Recommend me a hand held VHF

I Think I got a duff one, I have never heard anything other than "Frequency Mode" from it, I can hear things on my FT895 but the Baofeng is as deaf as a post even trying it through the same antenna as the FT895 it still hears nothing, which is the main reason it is sitting gathering dust, on 70cm my Alinco H/H I can hear and transmit ok but nothing from the baofeng.

The FT895 picks up the local ATC no problem and even to hearing Eindhoven airport which is about 20NM north of here.
 
Last time I measured the output of a Baofeng, it was horrid. Poor RF filtering and visible harmonics to about the 10th. Probably the reason they aren't type approved for Marine VHF.
 
I have an ICOM M31(?). Had it for many years (albeit very light use), always been very satisfactory, also feels and looks like a pukka bit of kit.

It came with
- a 12v charging holder/stand (I have a vague recollection it said don't leave radio in holder when fully charged, but I simply unplug the boat 12v cable to it once it's charged); and
- a spare battery tray for use with 6(?) AA dry cells (which I've never used, but thought was good to have in case its rechargeable battery somehow ended up discharged when the VHF was really needed).

The antenna on mine got broken when somebody put something heavy on top of it while it was lying loose in a bag of odds and ends for the trip homewards in the dinghy. I was recently chuffed to discover I could get a replacement antenna for what seemed a surprisingly reasonable price of about £22.

I've also used another, presumably cheaper, brand (forgotten name), which came with a boat and works well enough, but doesn't feel in the same league.
 
st599 said:
Last time I measured the output of a Baofeng, it was horrid. Poor RF filtering and visible harmonics to about the 10th. Probably the reason they aren't type approved for Marine VHF.
Click to expand...

It's not that. Or at least it's not just that. It's not type approved, it's programmable and would never pass the environmental EN 60945 stuff. So compliance is a nonstarter for many reasons long before considering the output. And it's not legal for PMR because it's slightly over power and has a removable Antenna.

An RF engineer colleague tested his and his had excellent harmonic suppression and very low spurious emissions. There are tests all over the Internet and it always seems pretty well regarded. A lot of enthusiasts seem to buy them.

I'd be really interested in seeing an online test on a spectrum analyser that showed a bad one. When I was considering buying mine I couldn't find one.
 
I have a SH 270X. I don't use it a lot as I sail small boats. But, it has very good battery life and came with the tray for AAA batteries. Submersible, but doubt it floats. Bought it on the US, so not technically legal, but the French do not seem fussed about HHs as they consider them safety kit.
 
DownWest said:
I have a SH 270X. I don't use it a lot as I sail small boats. But, it has very good battery life and came with the tray for AAA batteries. Submersible, but doubt it floats. Bought it on the US, so not technically legal, but the French do not seem fussed about HHs as they consider them safety kit.
Click to expand...

I have the 3 AAA battery tray for my SH and it only transmits on low power with the tray. I suspect its because I use rechargeables so the voltage is a bit low but it's very frustrating.
 
Mark-1 said:
I have the 3 AAA battery tray for my SH and it only transmits on low power with the tray. I suspect its because I use rechargeables so the voltage is a bit low but it's very frustrating.
Click to expand...
Since the built in batteries are so good, I have yet to try the AAA tray. But, it is 6 or so, not 3? Bought on a trip to the family patch on the Chesapeake from West Marine. Maybe 15 yrs or more ago..
 
For anybody the least bit interested, the ICOM M25 handhelds listed on Aliexpress etc for around £60.00 do appear to be kosher .
Takes around 2 weeks to arrive.
However they are not to the UK spec. ie the marina channel will not function.
If you just want to use the other channels it will do the job.
 
Mark-1 said:
I have the 3 AAA battery tray for my SH and it only transmits on low power with the tray. I suspect its because I use rechargeables so the voltage is a bit low but it's very frustrating.
Click to expand...
Rechargables actually have less voltage drop than alkalines .... so even though dry-cells show 1.5v - in use they often drop to same or less than a NiMh ... and of course the NiMh will hold that voltage far longer while the drycell has a steady decline from start ...

This is why many battery units in past usually had 1 cell less in the NiCd pack compared to the dry-cell pack.
 
oldgit said:
For anybody the least bit interested, the ICOM M25 handhelds listed on Aliexpress etc for around £60.00 do appear to be kosher .
Takes around 2 weeks to arrive.
However they are not to the UK spec. ie the marina channel will not function.
If you just want to use the other channels it will do the job.
Click to expand...



Have you tried to switch it to the "Intl" channel group?




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You are not alone. Mine fogged up too. Standard Horizon kindly replaced it. It’s a great radio and I wanted the DSC. Perhaps a bit fancy for OP.
 
Mark-1 said:
It's not that. Or at least it's not just that. It's not type approved, it's programmable and would never pass the environmental EN 60945 stuff. So compliance is a nonstarter for many reasons long before considering the output. And it's not legal for PMR because it's slightly over power and has a removable Antenna.

An RF engineer colleague tested his and his had excellent harmonic suppression and very low spurious emissions. There are tests all over the Internet and it always seems pretty well regarded. A lot of enthusiasts seem to buy them.

I'd be really interested in seeing an online test on a spectrum analyser that showed a bad one. When I was considering buying mine I couldn't find one.
Click to expand...
I've just had a look at my notes, there were issues with harmonics on Tx, but also the Rx performance is poor - signals readable on a Standard Horizon were lost in the noise on the Baofeng.
 
st599 said:
I've just had a look at my notes, there were issues with harmonics on Tx, but also the Rx performance is poor - signals readable on a Standard Horizon were lost in the noise on the Baofeng.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I haven't noticed that on mine on Marine Frequencies, but it's easy to side by side test with my HX300 and with my PMR radios so I'll check the Rx on both those. Sadly, I don't have any amateur radio kit or an aircraft to compare to.

Not that it really matters, I've been using it for yonks without noticeable issues on Marine/PMR Rx so even if it turns out to be worse I'd keep using it because it saves me the frustration of carrying a separate PMR, Scanner and Marine HH.

If it Rx's badly compared to the SH I'll take the hint and get my tame colleague to check the output.
 
I have a SH HX-870 which I'm well pleased with. I had the predecessor model (HX-851 or something) which I hated.

The current model of this is HX-890 which I don't know, except that it still uses an obsolete Micro-USB connector and doesn't have USB charging, and these are disadvantages.

But otherwise these are good radios with useful GPS and DSC functions.

I've owned lots of VHF handhelds over the decades. The several Icoms I had were always disappointing after the superb fix installed M802 HF radios and M604 VHF's I've had, and the amateur radio handhelds.

The surprisingly excellent radio which exceeded expectations was one cheap but not cheerful, but truly excellent, Cobra I had, until it was nicked in Cherbourg.
 
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