I want to buy a fixed, combined VHF/DSC radio, they vary in price from the XM Yachting at £94.00 to £600.00 plus. It is not clear what the great diferences are to warrant the price difference. Can anyone give me a brief guide to a minimum spec.,
The reason for this is the people I crew for are very tight and want to replace an unreliable, ancient, VHF set with hand helds, which I consider dangerous, as they only have a very short range, about line of sight, three Nm or so.
Regards,
Steve Dunning

Hi Steve

Quite a few places are knocking out the Simrad RD68 at well under £250 at the moment. It was a high quality and quite expensive set when it originally came out. It also seems to be the one illustrated in many of the VHF handbooks so there must be good reason for that. I bought one last year at the knock down price and it's fine. At that sort of money, I don't think its even worth considering any of the budget (mickey mouse) sets.

Total agree with Chas. Simard are a good bet and offer a reasonable priced range.

What ever manufacturer you go for stick to your guns and get a built in.

It might be worth going into a local chandler that sells radio so you can have a play around with a few different models, but you will ultimately be able to get it cheaper online when you buy.

Gaelforce are doing an XM something - waterproof too for £89.00 in their latest catalogue.

W.

Haven't really looked at any of the Gaelforce stuff. How would you rate it wolfie?

By the way - nice dog. Is it a westie?

Hi Roxy!

I know they supply the fishing industry and we use them at work which was where I saw the flyer with the above deal - not aware of any problems with them.

They have a website/online catalogue:

http://www.gaelforce.net/

No it's not a westie - that's Wilburforce the Wolf! :)

W.

If he wasn't so cute he miught look a little scary I guess.

Cheers for the info

:) He's definatelty not scary! He's only about 10" high and rather well stuffed with some sort of fibre!

W.