Marine radio

[DJB1340]

Hey guys,  I need some advice.  I'm looking for a reliable marine radio.  We fish out on Lake St Clair, Huron and Grand Traverse Bay.  

I have looked at some handhelds and mounted.  The Garmin 115 caught my eye as a pretty decent option.

Can anyone help me out with this?  Thanks!

[slonezp]

Depending on how far out you travel, you may want a permanent mount with a tall antenna. A hand held has limited range. Maybe a couple miles at best.

[Jigfishn10]

I carry my phone but I also have a fixed mount VHF Radio. At least I was advised to go that way.

[WRB]

A good hand held marine satellite radio works via global satellite over the horizon anywhere in North America including Mexico. Re; Garmin InReach Explorer

Tom

 

[A-Jay]

Marine radio signal is line of sight dependent.

This may help you determine what you need - equipment & antenna wise.

http://hamuniverse.com/lineofsightcalculator.html

A-Jay

[S Hovanec]

I have a small Raymarine mounted under my console with a 3' SS antenna.  It works just fine on Erie.  I keep the antenna folded down until I need it.

 

[K1500]

I have a handheld just in case I ever need it, but I fish inland lakes so I haven’t used it yet. I also bought it to be able to lock through on big rivers. Although any radio is better than no radio, if I was relying on it as a safety device I would want a hardwired unit with a good fixed antenna. 

[Way2slow]

That should make you a nice radio.  One thing though, a good antenna is critical to how far you are going to talk and listen.  Doesn't do any good to talk 30 miles is you can only hear 5 miles.   Kinda like buying a nice high performance bass boat and then putting a cheap aluminum prop on it.  So, pay attention to what the DB gain is and what the wave pattern is.  

Different types of antennas have different signal lobes which affect the DB gain of the antenna.   For instance, Yagi antenna's (those long things you see with all the little cross bars) are like a rifle shot and have tremendous gain, but only the direction they are pointed.  Some omni directional antennas have patterns like a big dome, which is good if you are going to be talking to airplanes also and have almost no DB gain.  By reshaping the signal to a more useful horizontal plane, they can get 6 or more DB gain, ground to ground antennas and still cover a 360 degree circle. 

3 DB is equal to double the signal power which can be huge when you are trying to push the limits of how far you can talk/receive.  The higher in the air the more distance it will cover also.  They say line of sight, which is somewhat true but you do get some bending of the signal from the earth. 

 

Should mention, handhelds are limited to 5 watt max, to keep from cooking your brain, so stick to one that size if you are looking at one of those also.  The smaller wattage are just for closer range use.

 

One other critical thing I failed to mention.  When installing the antenna, it's critical to check or have checked the Standing Wave Ration (SWR/VSWR).  Why? That is the amount of signal that's basically trapped inside the coax that's wasted power and too high can damage the radio.  A perfect ratio is 1:1 and about the max you want to see is 2:1 measured in the center of the frequency band of the radio.  As the frequency changes the length of the signal changes and you want the null to be right at the tip of the antenna.  This can be tuned by various ways.  The overall goal is to change the length of the antenna so it matches the length of the signal.  Sometimes the base loaded antenna my have a tunable capacitor in the base.  Some require shortening the coax in small increments until you hit the null point.   Sometimes you will see radios have a VSWR switch that you can check it from the signal strength meter on the radio, if not, you have to connect a meter inline.  Kind of a broad description but the key is to Check The SWR. 

 

I mentioned base loaded antenna's.  Antennas have to be a precise length for the signal they are designed for.  That can be one solid length of wire which makes them very long.  They can coil a piece of wire around a rod to get make the physical length shorter but still have the same signal length.  For really short antenna's they will make a coil, usually at the base, but sometimes in the center with a short element coming out of it to shorten the antennas physical length.  Hand held radio antennas are usually nothing but one big coil of wire in a short physical length of housing.

 

OK, that should take care of Radio 101.