Hand Held VHF Radios

Without a doubt...this guy:

STANDARD HORIZON
HX460S Mini-Handheld VHF Radio

I bought one a few months ago - I've had it on for 8 hours straight with no signs of battery weakening. The scan feature is very fast and can even include weather channels if you want to receive weather alerts. Rechargeable (12V or 110V), recharge cradle option...etc. Worth every penny.

I still want to know, however, why nobody makes a handheld VHF radio that does not use knobs at the top - those things are a pain in any drybag!

Check http://www.batterybarn.com/ before you trash your old one. They've got just about every out-of-production battery there is.

I got the uniden voyager from pyacht's site. Better value than the Std. Horizon IMO. Good battery life, belt clip, small, etc. Haven't shopped in a while, though - you might want to spring for one of the latest greatest with all the extra channels.

Have fun - new toys rule!

You can also make a remote battery pack and run the power cable into the "DC in" connector if it has one or you can disassemble the old battery pack and use the connector as a means of connecting a remote battery pack to the radio. We used to do this for hangliding so we could make a more powerful battery pack.

However after saying this, I remember there was isuues with the complex design in the Icom radios that made the dissemble option complex.

Also with the knob on top problem, we used to put some flexible plastic tubing on the knobs to extend them, because you glide with gloves on. Gloves make it difficult to grip a wee knob. This might help a bit.

Whenever this question comes up I have to recommend the Standard Horizon HX-460S. West Marine sells it for $249. The new model has the Family Service frequencies. It's worth the money.

Don,

We will be at the WRCRA lot on Sunday for the Icebreaker with our Standard Horizon 460 and you are welcome to check it out. I have finally found a way to have it on my vest, which seems awkward every time I look at the vest. However, once we are underway, I don't know its there until it comes to life. We had been putting it in a floatable bag in the tramp bag, it wasn't accessible, and it’s charge connections premature corroded and eroded away. Also, I never liked the idea of putting it around my neck on a lanyard, just my preference.

Were the little 6.0 next to Aric’s I20.

Chris

You have it on your life vest and in a dry bag? Or does it just reside exposed on your vest?

Jake,

Just on my vest, no dry bag. Its been "fire-hosed" a couple of times and submerged for a few seconds when I left the boat a little to early when we were returning to the beach, but not really dunked, yet.

I know that Team Lamorak (Mike K. and Dave L) had a 460 go south due to water intrusion. I wonder if Standard Horizon considers their warrantee as easily as Garmin does?

Don,

I learned last night from being at the club that your boat is parked right next to ours. See you on Sunday!

Actually my boat is in the shop...not sure who's I20 is there. I'm hoping I find crew and get my boat back tomorrow so I can race on Sunday.

Thanks for the radio advise everyone.

The HX460X is a fantastic piece of equipment that I have used and seen used by some friends. Standard Horizon's customer service is great and their warranty is good. It may sometimes be slow on turn around times, but the company reliably stands behind their product.

I have swam in salt water with this radio, shaken the water out of the speaker bezel, and then successfully entered into trans-communications with the salty, wet radio. It worked great every time I used it.
I would like to offer my criticisms of this radio, however.

After only one outing on salt water, the (titanium color model) finish on the radio's metal case was ruined. The company recognized a leaky (current leak) battery contact that was causing electrolysis to erode the case, run the battery down, and erode the battery contact. They fixed the problem. (Which is more than I can say for Icom with my M1V which has a leaky battery contact that was fixed under warranty by replacing it with another of the same leaky contact battery. But at least the plastic case of the icom does not set up a current flow with the battery contact as the Standard Horizon did.) Standard Horizon took care of the batteries on their radios (presumably by ensuring the necessary diodes were in place) and gave the battery contacts a gold finish to minimize electrolysis corrosion that could occur to the battery contacts.

The worst thing is the tendency for it to jump out of its holder, clip. This can send it to the bottom of the ocean very quickly; I've seen this happen. The belt clip that comes with the radio has a pivot that allows the radio to be twisted to an upside-down position and then lifted out of the clip. The pivot is close enough to the gravity center of the radio that a bump of the antenna can send it spinning into a 180º position where it can be easily bumped out of the clip.

The second worst thing sent out a false alarm on channel 16 and also ruined the radio. The radio has an attachment jack for a remote microphone. This jack has a rubber plug on it to keep it dry. The jack cover has a lip on it that makes it easy to grasp when a user wants to open up the jack for attachment of a remote microphone. This cover was bumped and easily lifted by accident and without our awareness.

Salt water spray was introduced to the contact points. One pair of contacts is the "push to talk" contacts. This caused the radio to broadcast on Channel 16, the channel it was set on. The radio continued to broadcast until it wore itself out. The user was unaware that the signal being broadcast was being noticed by many boaters, and the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard issued an advisory for everyone in the Santa Barbara Channel to be on the lookout for a vessel possibly in distress, due to an open mike transmission that had been noticed on the emergency channel.

As I skippered along in this area, I followed the Coast Guard's advice and kept a sharp look out for any vessel who may be in distress. Little did I know that it was my crew who had been the transmitter of this signal. When we got back to shore, the radio was all eaten up with corrosion from the salt water invasion. It was replaced for free, but I had to wait a long time.

There were a few other things that I do not like about the radio that are mostly personal preference issues. Overall, the Standard Horizon is a fantastic little workhorse. But I would advise anyone using one on a catamaran to make sure you thoroughly glue the little rubber covers shut to keep the water out of the jacks. I remember at least two jacks, one for battery charge and one for remote microphone.

GARY

I never used a VHF radio. How far can the HX460S transmit over land from the water?

BLS