VHF Radio D Class

I have always carried a handheld VHF radio in my small fishing boat.

I’ve never had to use it in an emergency. On Lake Erie it provides comfort (think faulty engine with an off-shore wind).

I am considering upgrading to a D Class radio that would allow a one-touch distress call providing GPS location, easy for my wife or other passenger to use, here is an example (I have a Bass Pro Gift Card). https://www.cabelas.ca/product/1288...ting-handheld-vhf-with-bluetooth-marine-radio

Does anyone have experience with this class of radio, are they worth the investment?
 
Handhelds in this wattage range will always have limitations, as an example they put there limits at 6 mile range.

Not to say 6 miles is a long range but I could be out further and if I make a distress call , someone might not hear me

Then i have to put my trust that a fellow fisherman or boater is monitoring the same channel I distressed on to relay my message on.
Or i am in deep dodo and don't have time to call , but I have time to push a button, then what happens.
If my call doesn't make it to shore, another boater I do not believe hears my red button distress

Were as if you had a vhf marine radio you could have 25 watts and an antenna that could be located much higher above the water level and if you had to push the button your chance will be better of that signal making it to shore.

Just an opinion.
 
I am pretty sure the range on my handheld is as far as I can yell.. at least that seems to be the range that it can receive.

I'm still pending license so I never transmit anyways. Only listen to 68.
 
I owned one of the earlier(basic ?) Uniden handheld units and found it to be an excellent investment. Unfortunately I can't get a new battery for it but otherwise it survived over 20 years of abuse in my duckboat . It's on a lanyard with a Garmin Etrek and I never left home without them. The model you have picked out blows my mind ! The price is not bad considering all that it will do. As it's already been stated if you can get a 25 watt unit with proper antenna installed as your main unit the handheld would make a perfect companion for it. Worst case scenario is your boat sinks but you can still be reached via the handheld as you bob about in the water.

I now know what I want as a birthday present this year !
 
I have whistle that can reach as far out as a handheld VHF. Just kidding but all joking aside if I'm in serious trouble, especially if the weather has become a sudden storm I want more than just 6 watts of transmitting power at my disposal. I like the full 25 watts (wish it was 100 watts) along with the superior antenna range of a fixed unit myself if my life is at stake. 😬
 
Sarnia Coast guard and Buffalo have some tall towers to get around the line of sight thing. They will hear your mayday. If your not sure just call them on 16 to verify they can read you. They have some serious hardware. A hand held is way better than s.f.a. and if you've got cell coverage that works too.
At least that's what I was told when I got my license 35 years ago.
 
Tell you a story about a handheld. One early November day a friend of mine called to say that after months of having issues with his boat it was finally running like a top and he wanted to payback all the trips i had taken him on. I was a little leary, but we were gonna stay in the inner bay looking for some pike so i figured what the heck. I knew he had a hand held in case. I was new to this game then, only been on the great lakes for about 3 months. So there we are halfway across the bay on the way to millionaires row and doesn't the boat die. After 30 mins of watching buddy in the dog house swearing and carrying on, turns out his fuel gauge had crapped out, and we were empty. I called a local on my phone. Of course couldnt give GPS location as FF wasn't working, lol. But gave a triangulation view point. About an hour later we hear them calling us on the radio. We reply. They keep calling us. We keep replying. They were just visible if you knew where to look,. We would have been invisible if you didn't know exactly where to look. Anyway, long story short, buddy has one expired ugly flare left. Just as the boat was saying he was gonna motor up and head back in we got this damn flare to start smoldering and throwing up a smoke trail. They saw us and pulled us home.

I have a DSC radio with an 8 foot antenna and MMSI (make sure you get an MMSI if you get a DSC). I can hear and talk to guys that are nowhere close to visible on the horizon. Like Jordan to the bar, or Burwell to Port Bruce

Handheld would be nice back up if you are in the water and the search boat is a few hundred meters away,. But So is a whistle and a flashlight, or a cellphone in a waterproof holder


And if you want to know how fast it can happen, google Dave Mull, sinking boat. A very worthwhile read.
 
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Just read the Mull article.. should be mandatory reading, thanks.
I actually re read it most springs just to stop myself from getting complacent out there. Dave was the editor of Great Lakes Angler magazine and a close friend of Dan Keating's, so no newb to the sport. The January following that incident he was at the NY spring fishing show in Niagara falls NY with Dan Keating giving the annual salmon school day. He wore his mustang inflatable all day to prove a point. They are comfortable and you don't even know you're wearing them, and had he and his crew been wearing them that day would have been completely different - I bought two that spring and am never on big water without one. When my son is with me, he wears one too. Other guests have a choice as I still have standard pfds on board. One more thing about your dsc radio - be sure to connect it to the FF and ensure it is sending your gps location. Then if you do ever need it, it will automatically send the co-ords in the distress call. You can see the co-ords scrolling across the screen. Some FF's are set by defalut to send the NMEA-0183 and some are not. Another cool feature is you can program the MMSI of friends into the radio, and when they speak with over the radio their position will show up on your FF screen. Kinda neat if you wanna let them know you found a pod of fish and you don't want it turn into a parking lot :)
 

This one looks like the equivalent of what I have. Any of these models so long as they are combined with a good 8 ft antenna will do the trick. I tried one of the short metal antennas at first. The difference when i put the 8 foot on was night and day. Really depends what you want it for. If mostly listening and only DSC in emergency this model should do. I'm sure the guys at Radioworld can walk you through the differences if you call them.
 
Just make sure to get what you want the first time.

I'm in the position of looking at upgrading because the radio I originally bought can't be used in the fashion I'd like to use it.

It talks and hears and says it is capable of more but it really isn't with my other electronics.

A couple levels up, and everything would work seamlessly together.

Sigh.
 
Thanks, since radio world can’t ship the 8’ antenna going to look into similar equipment Local near London Ontario
I think angling outfitters sell all of this stuff too a little closer to home for curbside pick up
 
your local marine / boat dealer will have likely sell some too - but Radioworld's selection and pricing on the units is hard to beat. In the good old pre covid days, the TO boat show and the spring fishing show were the best times to buy as the ran specials across all the models. I bought the radio from them and the antenna from a local marine. They are also really knowledgeable about capabilities - per @hvyhaul ' comment. Find out what they can do and what you want to do. The dedicated weather channel is often the one talking to me if things look like they have the potential to get bumpy The difference in price is not huge to move up a few models.
 
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