VHF Radios

[bassin]

Am looking for pros and cons to hand held vs. fixed radios. I have a 19 foot Duckworth with 150 prop drive 18% bottom. I plan on the Big Blue this year and know better than to NOT have a radio.Any advice will be welcome.
thanks in advance.

[Beer Waggin]

Fixed has more power (25 watts vs. 1 or 5).
Fixed has more range, if you get a tall, eight foot antenna.
Fixed won't run out of juice, as long as your big battery is good, you should have two anyway.

Handheld is portable, easy to have on the back of the boat while you're fishing, easy to take with you to check the weather/ocean conditions while driving to the ramp, or at 3:00 am before you get out of bed.
Handheld will run out of juice quickly if you chat with the power setting on 5 watts.

I have had both, and both of mine had the same features, although I'm sure you can spend big money and get more features. Get one of each and use the handheld as a back up. Just make sure you keep the re-chargeable battery charged up and the replaceable battery pack with fresh batteries.

Some thing else to think about, try and keep all of your portable electronic equipment using the same sized batteries, that way you only have to have one size. My handheld GPS, handheld VHF and digital camera all use AA's. I rotate them into my camera, cause it burns through them like hot cakes, which leaves me with fresh batteries in the GPS and back-up VHF battery pack.

[Pilar]

Good advice NorRivDave. I recently used both for the first time on the halibut days. It's nice to stay on deck, fishing instead of going forward for the pilot's mike. Most handhelds do the weather channels so you can crack one eye and listen to NOAA before rolling out of the rack.

What's the best deal on a handheld? Mr. Fisherman had a nice one.

For your boat radio, get the 8 foot antenna, it's only a few bucks more and very much worth it.

[Sensei-san]

In a 19' boat, it would probably be easy to reach a fixed mount radio from anywhere in the boat. I would lean toward a fixed mount. A fixed mount like Dave says has a five time the power so you can get the signal out further. But on a boat close to sealevel the maximum range is about eight miles. Definately get a GOOD 8' fiberglass whip antenna. Don't get the cheapies that they bundle with the radio. They break and you will be back in for a new one shortly.

If you do decide to get a handheld, in a boat that is used on the "big blue" I would get one that is submersible. Unless they meet the sumersible specs, any saltwater on them and poof they are gone. Dave has good advice on getting a handheld that uses alkaline AA batteries. That way you can be reasonably assured that it will work after a period of inactivity. But make sure you check the batteries frequently for leakage.