Shopping for New VHF

Standard Horizon 1700 with the built in gps.

I did also. It was installed over the winter. I'll let you know how it works as soon as my boat gets unwrapped and into the water. Hopefully by the end of the month

 

My 1700 has been great but i did have a line of dead pixels about 2/3 of the way down. sent it back and a few weeks later good as new

 

There is a good working RAY 55 in the classifieds section. Make me an offer.
I changed it for a Garmin VHF 210 AIS

 

Installing one on my Uncle's 22' Eastern for him today. After much research, this is a great little unit for the price.

 

If cost is no issue, ICom is the best. But otherwise Standard Horizon radios are nearly as good for a much more reasonable price. I have no performance data on Garmin units.

 

I just installed the new Garmin VHF 210 AIS. I wanted AIS integrated into the NMEA 2000 network which this does. So far I really like it's performance and features; I would say its comparable to the Icom products. It is, however, in the upper price range for a VHF.

 

I installed the Standard Horizon GX 1700 for my Uncle yesterday and played around with it a little after entering his MMSI number for him.
I'm pretty impressed with it for the price.
I wish I could find a way to fit it on the 18' Maxum Bowrider my teenaged kids use. It",s a great little boat, but not much space for electronics anywhere near the helm.

 

I don't doubt they're good. Garmin has a stellar reputation with their aviation gear and VHF is VHF, just slightly different frequencies. I just don't have any data, though my RF test data on VHFs are pretty old...

 

Went out and bought an Icom m424G today. But then I hear that we should have also considered AIS? What is AIS?? Also I’d still like to find a compatible raymarine hand corded hand unit that is compatible with the old ray240. Are any of the other models compatible? I think they’re 8 pin right? I’d like to keep the Raymarine as a back up to the Icom. The one I found on eBay was a used ray240 for..... wait for it... $310!!!!!! More than the Icom, retail !?! Keeping the old ray unit is only beneficial as a backup due to the old technology and the fact that I don’t want to have the old speaker, mount and plug just sitting there unused and if we remove them, then I have to deal with repairing the holes left behind. Thoughts anyone?

 

I have a Ray220 with a newly refurbished mic (refurbed by Raymarine) I'll sell you for $100. I have a second unit (with no mic) I'll throw in with it. So two units and one mic.

 

I did a search on ebay yesterday and was amazed at the $$ that busted up faded screen ray 240 were posted for! I hate the unit - my speaker works great but broadcasting is no bueano! Watching this one.......

 

Antenna. Now since we’ve decided to just upgrade the vhf, we also need to upgrade the antenna - of course I’m confused by them all. I went to see west marines Best one, shakeshear 8900 8ft. 6db antenna ~ coming in at $250. It does have AIS capability (now that I know what AIS is) but we don’t need that and new vhf doesn’t have it anyway. Is there something more economical that would be well suited?

 

JoAna, on another post you were talking about wanting to venture up the coast and into the Delta. With that kind of open water cruising I think you should reconsider your purchase and get a unit with AIS capabilities. Yes, they are a bit more but what is the safety of your vessel and more importantly, you passengers and family worth. You cruise in an area of heavy commercial shipping. It might be worth the added $$$$.
Shawn

 

Really? Safety for us is paramount. So, maybe I’m not understanding something. I thought that ais just gave me other nearby boaters’ info. If that’s all it does I’m not sure how that make me safer? Radio hasn’t been installed yet so I can still return and upgrade if I find it’s needed.

 

More importantly, it also makes your tiny boat (comparatively) visible to large commercial vessels.

 

Other vessels only 'see' you on AIS if you transmit AIS. To my understanding that SH GX2200 is AIS receive only. Still a great radio IMO.

Still, receive only gives you the names of vessels & you then can call them on the radio by name. Better than calling "that big rusty freighter" and hope they understand you're taking to them.