Marine radio in Voyageurs

Wife is harassing me to get a marine radio for Voyageurs. I read all the old topics but still not clear on what I need.

Usually camp 10 or so miles from the ramp, either Namakan, or Sand Point this year. Thinking about going way back in Rainy next year, towards Kettle Falls.

It sounds like handhelds aren’t an option? With a hardwired one I would need at least a 4 ft antenna to get an increased range? I don’t love the idea of a 4 ft antenna permanently in my boat for 2 weeks of camping a year.

Am I overthinking this? Do places like Kettle Falls monitor a radio at all times? How about Canadian resorts or even customs?

Have you ever considered something like a Garmin InReach device if you’re in an area with no cell coverage? It’s a satalite-linked text message device where you could text someone to notify the park service of your location/situation – and the park service themselves (or other agencies) may have a text line to contact. You pay a service fee, but it’s gotta be cheaper than buying and installing a marine radio and I think you can activate it just for the time you’re using it. Plus it fits in your pocket and requires no installation or antenna.

We had one for a VERY remote backcountry Canada trip – 50 miles from any type of cell service or civilization and used it to update loved ones on the trip and contact authorities as we had to report a wildfire we saw in the distance. Worked slick!

Might not be quite as immediate as calling on a radio, but if you’re in a situation where your boat’s sinking, I’m not sure the marine radio is going to be any better.

Sweet of your wife to worry, but in my trips to Voyageurs, even off the beaten path, I’ve never felt like I was that far from the standard boat traffic lanes and could generally find other boaters if we needed.

We used to use them up there in the past. Since cell service became available a few years ago I haven’t turned one on.
The houseboat companies, the Coast Gaurd, and the park service used to be available through the radio. I’d assume they still are.
Even if you can contact someone you’re still a long ways from help if something goes bad.
We had 8ft antennas and still couldn’t hear people on western kab, sand point or crane from western namakan.
If you’re up by kettle falls and nobody is listening from there, I don’t know if you’ll be heard from the ash river.
I suggest making sure you or someone in your group has an AT&T phone and lean on that in the case of emergency.

I was in the same situation as you. We camp up near the Namaken narrows each year and my folks and their friends have always had a VHF radio for communicating when up here. I mounted a 8′ Shakespeare 6225-R phase 3 on a custom made heavy duty cisco like mount on my lund sportrac so I can take it off when not up there. I then have my radio mounted close enough to just connect the antenna to the radio and deal with the chord being exposed for the trip. Its great for getting the weather for each day and each resort normally has a channel they monitor. Voyagaire has a channel they do games for their housboats and we haven’t found a area that we can’t hear that (we’ve had them bring us supplies before).

I have had one on my boat since 2000 (got it more for Superior) and have used it in VNP, but with the the better cell coverage (have ATT) and having Canadian cell coverage included in my plan, I really dont use it much anymore up there.
I have the same 8′ Shakespeare 6225, but I really don’t know how far it would transmit from the middle of Namakan? My antenna mount is on my Lund sporttrack so it can come off easily.

Many of the resorts and houseboats use a channel, and I used to use it to radio Kettle Falls to request a portage. Somewhere in my boat glovebox I have a list of all the channels each uses. Channel 16 is monitored by the Park Rangers.

Yeah AT&T is much better in that area of the state than anyone else. I have been on Crane lake with NO coverage with Verizon and my buddy was getting texts like crazy who was on AT&T.

I think handhelds can only transmit 1 or 5 watts max . Where mounted were 25. For what it’s worth I have a 36 inch wire one on my boat and can talk 3-4 miles . No clue how good it’s grounded ect .

The main issue is I take a trip with just kids and no other adults. That concerns her. I have looked at inreach but the kids probably couldn’t get it to work in an actual situation.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

Have you ever considered something like a Garmin InReach device if you’re in an area with no cell coverage?

this is the way to go. I carry mine hunting, fishing, BWCA’ing, National Park’ing, etc since I’m usually off the grid/out of service in all those situations and I’m doing that stuff all year long. It has many uses and has saved many lives plus a satellite device like that is much more reliable than a marine radio. I get 20% off garmin products and could potentially hook you up with a deal if you’re interested.

smallie83 wrote:

The main issue is I take a trip with just kids and no other adults. That concerns her. I have looked at inreach but the kids probably couldn’t get it to work in an actual situation.

I believe they’d only have to learn to push one button on an inreach to call in the troops in an emergency

Also keep in mind where you are heading there is a lot of islands. For marine radio’s to work best a direct sight line is needed. VNP isn’t a bowl like Mille Lacs where you can see straight across water to the other shoreline.

AT&T and check for reception as you are moving around the park. There is pretty good cell coverage up there on AT&T.

Have fun.

grubson wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>smallie83 wrote:</div>
The main issue is I take a trip with just kids and no other adults. That concerns her. I have looked at inreach but the kids probably couldn’t get it to work in an actual situation.

I believe they’d only have to learn to push one button on an inreach to call in the troops in an emergency

The smaller ones connect to an app on your phone that you use as a keyboard to text. You can type on device too but it’s not very easy. If you send an SOS ideally you respond to followups with more information but you don’t have to. The SOS sends your location to a dispatch center that then calls whatever local resource to come get you and if you can text back they’ll relay communication between you and the locals.

smallie83 wrote:

mallie83 wrote:
The main issue is I take a trip with just kids and no other adults. That concerns her. I have looked at inreach but the kids probably couldn’t get it to work in an actual situation.

it connects via Bluetooth to your phone and its essentially a text messaging app. I’d argue for kids these days, they’d find working a marine radio more difficult than a text messaging app

Very sketchy for me with Verizon around wolf packs/fox island. I scouted islands around the namakan narrows last year and didn’t have coverage.

How are the activation and deactivation fees?

Verizon isn’t AT&T.
AT&T has a tower on the Ash River Trail.

smallie83 wrote:

How are the activation and deactivation fees?

Inreach is $35/yr + $15/month when you have it active I believe.

You can rent an In Reach as well.

smallie83 wrote:

The main issue is I take a trip with just kids and no other adults. That concerns her. I have looked at inreach but the kids probably couldn’t get it to work in an actual situation.

All of the current Garmin Inreach models have a SOS button on the unit. Calling for help only involves lifting the little safety cover and pressing the SOS button.

The other nice thing about Inreach is that it transmits your exact location to the rescue party. Even with cell phone coverage, having the knowledge to find your GPS coordinates and then relay that to a dispatcher can be a real problem, it’s not just giving a street address.

Probably the cheapest and simplest option is to rent an Inreach until the kids are old enough.

Shakespeare makes a great Quickconnect antenna that threads on and off with not having to deal with a coax.

It stores right in your rod locker like an 8′ rod. Just pull it out and spin it on when needed/wanted.

When not needed it’s back in the locker and won’t interfere with casting, water sports, etc, yet still ready to go at a moments notice.

InReach or SPOT is the other company that makes them, and the only real viable option for what you’re looking for in my opinion.

Or if AT&T gets good service there like others suggest, but a cheap burner Walmart phone with AT&T service.

VHF on lakes with lots of islands isn’t going to perform and do what you want it to do, even with an 8′ whip antenna.

one more big benefit for the inreach – the weather updates you get on there are very valuable. It pulls the weather based on your exact location and gets you 2 days in an hourly format and then an extended forecast look in a more simplified format with just high/low temps and cloud/wind/precip forecast. Definitely helps when you’re a few days into a trip and the forecast you had before you went off the grid is dated. Pulling a weather report counts as one text message. The basic in-reach plan gets you 10 text messages a month.

You also get the ability to send free “check in” messages that don’t count against your 10 monthly texts. There are 3 options of predefined check in messages you can send to contacts you setup ahead of time. Along with the message (the one I use most is “I’m checking in. Everything is OK”) , they give the recipient your exact GPS location. I like to send one every night on my week long bwca trips so the significant others know where we are at as we often cover over 40 miles on our trips. The older I get, the more I appreciate safety features like this.