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VHF features and controls:'bells and whistles' or progress?

Re: VHF features and controls:'bells and whistles' or progre

When I bought my Marine VHF, I picked a model that had an AA battery pack option. It was pretty expensive for a tiny piece of plastic and for a few dollars more I could have just bought a spare rechargeable. But I like the option of using easy to find (an borrow from other equipment - flashlights, etc.) AA's.

I bought the new Marine VHF because of the way my WestMarine 150 (WestMarine is just re-branded Uniden - matching batteries, etc.) was behaving. To be fair, maybe I got a lemon but I use it so infrequently, by the time I discovered the problem, I had no "return" option.

The problem was, when the squelch was on, even at the tiniest level, it wouldn't pick up the weather broadcasts with the standard small antenna. I had another ham friend make me a portable two element beam antenna to both enhance NOAA weather report reception and give me a stronger, albeit directional, transmit signal.

An there was another problem in the basic design. Apparently, though the regular transmit channels (9, 16, etc.) are on agreed upon frequencies. The frequencies of the weather stations channels - 1 to 10 - are not. So Channel 4 on the West Marine radio was Channel 7 on the Standard Horizon. Before I realized that, it was even more confusing because side by side, one appeared to pick up Channel 4 while the other did not. It seemed like the one not hearing the strong weather station on channel 4 was not working but that was only because it was picking up the same station as channel 7 - something like that.

I had my friend craft the antenna because I though the reception was poor in various places in the island groups. it turned to my Radio was poor. And maybe it wasn't so poor, once it could receive, but just a little bit of squelch on the WX channels stopped it.

I don't know if that problem transferred to the Marine Channel side - but I didn't want to worry about it. I've always had good luck with Standard and they were on Sale. So I picked one up.
 
Re: VHF features and controls:'bells and whistles' or progre

I like this thread.
Nothing is more problematic in search and rescue than communications.
Usually with the stricken vessel.
Battery power is often number one on the problem list.
Floating HH VHF's are often compromising battery size to reduce weight to for allow positive buoyancy.
This is unfortunate and I'm not a fan.
Get a big ass Li-po battery, and tether the f-ing radio to your body.
Rig an auxiliary antenna and use it when need be.
And carry extra batteries.
If your wealthy (monetarily) then buy the fancy radio ( buy three! ) but learn all the features and use them so you don't forget how in an emergency.
And if you have a situation developing, call before you need help.
MCTS will monitor your situation and so will any other vessels of opportunity listening.
It is always preferred to over communicate rather than under communicate.
Of course somewhere in the middle would be best.

I would take a bare bones HH over any other piece of emergency equipment without question.

I hope I don't slip and fall getting down off my soapbox here...

BlueNose out.
 
Re: VHF features and controls:'bells and whistles' or progre

Bluenose- that is all great advice!

Forget the battery killing bells and whistles, keep it simple to operate, always keep it tethered AND when your doing rescue and rolling practice- put it in a hatch or a waterproof bag. I don't believe any manufacturers EVER intended it's waterproofing to endure 27 rolls in a row followed by 15 different practice rescues (unless your practice is in iffy conditions, where calling in the adults for a real rescue is a very real possibility).

Your handheld VHF is a potential life saving rescue device. Respect it and take care of it.

Be safe and be smart!

R32
 
I have a couple of older Icom handhelds (M3A and M88)..............

I was pretty irritated when my M-88 failed because of a corrosion problem, and I bought the WestMarine radio as a quick replacement. (I did repair the M-88;there's a thread here at WCP somewhere with details.)
.................
I certainly wouldn't buy another Icom M-88 (or any Icom marine handheld, I think) after my experience with mine, at the prices they charge.

Just a quick update on the Icom M-88. After posting the comments above, I realized that I should have paid more attention to the small O-ring at the radio-battery connector- checking that area, rinsing with fresh water if necessary, and keeping the O-ring lubricated all seem like good ideas to me. I also started being more diligent about rinsing the radio in fresh water (as instructed in the Owner Manual).

I also helped a few friends with problems with their Standard Horizon radios.

Summary: I bought another (new) M-88 to keep as a backup to the one I repaired.The repaired M-88 is still going strong and has been used in my PFD for most of a year now. I've bought an AA-battery case for the M-88, and also a spare Li battery so I'm set for trips.
I decided that I liked the operating controls and compact size of the M-88 after all. :)
 

JohnAbercrombie

Paddler
Joined
Dec 7, 2011
Messages
3,558
Location
Victoria, BC
Bringing this thread back from the dead......

Last week I was talking about the 'Lock' function with a paddling friend who had a WestMarine(Uniden) DSC VHF 460 - now discontinued.
I've been using the Lock button on my Icom M88 when I'm monitoring Ch69 on group paddles.There were a couple of cases where I didn't hear messages because something had bumped the PFD radio pocket and switched the radio away from Ch69.
The Icom has a Lock button on the keypad.
The WestMarine/Uniden requires the user to go to one of the 'menus' to enable and disable Lock.
Imagine an emergency situation where you need to go to Ch16. You have to turn off Lock.
My friend said that her practice is just to power down the radio and turn it back on, which disables Lock.
What were the software people thinking?
 
The other day, I was with friends and we were doing a pre-paddle radio check on the beach. One of us inadvertently turned on the 'strobe' in a newer Standard Horizon handheld. It took three people-the owner, who HAD read the operating manual, and two others with years of radio experience - both with Operators licenses, one with a ham ticket - several minutes to get the 'strobe' turned off....and that was more by accident than by clear labelling and logic from the radio designers.
Do more 'bells and whistles' actually increase the functionality of the radio?
SNIP
In an emergency:
a)You may not be able to remember the key sequence to operate a function, or
b) Somebody else may be using your radio.

I'm just reading Donald A. Norman's The Design Of Everyday Things. In it, he makes the point that if you can't, for example, program your VCR (the book is a few years old) that's not you being a idiot - that's a failure on the part of the designer. He outlines several principles of good design, including that there should be "natural paths" to using things. In a previous incarnation, I wrote, among other things, instruction manuals for tents. My test market was a woman in our accounting department who was not at all outdoorsy. I'd give her the tent and my draft manual. If she couldn't assemble the tent in 15 minutes I took that as a failure on my part, not hers, and went back to the drawing board.

BTY, I do have the HX870 mentioned upthread a few years ago. It did take about 30 minutes with the manual, but after that I found the menu based functions pretty clear. DSC radios do have to be a bit more complex than non-DSC radios to let you get the benefits of DSC calling, contacts lists, polling, etc, etc. Most manufacturers have the manuals for their products online, and looking at them before you buy can help steer you away from stuff you need to be an advanced programmer to run.
 
This won't happen, but I'd like to see VHFs all with exactly the same user interface for the required basic functionality. Then build the extra 'featuritis' on top of this, however the manufacturer chooses. This is a significantly safer option when someone else needs to use an unfamiliar radio.
 
On my one and only DSC handheld, I never did find a distress description that matches our most common mishap—man overboard. Avoided DSC in my next radio purchase, and bought a companion PLB instead.
 
On my one and only DSC handheld, I never did find a distress description that matches our most common mishap—man overboard.

Yeah, plus there's no DSC distress description for "out of beer" either:) More seriously, the distress descriptions are "nice to use if you have time" but if you don't, or if your situation isn't covered, you can just go ahead and mash that Big Red Button for 3-5 seconds and it will send out a generic DSC distress.

Avoided DSC in my next radio purchase, and bought a companion PLB instead.

If you have the money, it doesn't have to be either/or; it can be both. I have a DSC VHF, which might lead to a quicker response time since it's broadcasting "locally" and may be picked up by a nearby vessel. My PLB is effectively unlimited range since there's SARSAT coverage anywhere I'd want to paddle. Plus having both provides a bit of redundancy in case one unit craps out, which has been known to happen with electronics at sea.
 
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