Boat Radios

new indyguy

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What are you guys using for radios when your on the rivers?
I was thinking of using my Baofeng and maybe programming the canadian marine channels or possibly buy a dedicted marine radio.
Ran into a group of boaters last summer near Blue River and they suggested that we should have one.
Started thinking it might not be a bad idea overall.
 

pfi572

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Any VHF radio will work . A good marine radio isn’t that costly .
Hand held isn’t that great as no reach due to low watts .
I run marine radios as that’s what they are built for .
 

Lund

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I think it depends on how you use the boat. In interior water use like rivers your sledding radio like the Boafeng would suffice and work. The only real problem is if it got wet and that can happen on a boat. I would recommend a CB radio mounted on the dash with a good whip also. There are plenty of off roaders and truckers using them should you need it, plus they are cheap to buy for the extra assurance. I don't think Boafeng will do Citizens Band.
For any large water use and ocean a marine radio is a must IMO. My boat is equipped with both a marine(standard Horizon) and CB(Midland) plus i have marine handheld(Icom).
But then I use my boat universally from large lake's to remote rivers and open ocean, so not a single purpose boat.
The big advantage with good marine radio's is water proofing and salty air resistant. Most marine handheld will float if drop in the water and some have a blinking light once they hit the water for recovery at night.
So it depends what you want and need. It sounds for your use it would be fine.
 

neilsleder

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I wouldn’t trust a beofang in an emergency situation. I got one but it doesn’t seem very good, and not user friendly. I am not a very radio tech savvy guy so could be me. But I know we tried to it to Chrisco boat radio and it wouldn’t. We ended up just tossing it in the glove box.
 

S.W.A.T.

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Marine radio with the proper programming is cheaper than a vhf with the rr channels.
 

skid

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I use a marine radio with a 6’ or so antenna, it works great on the lake and gets good reception on the ocean. Think I paid about $150 for everything, pretty cheap.
 

Lund

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But if you have the Boafeng radio you can easily install all or selected marine channels if you want. I have done 4 boafeng radios with all the sledding channels and selected marine for a couple of friends of mine.
Some people say that marine radios are cheap to buy. Fact...marine radios like anything can be bought for cheap but you get what you pay for. Lowrance, Standard Horizon, Icom, Garmin are NOT cheap and are pretty much the standard in marine communication. But for your intent it might be over kill cost wise.
 

pfi572

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I guess we should define cheap ? Lol
I think $400 for a good marine radio is reasonable.
For that amount you can purchase a Kenwood or equivalent and have marine channels installed in any of them .
They are higher watts then the marine radios that are 25w on high .
IMO buy a good marine radio as like Lund said ? They are made for just that .
 

Mike270412

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People still use CB's?
I think it depends on how you use the boat. In interior water use like rivers your sledding radio like the Boafeng would suffice and work. The only real problem is if it got wet and that can happen on a boat. I would recommend a CB radio mounted on the dash with a good whip also. There are plenty of off roaders and truckers using them should you need it, plus they are cheap to buy for the extra assurance. I don't think Boafeng will do Citizens Band.
For any large water use and ocean a marine radio is a must IMO. My boat is equipped with both a marine(standard Horizon) and CB(Midland) plus i have marine handheld(Icom).
But then I use my boat universally from large lake's to remote rivers and open ocean, so not a single purpose boat.
The big advantage with good marine radio's is water proofing and salty air resistant. Most marine handheld will float if drop in the water and some have a blinking light once they hit the water for recovery at night.
So it depends what you want and need. It sounds for your use it would be fine.
 

Lund

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Citizen band though old school tech is not obsolete. There are plenty still using this technology, it has a pretty good following including CB clubs. A home base can pickup signal's hundreds of miles away. I knew a guy in Surrey BC who had his own home base and regularly talked to another in California that also had a home base.
So even though its not my go to for emergency, when nothing else works maybe some one with a home base might pickup your signal.
Plus plenty of recreational guys are using them, like 4x4 clubs.
As mentioned above in the states its still very popular.
 
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