VHF. Hand held vs Mounted

[DoubleEnder]

I am refitting what is essentially a dayboat. Very simple systems and a very basic electrical setup. Space in the cabin is limited. My sailing will be Solent and coastal only. The masthead is bare at the moment, but I am going to fit a tricolour light and a windex or possibly burgee staff or pigstick. Or both!
Question is, is it worth putting a VHF antenna up there too? Modern hand held sets seem to have excellent battery life, and given my modest ambitions probably enough range. They also now seem to operate at 6w, rather than 5w. And I am keen to avoid as much clutter as possible both below and above deck.
I know that a masthead antenna will give much more range, but ….. is it worth it? Most routine communication eg with harbours and marinas seems to be by mobile phone anyway.

Any thoughts?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

I am refitting what is essentially a dayboat. Very simple systems and a very basic electrical setup. Space in the cabin is limited. My sailing will be Solent and coastal only. The masthead is bare at the moment, but I am going to fit a tricolour light and a windex or possibly burgee staff or pigstick. Or both!
Question is, is it worth putting a VHF antenna up there too? Modern hand held sets seem to have excellent battery life, and given my modest ambitions probably enough range. They also now seem to operate at 6w, rather than 5w. And I am keen to avoid as much clutter as possible both below and above deck.
I know that a masthead antenna will give much more range, but ….. is it worth it? Most routine communication eg with harbours and marinas seems to be by mobile phone anyway.

Any thoughts?

We have both. We are supposed to give 30 mins notice to the Yar bridge, you can’t do that with a hand held. It works up to about 800 metres. Sometimes it’s a struggle from our mooring. Way back in the mists of time we had a handheld on our Strider cat, which had a BNC mount for the aerial. So we had a masthead antenna with a BNC to match. That worked well. Our fully waterproof handheld has a moulded on antenna, like a Ken doll’s pants. So fixed VHF as well. We don’t regret that tbh, but we go a bit further than you will.

 

[Momac]

Sometimes a handheld is okay and sometimes not.
eg. the range on a handheld can be an issue if the station receiving your call is also a handheld.
But all really depends on your personal use.

 

[ylop]

Very simple systems and a very basic electrical setup. Space in the cabin is limited.

None of that would be likely to get in the way of a fixed vhf, although some are more compact than others.

My sailing will be Solent and coastal only.

If I was refitting it - I’d set it up for the future most adventurous trips I might do. If I owned it and didn’t want the hassle of running cables etc I might have a different view.

Modern hand held sets seem to have excellent battery life,

Even for the solent I think DSC is a useful feature. Last time I looked DSC h/helds were not that great for battery life, and of course all batteries get shorter lives the older they get. You can probably wire in a charging cradle to overcome that (but check it still gets gps signal).

and given my modest ambitions probably enough range. They also now seem to operate at 6w, rather than 5w.

Really 6 v 5 is marketing.

And I am keen to avoid as much clutter as possible both below and above deck.

If you want to avoid clutter a perm install is probably actually neater than a h/held rolling around the cockpit. If budget allows you can get a “black box” style where the “brains” are hidden somewhere out of sight and you only have the gander as “clutter”.

I know that a masthead antenna will give much more range, but ….. is it worth it?

In the solent - arguably not… but if you are whatever “coastal” means and have a problem perhaps that might matter.

 

[MontyMariner]

From Icom - I want to connect an external antenna to marine handheld VHF radio. How do I do this? - Marine Radio FAQ's

I want to connect an external antenna to marine handheld VHF radio. How do I do this?​

Icom make this adapter AD-98FSC : Antennas - Icom UK

But their advice would be where possible to choose a fixed marine VHF radio.

 

[KompetentKrew]

Modern hand held sets seem to have excellent battery life, and given my modest ambitions probably enough range. They also now seem to operate at 6w, rather than 5w.

The difference between 5W and 6W is negligible - with a handheld, you are transmitting from ground level, so it will make no difference.

A masthead antenna is significantly better, just by dint of the antenna being closer in length to the wavelength of the radio frequency on which you are transmitting (simplified explanation). Because it's also some metres above the water, it probably has 10x the actual range.

 

[Boathook]

Put an aerial up the mast and if possible a fixed vhf. There are coastal areas where signals are poor.
As been mentioned range for a handheld isn't very good with the aerial low down.

 

[Chiara’s slave]

The difference between 5W and 6W is negligible - with a handheld, you are transmitting from ground level, so it will make no difference.

A masthead antenna is significantly better, just by dint of the antenna being closer in length to the wavelength of the radio frequency on which you are transmitting (simplified explanation). Because it's also some metres above the water, it probably has 10x the actual range.

The height is everything.

 

[jac]

My 2p. Fit the fixed unit with a masthead antenna. There will never be a situation where you have too much range / power but in an emergency there may well be a situation where you have too little.

 

[James_Calvert]

The thing about a masthead aerial is you need a convenient backup for when it fails.

An antenna fitted to your stern rail (if you have one) can do this.

Might be all you need for local sailing

 

[harvey38]

Fixed unit every time.

Better range
Easier to operate
Doesn't get lost/dropped
Doesn't pack up mid transmission due to batter discharge

Until I settled on a fixed, duel handset unit for our mobo, short term I used a well known manufacturers hand held, it was crap. It was never where I left it, sliding around, often on the cabin floor, I had to use 'High power' to contact Port Control only 1/4 mile away, I was always charging it and the screen was difficult to read.

I threw it in a skip after the fixed unit was installed as I found it a huge distraction.

 

[dansaskip]

I have both fixed and handheld on my boat. As others have mentioned the range of a handheld can be limited. Sometimes you need the range of a fixed vhf but the convenience of a handheld is hard to beat. It is also nice to have a back up for immediate use in case of problems.

 

[DoubleEnder]

Good stuff and thank you. Perhaps a masthead antenna/fixed set is the way to go after all. Much appreciated

 

[Biggles Wader]

I have both fixed and handheld on my boat. As others have mentioned the range of a handheld can be limited. Sometimes you need the range of a fixed vhf but the convenience of a handheld is hard to beat. It is also nice to have a back up for immediate use in case of problems.

Same here. I use the handheld probably 90% of the time as it is convenient and does the job.

 

[TSB240]

The gain of a well tuned mast head antenna can be as much as 3db. For those who don't know this is the equivalent of amplifying your output by 3 times making your handheld 15w equivalent.
Losses should be minimised by using high quality Coax.

 

[harvey38]

Deletec

 

[justanothersailboat]

I removed a decayed below-decks fixed radio installation (radio was fine, cable and mountings knackered, place it was mounted no longer exists after furniture changes so I passed it on) and haven't bothered to replace it. I was 100% using the handheld anyway. I have only a basic handheld, but it seems to have adequate range for anything I've yet had to do on 1 watt mode, has enormous battery life and is easy to use. I am only coastal and I have found the coastguards' and VTS services' antennae reach a very long way.

I don't like the loss of situational awareness of heading down into the saloon to work the radio. If I had a fixed one I would only be interested in the kind that have a cockpit mic that can control the radio. These often seem to have a more inconvenient interface than my handheld, so I would have to try out a bunch of models. When I did use the fixed radio I found its range not always helpful, as I was picking up a lot of distracting traffic from far too far away for it to be relevant to me.