Advice Required - Which VHF?

Yuley · 23 February 2006, 13:22

I have a 5m Ribeye that I use for cruising & watersports.

Reviewing my safety equipment (and reading the posts on here) the next
stage is to install a VHF for listening to shipping (I live in Felixstowe), hailing the various marinas we tend to visit, and the all important "Just in case factor"

Looking to spend no more than £150

Would prefer a console mounted unit rather than hand-held.

What would you recommend? :

Andy Moore · 23 February 2006, 13:38

I would look at the Icom range.

DJL · 23 February 2006, 14:23

If you can I would stretch to the ICOM M421 which you can get for £199 from www.marine-super-store.com.

Richard B · 23 February 2006, 14:56

I reckon that a couple of RIBnet mambers might match that price - Stephen at Yachting Universe, maybe Steve the Boat, or that chap who sells bits for yachts and wants points to offset against his trade membership...

Hugh Jardon · 23 February 2006, 19:28

the fitting kit if you want to do a surface mount is around 20-22 quid for the icom 421,

199 seems the cheapest i found but at the show it was a nice bit cheaper there by around 10 or 20 quid

Ian Sharlot · 23 February 2006, 22:13

Navman 7100 £149, seems good to me & flush mounting kit is inc

Jon Brooks · 25 February 2006, 00:00

Before you buy anything, PBO (practical boat owner) have just reviewed every VHF on the market.

Well woth a read and its very in-depth and highlights faluts and issues if there are any.

It due out soon n the next issue.
Well worth a read prior to buying.

Hugh, we have never been cheap and am sure we wont be for a while but as they say "you get hat you pay for"

Regards

jwalker · 25 February 2006, 12:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Brooks

...Well woth a read and its very in-depth and highlights faluts and issues if there are any...

Ah, but do they say how long they will last before they become faulty?

codprawn · 25 February 2006, 18:39

In most of the reviews I have seen the Raymarine and the Icom seem neck and neck.

I went for the Raymarine fixed unit and an Icom handheld to cover all options!!!

pop · 25 February 2006, 18:46

i like the icom its been good to me . think they are all much of a muchness now

Swifty · 25 February 2006, 20:45

I can only give you advice of what not to get. -COBRA.
Pile of (American?) plastic junk <probably> made by underpaid sweat shop workers in some far away place for tuppence.
Handset -crap
Speaker -crap
DSC -crap
Transmit -ok
reception -not bad but keeps picking up DSC type interferance.
Display -crap.
Controls -double crap.

Overall opinion: An Excellent buy, 1x for sale. Very cheap.

Jon Brooks · 26 February 2006, 20:34

No one can say how long a radio will last before it breaks

but the review test all the freatures it is one of the best ones I have seen in a very long time.
Most reviews seem to pay lip service to the needs of the end user but this is a very extensive one.

Funny PBO did not rate the Cobra very high either lol
To quote the "we can not recomend this unit for DSC use"

I would have to say most are not neck and neck and this review will go a very long way to prove that.

There are some very good radio's on the market and there are also some not so good ones!

Regards

Hugh Jardon · 26 February 2006, 23:15

very happy with my icom 421, to me 200 quid was really good value over some of the units that are just a little big cheaper

you can tell the quality by looking at it, just like the garmin products

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jon Brooks

Before you buy anything, PBO (practical boat owner) have just reviewed every VHF on the market.

Well woth a read and its very in-depth and highlights faluts and issues if there are any.

It due out soon n the next issue.
Well worth a read prior to buying.

Hugh, we have never been cheap and am sure we wont be for a while but as they say "you get hat you pay for"

Regards

RIVA · 27 February 2006, 08:34

The saying buy cheap buy twice does apply to vhf

Or buy cheap and you could die is another one I quite like

Pete7 · 27 February 2006, 08:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh Jardon

very happy with my icom 421

Excellent, so your boat is on the water and you have used the radio then? or are you recommending it because it looked nice when you took it out of the box.

Pete

mdt · 27 February 2006, 14:42

Well I hope the consensus that Icom are good bits of kit is correct…. As I have just had 2 delivered.

And yes as far as taking them out the box they seam nice bits of kit… and any problems with them???? It is nice to know Jon is about.

Hugh Jardon · 27 February 2006, 18:37

so are you to be known as pedantic pete from now on then?

i have used an icom 421 which is a friends radio and it is great, seems to do the right things and he is pleased as punch with it.
mine has not been on the water yet so my physical radio has not been used yet
the build quality looks good, and it looks like a very similar icom 421 to my friends icom 421!!!!! if you get my jist...

and when i took it out of the box it was lovely, looked nice, felt good, and we shared some special moments together

is that ok? or do i need to have used it for 5 years before sharing an opinion?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pete7

Excellent, so your boat is on the water and you have used the radio then? or are you recommending it because it looked nice when you took it out of the box.

Pete

Nos4r2 · 27 February 2006, 21:09

My waterproof cobra ain't too bad...reception and transmission are pretty good-not tried it with DSC though (having an MMSI number would help).but I've had it replaced once under warranty.I suspect that was my fault though as my charging circuit had a mary and put 25 volts across it.

I've got it hooked up to a metz manta stainless whip which I'm quite impressed with-a great improvement over the Glomex one I had previously.

Mike B · 27 February 2006, 23:23

I went through 2 £99 XM's in a year replaced under waranty then gave up as I didn't trust them to be there when I needed it so stumped up the extra £100 for an ICOM 421 not had any problems so far.

Mike

Richard B · 27 February 2006, 23:49

Our old Icom lasted for about seven years before the microphone finally expired!

We replaced it with a 601 http://www.rib.net/forum/showthread.php?t=9395 and although it's suffered from slight condensation in the display, this doesn't hinder operation at all.

Our purchase was greatly influenced by the reliability of the old set, Icom's reputation in many market sectors, both within and outside the leisure marine marketplace, and their 3 year warranty. Add to this the helpfulness and general bonhomie from "Superradioman" aka Jon Brooks, and there isn't really another choice.

I wouldn't hesitate to purchase an Icom M421 if I were looking for a fixed DSC VHF with a budget of around £200, even though I've never used one!