Hand held marine radios

[J - Rod]

I picked up a Cobra hand held marine radio ($120 model). Got the handheld so that I can take it with me on kayaking trips. Will also use it on our boat when we are out in the big lake. Any one know the range on these? You can use them at 1W or 5W. Any feedback - good or bad - on Cobra radios? I will use it less than 10 times a year.

[archie holst]

I fish lake mi maybe twenty five times a year and use the same hand held. I really don't know what the performance or range is I don't talk on it. I just listen and it seems to pick up a lot. Just leave it in scan mode and play with the scuelch it's good for a laugh. And then you have it in case of emergency.

[song_dog_slammer]

Fm is pretty much line of sight so the higher the antena the longer the available range.

The coast guard auxillary taught us the rule of thumb is 1.5miles per watt, again rule of thumb.

[Jason Adam]

Actually its VHF, but it is line of sight based on antenna height and Xmiting power. You really should not be using a HH as you primary VHF on the big lake. I have one that I keep as a backup incase the boat goes down, its in my ditch bag, but on the water, I'd be suprised if you got more than a few miles transmission. You will be able to recieve from much farther away, but TX range will be low. A fixed mount antenna is 25W transmit and usually has an 8' antenna and you can get 20-30 miles max or so off that, so do the relative math taking into account you have 20% transmision power and 12% antenna height.

[desperado]

There is an adaptor that changes the antenna connection on a boat mounted antenna to connect ot a protable.
When I used that setup a few years back I got out as good as any regular radio.
I believe I got the adaptor at West Marine.
It is the antenna height that makes the difference.

[Tech Rally]

I used to use a handheld with the standard 10" antenna workable range was about 4-5 miles standing up in the boat. I installed a fixed antenna adapter and 8ft antenna and the range only went to about 7 miles due to the weak signal of 5 watts.

In a kayak, your range will be less since you are sitting low in the water.

[Jason Adam]

There is an adaptor that changes the antenna connection on a boat mounted antenna to connect ot a protable.
When I used that setup a few years back I got out as good as any regular radio.
I believe I got the adaptor at West Marine.
It is the antenna height that makes the difference.

Antenna height makes a difference, but understand that your only Xmiting with 1/5 of the power of a fixed radio. You will never get the transmission power of a Fixed mount from a handheld. Reception will be the same, but reception wont save your life.

[desperado]

I hope that people didn't think that I think a portable is a good replacement for a regular radio. I guess that I should have stated that I used one until I got a regular radio.
It did work just fine for what I intended it to do.