hand held vhf

Fully endorse the ICOM M31 recommendation. I bought one last year and have been very satisfied. No real experience of others though so a good idea to seek the forum opinion.
Morgan
 
Best value is most probably the Standard Horizon 270E for £85 inc UK delivery. For £119 from the same place, you can have the Standard Horizon HX500E with Li-Ion battery. The Icom M31 which I owned briefly was a fairly disappointing set - sound quality was poor, and it constantly draws current even when switched off, so unless you remove the battery it'll gradually go flat.
 
I bought an M31 for the grab bag - I wanted on which would run off AA cells. As pvb points out, it drains the batteries even if switched off, and after 5 months they are dead.

Also (but this is a personal preference), I prefer rotary controls for volume and squelch. I have had no problems with the Entel.

J
 
I found that giving the previous Icom with rotary dials much use and abuse led to them getting bent and damaged. One of the reasons I went for the M31, fewer moving parts so less to go wrong. I have found no problems with the sound quality and as I use it frequently, the battery goes flat from use rather than storage.
 
Another S/H fan here. Its also waterproof. . I also like the screw-down base with connection to 12v socket for charging. Plus a 3 yr guarantee.
 
Absolutely the S/H from Malthouse. Excellent piece of kit, quite sensitive too, I was discharging the battery at home and picked up Solent C/G 10 miles inland from Worthing! We were very surprised as the downs are in between us and the Solent.
 
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Another S/H fan here. Its also waterproof. .

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Yup, another reason I bought the Icom, 1m depth for 30 minutes. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Go for a waterproof one. We bought an expensive Icom Euro (can't remember the model number): great handheld - battery lasted weeks, excellent reception blah blah blah. Last week it went for a swim in 15m of water... what a waste of money!

SH keep coming up well in product reviews.
 
I have a Standard Horizon HX260, so the model before.
Well pleased, no issues, sits in a pouch open to the elements on the binnacle all season with no ill effects.
4 AA batteries last a good long while if you (that is, me!) are stupid enough to have run the 12v flat and left the charger in the car.
 
My HH is an even earlier SH model (255?), now 8 years old. Still holds charge well, great radio.
 
I always bought Icoms for my YC and they are good but last year I bought 3 SH handhelds and they've proved to be better.

£80 each ~ 3 power settings, waterproof and very easy to use.

Peter.
 
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