Portable 27 Meg Radio

[Lasty]

On Hi-Tide this morning they were talking about a GME hand held 27 meg radio which they said was really good. At $139.00 it sounds like a good buy but does anyone know anything this radio?

[dunc333]

On Hi-Tide this morning they were talking about a GME hand held 27 meg radio which they said was really good. At $139.00 it sounds like a good buy but does anyone know anything this radio?

lasty i have had a handheld for the last 5 years (gme27 mhz) and bought it so could remove easliy from boat as boat was parked on road ,so i know i would have 1 when i needed id it cost by memory around $200 then i have had no probs with it,the range is good for about 2kms ,but you can remove arial from it and normal 27 meg arial screws right on and increases range to a normal radio,it takes 9 aa batteries which last for 3 or 4 fishing trips ,the trick with mine is i take the 3 batteries out when at home so not to drain batts ,im sure the new ones would be more advanced ,cheers dunc333

[pelican]

I am not up to date with the rules but from memory to meet the safety requirements the radio had to be a fixed one not portable. Maybe someone at the course could ask about this and get back to us.

We have one in with our flares etc as a backup and they are average in range but much better than not one at all. It is all about the aerial to get range.

Just thought I'd mention it in case you were thinking it met the offshore safety rules. MSB used to fine for not having correct radio and safety gear and wouldn't accept a portable even in a dash mount power clip.

Someone at the course will know for sure

[pelican]

Does anyone who did the radio course know the answer to this?

[pirate pete]

this is straight out of the Waterways hand book and it does not specify fixed or handheld it just says radios

Marine Radios

Marine radios are compulsory for all vessels operating more than 2 nautical miles out to sea, and are recommended for anyone proceeding offshore. They provide a means of advising shore stations of your itinerary, checking boating weather and navigational warnings and making distress calls.

Marine radios using 27 MHz are relatively cheap and available for general use.

A mobile phone does not replace the requirement to carry a marine radio.

What radio you require will be determined by the location you are fishing and the the room available for mounting a radio. A mate of mine has a 14ft tinnie and we mounted a fixed unit up under the foredeck with a 6 ft aerial he has great reception up to 10 klms and will not go any further.

But common sense would tell you that a handheld radio would be useless 10 klms from a land station and this would limit you to about 3- 5 klms. If you are only fishing inside the Harbour or Botany Bay a hand held would be fine but up in the Hawksbury with the terrain it would be next to useless.

If you have the available space go for a fixed mounted radio with the largest aerial you can safely fit to the hull for your style of fishing, I personally have a 27mhz and VHF radio fixed both with 8ft aerials and I have no problems up to 30 klms off shore.

Pete

[Basserman]

well in the hornet i run a GME GX620 hand held VHF radio

with this i'm getting about 10km out of it however this will be depending on terrain of course but this is plain old 10km line of sight range

this is more than enoght for me as i doun't think i would take the hornet much more than 6km off shore but may be a few km up or down the coast so the range is a comfort

the unit is small portable easy to use and water proof which is good as the marine radios look out of place on a bream boat but are handy on a snapper boat

[pelican]

Thanks pirate pete.

Fixed units I think were generally 25 watts and have the taller aerial whereas the portables are only 5 watts. Again going on history I think there was a reason with old radio lic that handhelds had to be under a certain number of watts to use ithout a lic but not sure if it included VHF frquencies or is still in force.

If I bump into MSB or Police I'll ask again as I know before a portable wasn't legal a few years back. Maybe it was because at 5 watts they were only good for the 2 miles limit not further so hardly a safety investment?

Topic has reminded me to refresh the batteries and a spare set in the emergency kit for torch and radio.

Couple of other points- loads of the new portables only take the solid shaped rechargeable batteries. Well that's great if you take it off the boat and recharge it in the cradle or have a cradle on the dash while it's new. These batteries may become unavaliable in the future quite quickly and they only last so long. Make sure you buy a handheld that that has the ability ( some have a insertable battery holder that allows normal battery use) to be run on AA or AAA and carry a spare set on the boat.

Transmitting uses a lot more battery power and many units under a certain battery level can't transmit. Low quality AA or AAA sometimes will not give enough boot to give transmit or full range. You can still receive so always do a log in or test.

Some units just turn off when battery is running low - sound doesn't fade out etc so unless you watch the battery gauge you may not notice battery running low

Pel