Northstar and had no issues with the systems.

 

[Nehalennia]

I have had Standard Horizon units on my last three boats, including this one. I have the GX1500SB with DSC. It works great and the DSC feature is very nice to have to be prepared for emergencies(sends your location to the USCG and others with DSC capabilty attached to their GPS). It uses the DSC capability to also find and/or call friends with DSC and an MMSI #

 

[jason78]

I have a Northstar and had no issues with the systems.

From what I have gathered, the main complaint with the Ray215 and Northstar NS100 radios seems to be centered around the poor mike hanger design which in many cases seems to have been made worse by where SR chose to mount many of them. Also, the Ray 215 had mic durability issues in general. For this reason some people have a permanent distaste for those manufacturers.

I only decided to replace my Ray215 because I needed to free up some space for a MercMonitor. I went with the Ray55. Personally, the Ray 215 worked fine for me other than the poor mic hanger design. Their new generation of radios seem to be better than the last, as expected.

No doubt the Standard Horizon and Icom units are great too.

Don't know about Uniden but I think they make some (if not all) of the West Marine branded units.

 

[Stray Cat]

Make sure you have a good antenna to go with the new radio. I really like my Northstar VHF, I'm amazed at the range that it has despite the line of sight in my area.

 

[twyant]

I also have the North Star 100DS have had no problems with it really like the intercom feature to talk down in the cabin

 

[merlin]

Does anyone have a VHF with the AIS, automatic identification system? If so how do you like it?

 

[Havana Shamrock]

I asked the same question when i went to the ny boat show everyone pointed me towards the Icom, so i found one at the show from post marine and Icom has a mail in rebate also. I have used raymarine before and am replacing the raymarine on our current boat. Ive heard great thing about Icom (built to military specs) I purchased the Ic-504 fixed mount. good luck!