marine radios

[kevfish]

What features should i look for in a marine radio- I will be using it on leach and millelacs and want to hear what is going on- I want to be able to scan all the marine channels- do they make one that will do this or do you have to be on a particular channel to hear what is going on?

[jj56342]

A good antenna 8FT

[kevfish]

any other recommendations

[Crow Hunter]

You want a unit that is waterproof, not water resistant. As for the antenna, it is line of sight; the higher the antenna the farther away you will get signals from. An 8-footer is all you really need. I assume all units receive the weather channels, I consider that to be essential.

[Giant_Jackpot]

Kev,

I typed up a reply earlier this week but must have forgot to hit the submit button! I think most of them have some sort of scan feature. I have a RayMarine that scans all the channels but also lets me pick one I want to skip altogether which is a nice feature. I think I paid 149 at Thorne’s 2 years ago and it came with a free 8 foot antenna.

[kevfish]

what kind of range do you get with these radios?

[Gissert]

VHF is line of sight.

If you are on big water, you can transmit a long ways, maybe 15 to 25 miles, given a good quality antenna/coax cable combination. Local weather conditions will have an effect on yor range also. A quality job on the antenna installation is the most important part of your radio system.

If the antenna installation is sub-par, your performance will suffer. High SWRs can potentially damage your transmitter.