Marine Radio on a Budget

[BT-EYE]

I need help on a budget marine radio. So many out there!!! I'll be fishing mostly smaller lakes and Mille Lacs. Need a good unit on a tight budget. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

Brad Burgeson
Apple Valley, MN

[tbomn]

Any radio you buy is going to cost you around $125-$150. put the antenna with it and you will be spending around $175. Two things to remember: Waterproof is better than "water resistant", and an 8 foot antenna is better than a shorter one. Raytheon, Apelco, Shakespeare, Icom and Uniden are all good units. As far as inexpensive, all run about the same in price, some just have more whistles and buzzers.

[Mother]

BT-EYE

BOAT US is having a big sale going right now and they have 3-4
different low-end , HI quality units availible.Prices ranging
from $125.00ish - $150.00 , an antenna will be an additional
cost,but you should be OK with a mid-level 8' foot unit for
around $50.00 bones + $10-$20 for the mntg. bracket.
Total outlay of $200.00 and you'll be set. Or you could get a
hand-held for around $100.00 but , no range or capabilities of
a 'in dash' unit.


Mother

ps - Shakespeare antenna !!!

[Fish Hound]

Check out www.reedssports.com or www.iboats.com. Both have good deals on radios. I just bought a Shakespeare with antennae and mount for $150 plus $15 shipping.


See ya on the water.

[Jess]

You might want to concider a handheld vhf. I would suggest the shakesphere. Great no memory battery, 12 volt addapter, fast chage is all standard. It transmits about 5 miles. 175$.
Jess

[Thom]

Let me make this set of suggestions to you. First off forget the hand held radio. They are fine, in their place, but your first concern needs to be with safety and that means you need the most reliable means of communications. Simply put you need a fixed mount radio with the thought in mind that someday it would be good to pick up a hand held for backup.

I understand the need to conserve on the spending. While there are a good bunch of low end models of radio available from around $175 or so there isn't much of anything below that price range that is worth the chineese plastic its made out of. You will do far far better to simply go to E-Bay and buy a high quality unit, even if its used (though there are an awful lot of new ones available there as well, at at much better prices than you are going to find on line anywhere). As an example I have seen ICOM M-59 radios routinely sell for less than $100, many of them new, in the box. So to tell you the truth what I would do as my very first radio-hunting step is to go to E-Bay and do a search using this criteria: ICOM +marine and cehck the box that says to search in the descriptions as well.

Next thing; there are only two brands of radio you should be concerning yourself with. The first is ICOM of course, the second would be Standard Horizon. There are no other radios out there that should be of any interest to you - and I am just going to go ahead and say it - although many folks are perfectly pleased with the radios they have at the very same time most of the radios out there are grossly over priced junk. ICOMS are good, so are Standards, and in a inch there are some models by Uniden that are acceptable, but that's about it.

After that you'll need an antenna. Put your money into the antenna. The world's best radio won't do squat with a poor antenna. Its that simple. The best antennas available are made by a company from Ft. Lauderdale, FL. The name of the company is Digital Antenna. Don't let the name confuse you, it has nothing to do with digital transmission, they sell antennas for all marine purposes. The most common antennas around are made by Shakespeare. This is not meant to rile anyone, though I realize it will; although the upper end of the Shakespeare lineup is made up of some pretty good antennas the lower end stuff by them is not worth the glass its made of. For the most part is little more than bared wire with the shielding stripped back and packed into what would otherwise have been a very cheap fishing pole, painted white. At any rate that really doesn't tell you anything but maybe this will help - here are the models by Shakespeare that are worth owing: 5101 (bairly made the grade), 5102, 5202, 5400XT (4' stick), 5225-XT, 5226-XT, 5399.

Then you have to have a mount. If you buy a plastic mount you'll be buyine more plastic mounts. If you buy a metal mount, be it bronze or stainless, you'll have bought your last mount. For this item definitly go to E-Bay. You'll pay half the price for exactly the same product you will get at any store or ouot of any catalog.

And that's about that.

Thom

[BT-eye]

Thank to all for the input. I bought a good unit at a good price and no shipping.