• We apologize for the somewhat convoluted sign-up process. Due to ever-more sophisticated attacks by chatbots, we had to increase our filtering in order to weed out AI while letting humans through. It's a nuisance, but a necessary one in order to keep the level of discourse on the forums authentic and useful. From the actual humans using WCP, thanks for your understanding!

VHF radio with DSC / man overboard?

Philip.AK

Philip.AK

Paddler
Joined
Jun 30, 2012
Messages
222
Location
Kodiak, Alaska
On a different message board someone was looking for a handheld VHF that was USB rechargeable and had the channel 70 (2187.5 kHz) DSC (digital selective-calling) distress feature. A few new handheld radios have DSC, which can send your coordinates to nearby receiving radios. Icom claims their M93D and M94D radios can acquire a GPS position in an impressive 8-12 seconds after being turned on. The M94D even adds AIS (receive only) which is pretty wild. I was not familiar with that system and he was not getting much feedback, so I thought I could cross-post the question here. Anybody have a radio like this and have thoughts on their utility? I assume there simply is no DSC unit on the market currently that does USB charging, and others have suggested he just convert a 5v USB to the 12v that the current radios require.
 
That M94D has a lot of features, really appealing. It's a good thing that it boots up quickly, since the 10 hr battery life seems a bit short - even the standby current drain is pretty high....required to run the GPS and AIS receivers ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top