Thinking about the ICOM M421 VHF/DSC - Any comments?

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shaplandhill

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As a first time VHF user and recent holder of the operators licence, my MMSI number has just dropped through the letter box and am now trying to determine which of the many million sets would be best. My course instructor suggested ICOM are best value for money and the M421 seems to be their introductory model. I have shopped around on the web and come up with a price of £191.99 including vat and delivery.

Could anyone offer words of wisdom and suggestions.

My boat is a 20ft day fisher open cockpit with a 70hp outboard. I only cruise up and down the coast of Devon and Cornwall doing a maximum of 50/60 miles per day and usually never more than 10 miles from the coast.

Also what type of antena would be best? Having no mast I could only fix it on to the railing around the cockpit which would not give much height.

Many thanks

Rob
 
Fitted one last year and very pleased with it. Walking back down the pontoon I passed a radio fitter who also recommended them. Made my day!

Can't help with the aerial, ours is at the mast head.
 
Also fitted one recently. Easy to attached to GPS for Lat and Long display. Good instructions and easy to use. Would recommend. I payed a similar amount from an internet site.
 
Had one for a while now and its been peachy. Would prefer if it had a rotary channel selector and some of the dual functions can be a little tricky at night. Can't help with the aerial as we plugged it into our existing one.
 
had mine over a year and would echo the other comments made - especially Unit18s unfortunately!

however it scans on the up down buttons pretty quick.

ariel wise fit the tallest installation you can
 
had mine over a year and would echo the other comments made - especially Unit18s unfortunately!

however it scans on the up down buttons pretty quick.

ariel wise fit the tallest installation you can
 
The other option is the new M505.
Slightly bigger, much bigger display.
Rotory ch change and not much more expensive.

Worth a look.

Regards
 
yep - a cynic would suggest they listened to early feedback on the 421; a realist would know they got it out too quick for that.

don't suppose you have a trade in / trade up option going at all Jon?
 
A cynic might well do or people may think WOW Icom understand the market and what is needed as the staff there don't just sell radio's that actually use them in the marine world /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

The M505 has been introduced to fill the gap between the M421 and the M601.

Sorry to say no trade in from us might ask a friendly local dealer, you never know your luck.

Regards
 
The M505 and the M601 have features that are very much the same.
The big diff is the price, no keypad on the M505 and waterproofing.

The M505 has a SRP of £299.95 or £369.95 with the second station command mic.
The M505 is rated to the new IPX8 standard wich is 1.5m for 30mins.
All other kit on the market is IPX7 1m for 30mins.
We have removed the need for a full keypad by using a "jog wheel", like you may find on a PDA or some mobile phones.
This means that for DSC or menu use the large ch change knob becomes the ent button so you turn and push.
Makes it very very eay to use.

The othe features are with the second station Command Mic.
With this new version you not only have remote funtion of the basic radio features you can now do all the DSC function and the Hailer/foghorn which you can't do with the M601 second station.

Hope that's all clear.

Best regards
 
In my second season with one. Cracking set & no problems to date.

Going to hook up the GPS (Garmin 128) to it this w/e. So I have it for the cross channel /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
is the 505 out in the marketplace yet, i have been enquiring about one all this year, have not seen one 'in the flesh' yet...

everyone seems to want to take an order, but not sign of any at chandlers yet..

the ads in the mags and website is the only info available, any date on the actual items being sent to the chandlers, before i lose interest and buy something else.

It looks a great bit of kit, and i was looking at the 601 initially but was a quite large for my installation area on board, so was delighted to hear about the 505, all the options of the 601 but slightly smaller, and second station is what interested me the most, as long as this has full dsc capability on the command mic, then i would buy it. no info on the website about the new command mic for the 505, all the old ones are mentioned but not any pdf info for the new mike..

any info would be great... thanks in advance...
 
Hi there

The radio has been in the market now for about 2 months.
Most don't seem to carry it as a stock item, like the M601.
We have good stocks and most can have one for you in a day or so.

There is limited info on the Command Mic on our website.

If I can help any further help with info please do not hesitate to call me on the numbers below.

Best regards
 
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