Marine radio suggestions

I’m going on the fall houseboat trip with Rainy Lake Houseboats and need to install a marine radio on my boat. Any suggestions on what brand of radio and antenna I should purchase for around $200?

Why not just go handheld?

Many models work just fine

Dog

I have a handheld but was thinking on a lake as big as Rainy I would need a radio with better range if we decided to venture more than a few miles from the houseboat.

Just leave a note with everyone – so they know where you are going.

You can always forward your message to boaters with stronger radios and they will jump your message down the lake.

Kinda of “pay it forward” deal.

Works fine

Dog

Hand held marine band radios have a maximum power of 5 watts, a regular marine band radio has a maximum power of 25 watts. They also rely on that big antenna to send the signal in areas where you may not have a clear line of sight to the people you are hoping to reach. On big lakes with lots of islands a handheld won’t get the job done.

It is more important to buy a good antenna than to spend money on a lot of bells and whistles on the radio.

As an added benefit you get accurate weather via our friends north of the border, who have somehow figured out how to predict the weather with a high degree of accuracy.

Wade at JollyAnn (www.jollyannsales.com) set me up for less the that, he’s here somewhere. Uniden makes some less than $100 units (Solara?), get a 8′ on top of that and I bet you’re around $120 or so? No biggy to hook up, but solder your antenna lead, ask Rootski why. Good luck!

I’m not into all the bells and whistles…and that keeps the price down.

I’m a big promoter of Standard Horizon radios. They have a two year warranty and my speaker in the mic went out after the first year. On year three (out of warranty) the company fixed it at no charge. I’m on year 4 with this unit and couldn’t be happier…in fact, the lock operators tell me that I have one of the strongest (modulating) radios they’ve heard. Loud and clear on the receiving end.

On a side note, I have a hand held which is what I bought first. By the time I bought the 12 v charger and two sets of NiCad batteries I had almost $300. into the unit. Now this was 7 years ago.

I have it in my camper to listen to the river traffic and weather.

Disclaimer: I rely on my radio not only to let the lock operators know I’m coming, but should an emergency arise and my cell is “out of service” I know I can at least contact the lock. Relying on “hop scotch networking” for messaging is not an option because it might be the lock and a barge operator on the river at 1 am.

Thanks Brian I took your advice and ordered the Standard Horizon this morning from Wade.

Cool, I hope you have as good of luck with yours as I have with mine.

If you have a gps, and have trouble hooking up the DSC…give me a holler.