Handheld VHF Icom M93d

[lustyd]

Just to thrown in my experience, having bought the older Standard Horizon version a while back. I bought this because at the time I didn't have my own boat so it was handy to take with me, for this it was excellent alongside a small Garmin handheld plotter. Since getting my own boat it's become almost pointless since the ship radio has DSC and there's a mic in the cockpit. The addition of DSC and GPS has made the portable radio large enough that it's literally never carried with me unless I'm on the tender. Think about this before commiting, and make sure that your use case is not carrying the radio about as a portable very often. It's a handy backup if the ship radio is down, but realistically as a portable radio it's just not portable enough to be useful, and certainly not going to be good for MOB since it will be in the saloon. My plan is to buy one of the smaller non-DSC radios this year which can be more easily carried.

 

[mirseb]

I just turned on my IC-M93D it got a fix in under a minute; that was with a good view of the sky to the west, but buildings and hills to the east. It was last powered on perhaps a month ago at the same location.

Did you MOVE during power-up like a boat adrift?
Start to walk outside in one direction, then power up the VHF.
I tested two M93Ds similar repeatable performance: hot fix 2 minutes, warm fix 5 minutes

 

[mirseb]

I’m a lifelong ICOM man. They are superb radios. However, I just bought a Standard Horizin HX890 with DSC,

LiftyK
Could you do me a big favor and run the test "Time to GPS fix while WALKING"?
I returned the Icom M93D and consider the HX890.

Cold fix: unit hasn't had a fix for days,
Warm fix: last fix a few hours ago
Hot fix: last fix seconds ago (fix obtained, power off, power on)

 

[ashtead]

I have the HX890 but only last year found the fix takes a couple of minutes but quicker outside . I tend to turn it on and leave it in a cup holder by the wheel on longer passages but haven’t yet tried out the waypoints etc . Have an old icom which still works but suffers from battery discharging very quickly so you have to remove it so not a great fan.

 

[Bilgediver]

I had a Standard HorizonHX270E which looked very nicely made and was excellent in service, for a time.

Said to be "submersible" however the first time it got a ducking it was finished off. So don't rely on the waterproofing. On these units there is nothing keeping the water out apart from the neoprene gasket around the battery.


.

The reason I recommended to my friend that her SH was suspect was that when I checked it over on receipt and was going to help her familiarise herself with the radio I discovered that the lid of the battery cover did not seat and rocked about. It looked as if either the lid had not been moulded correctly or was distorted and I felt it could let water into the battery compartment. Hence returned before use.

 

[LiftyK]

LiftyK
Could you do me a big favor and run the test "Time to GPS fix while WALKING"?
I returned the Icom M93D and consider the HX890.

Cold fix: unit hasn't had a fix for days,
Warm fix: last fix a few hours ago
Hot fix: last fix seconds ago (fix obtained, power off, power on)

Will do. Back soon.

 

[john0740]

The IC-M93D radio was last powered up on January 12th, so 10 days ago.

I just went out for a walk along a path next to the sea, heading south. There is a good view of the sky except towards the east where there are hills.

While walking, I turned on the radio and a fix was obtained in 1m 21s.

 

[LiftyK]

Test results, while walking, turning on the HX890 unit after commencing walking, today 2.30pm around a housing estate with two storey houses. Previous power on was around two weeks ago. The display comes on around five seconds after pressing the power button.

Cold fix: unit hasn't had a fix for days. RESULT: Lat/lon displayed 1m 1s after pressing power button.

Warm fix: last fix a few hours ago: taken two hours after power on - *RESULT: Instant fix (while walking). I found this a bit suspicious but the GPS status page confirmed it. I will repeat this test tomorrow and see what happens. ~** UPDATE 18 hours later, walking, it took 40 seconds to get a fix.

Hot fix: last fix seconds ago (fix obtained, power off, power on). RESULT: instant