Cockpit remote VHF for our E-35

[vernon kleist]

I am planning to add a new VHF to Whisper to replace the one above the nav station. It works fine but while at the wheel I am limited to using a hand-held which just doesn't make it for us.

Have any members had experience with the various VHFs on the market that employ a wireless Mic?

Recommendations and cautions will be appreciated.

Vern
San Diego

 

[Frank Langer]

Vern, I also have the VHF in the nav station, and was planning to buy a small hand held VHF for when I'm at the helm, so I can call in to the next marina, or talk to a nearby boater without having to go below to the nav station. From your post, it sounds as if this may not have worked for you, or be a good idea. Can you explain?
thanks,
Frank.

 

[Loren Beach]

I am not Vern, but do have an Standard Horizon handheld that works great for cockpit use, albeit for short range communication.

The issue, to me, is range. VHF is a line-of-sight device, regarding antenna radiation. That antenna on the mast tip simply gets your signal out there further and helps reception for the same reason.

The RAM mike idea gives you all the range of the main transceiver in your nav station, but does sacrifice the virtue of redundancy that you have with the separate handheld radio.

Choices and Options...
:unsure:

Loren

 

[Frank Langer]

Thanks, Loren. I am mainly thinking of the extra handheld to enable me to be at the helm when coming into a marina and needing to hail them to find out what slip I've been assigned to; also as an extra in case the main VHF is broken for some reason. I think I'll go ahead with that plan, unless someone posts something new to indicate I should not do that.
Thanks again.
Frank.

 

[Glyn Judson]

VHF handheld at the helm.

Vern and Frank, Earlier this summer I'd had it with my handheld VHF radios, mainly the dead or no longer made battery issue so I gave all of them of them away and decided to take another tack. I replaced my old VHF base station radio just inside the starboard companionway overhead with a new one. I ended up buying an ICOM 602 on eBay supposedly "factory reconditioned" but when it came, the darned thing was brand new with the serial number, etc. still intact and not X-ed out with a knife blade as with reconditioned units. The neat thing about that was that I got that high quality radio for only $313.00 but the best part, and why I selected that model, was that it could be fitted with a remote mike that essentially controls all the radio functions and in my case, from the helm. This is a hard wired accessory mike that can be removed from the waterproof bulkhead plug and stowed below when not in use. The speaker is loud and clear as is the operation of all the buttons. Now here was what really pushed me over the top. This ICOM Commandmic is the oldest of three models and I guess as such, was/is(?) being sold at West Marine for $27.00, normally $99.95, but gets better. When I went up front to pay for it, the computer priced it at $19.77. If any of this appeals, you might want to check around for one of these remotes at a similar price and also go on eBay to see if that vendor is still offering "factory reconditioned" radios and at the same time check with West MArine to see if they have any in their nationwide inventory. Hope this might be of help. Glyn E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey CA

 

[treilley]

I have a Standard Horizon Intrepid plus that works great. It came with the boat. It has a remote mic in the cockpit that you can control power, vol, channel, sql and other things. It has DSC capability which I will configure in the off season.

 

[u079721]

I have a Standard Horizon Intrepid plus that works great. It came with the boat. It has a remote mic in the cockpit that you can control power, vol, channel, sql and other things. It has DSC capability which I will configure in the off season.

I have this same rig and highly recommend it. If all you need a VHF radio for is calling the harbor master then a handheld is fine, which is what I made do with in the cockpit for years. But then I got into cruising situations where I was trying to listen for calls from friends who might be more than a few miles away, and the handheld didn't cut it, and I couldn't hear their calls from the cabin radio. So I bought the intrepid with remote mike and remote speaker set up, which has been great. A side benefit is that it allows me to listen to NOAA weather radio from the cockpit, which doesn' always come in that clearly in my area without a masthead antenna.

 

[Bolo]

More than one user

Ok this is my two cents on a cockpit radio. I recently bought our 32-3 and prior to that we sailed a Hunter 285. When we owned the Hunter I did consider putting a remote mike in the cockpit. But then I bought a handheld radio which worked out fine because we mostly called boats near us or a transient marina that we were about to spend a night in after a day of sailing.

Sometimes my wife uses the radio to go forward to check out a slip that the marina wanted us to tie up in while I remained behind the wheel, in control but not having the best view of things that she did. All in all a hand held works for us and the time we wished we had a RAM in the cockpit have been few. However, I have thought about putting a switch in the NAV station, near the fixed VHF, that would allow me to hear the radio through the cockpit speakers, when we're not playing tunes, of course. Don't even know if there is an output on the back of the VHF yet to even see if it's possible with the radio we have. Guess that goes to show you how little a problem it is for us.

Bob
Vesper 32-3
Annapolis, MD

 

[CaptnNero]

Standard vs ICOM remotes

I put a Standard Horizon with the remote mic on our last boat and got good use of it for a few years until we traded up. Then based on a friend's advice I installed the comparable ICOM product on our current boat. It works well with the significant exception that unlike the Standard product you have to turn on the base unit after the remote mic is plugged in or the remote mic won't work ! That is a royal pain after having had the more user friendly Standard Horizon product.

So in short if I had it to do over again I would buy the Standard Horizon, even if it cost a little more.

I also saw that Uniden/West Marine sell a wireless remote. That's a nice idea but #1 it's more batteries to feed and #2 I have not had a good experience with the Uniden/West Marine VHF handhelds. If I had a wireless mic I would still put a serious tether on it anyway.

 

[u079721]

I put a Standard Horizon with the remote mic on our last boat and got good use of it for a few years until we traded up. Then based on a friend's advice I installed the comparable ICOM product on our current boat. It works well with the significant exception that unlike the Standard product you have to turn on the base unit after the remote mic is plugged in or the remote mic won't work ! That is a royal pain after having had the more user friendly Standard Horizon product.

So in short if I had it to do over again I would buy the Standard Horizon, even if it cost a little more.

I also saw that Uniden/West Marine sell a wireless remote. That's a nice idea but #1 it's more batteries to feed and #2 I have not had a good experience with the Uniden/West Marine VHF handhelds. If I had a wireless mic I would still put a serious tether on it anyway.

That WOULD be irritating. Being able to turn the unit on from the cockpit could really be a safety issue.

About the only thing I found to be a glitch with my setup was that I would frequently have the cabin volume turned down and the cockpit volume up high when motoring. If I then turned the unit off, and turned it on the next morning while anchored to get a weather report it remembered that the cockpit volume was on high, and I would inadvertently treat the entire anchorage to a rather audible weather summary before I could either turn the unit off or rush up to the cockpit to turn down the remote speaker volume (controlled by the remote mike).

 

[CaptnNero]

That WOULD be irritating. Being able to turn the unit on from the cockpit could really be a safety issue.

...

If you just leave the ICOM remote mic plugged in all the time, my power-on sequence complaint doesn't matter. Since we always strip the cockpit of valuables when we leave the boat, we have to go thru this sequencing thing before powering up the radio below. Half the time one of us ends up going below to turn on the radio or power cycle it so the power button on the remote mic will work. Go figure !

 

[Kim Schoedel]

I too ran into the problem of having the main unit at the nav and a hand held in the cockpit. Lack of range for the hand held was the problem and not being able to hear the main unit under motor or when turning down the volume for my boat babe's napping times.

So off to West Marine I went pulled out the $$$ purchased and installed WM's WHAM ready main unit with an ICOM wireless Wham. The hand held communicates with the main unit. I have no waterproof plug in's to worry about. The hand unit has full fuction with the exception of the main units volume. The main unit must be on for the Wham to operate.

This has been the best thing since "take home and bake pizza". When not on the boat the wireless hand unit sits in its AC charger or when out sailing it has the DC charger as well. I highly recommend this type of setup to anyone that doesn't like to run back and forth between cockpit and cabin, keep the volume at the nav turned up so loud it makes your beer foam and doesn't want to miss any important calls or emergency broadcasts while cleaning up the beer foam.

Wham(wireless hand something something). Or DGEG (darned good electronic device)

 

[vernon kleist]

Wireless remote selected

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for all the ideas in your replies to my post. I have been away for a few days and just had the chance to review your comments.

I found the hand-held to be fine for close up communication but when trying to meet another boat farther away or communicate with a friend when trying to coordinate a raftup in the next harbor it was inadequate.

I found a reasonably priced Uniden unit with compatible wireless remote that looks like it will do the job. True the remote takes batteries but they are so cheap at Costco that I prefer that to worrying about wires.

West marine will price-match Defender so we got the pair for just under $300. I plan to install them this weekend and will try to report on the result.

Vern
Whisper
E35 II #356