marine radio
- Thread starter 7echo
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Unless your buddy also has a marine VHF, you're not going to be able to talk to anybody else on the trail. Or do you mean marine SSB? That's basically HAM, so you're looking at a tech license to use it on those frequencies. Also consider that the marine antennas are generally 8' ridged fiberglass units. There are shorter s/s antennas some of the sailors use, but that would be harder to find I'd think and I have no idea what they sell for.
Honestly, I don't think it's worth the hassle even though old VHFs are cheap. Pick up a $40 Baofang (sp?) and a mag mount antenna and your good to go for under $100 and totally portable
Honestly, I don't think it's worth the hassle even though old VHFs are cheap. Pick up a $40 Baofang (sp?) and a mag mount antenna and your good to go for under $100 and totally portable
Pretty sure you mean marine VHF radios, and believe every commercial ship in the US has to carry one. They are VHF high band FM, work great, only supposed to be used for marine purposes.
Nearest equivalent in the US for land use, without a license, is "MURS", which I think is multi-use-radio-system, or something like that. Also VHF high band FM, but slightly different frequency, and limited to 2 watts I think. One model is the Standard Horizon HX100 (quick google search). I believe handheld radios are about $100 or so each. Probably way less popular than either FRS, the little tiny .4 watt UHF radios, or CB, which is 5w about 27MHz. Probably less popular than ham 2m, too, but you don't need a license for MURS.
So if you want to talk between a couple of friends, MURS may be the way to go. Range should be better than FRS, and much better than CB, especially if you want handheld radios. Handheld CB radios are terrible, because the antennas are so short compared to the frequency.
In my view, VHF high band is *the* way to go for line of sight to near line of site communications for most areas. Reasons being: 1. lower frequencies, like VHF low band or lower, have intermittent issues with long distance signals coming in as interference. This is rare on VHF-high. 2. Frequencies much higher than VHF-high, like 440, are more affected by vegetation like trees. (If you live in areas where there aren't trees, this may not be any problem at all.) 3. Lower frequencies, like VHF low band, are more likely to pickup noise from electrical stuff, because there is more noise on those frequencies.
Lots of systems use VHF high band. Marine is one, as you mentioned. VHF aircraft band is another. Lots of police and fire, especially rural, use VHF high band. Ham 2m band is VHF high, and very popular. And there is a lot of commercial use in VHF band. All of these on different frequencies of course.
All that said, MURS probably isn't popular at all, because the radios are more expensive and bigger than FRS, because the power is only 2w and there's no skip or cheap high power amplifiers, so the CBers don't want it, it's less powerful than GMRS so the people that bought into that for whatever reason don't want it, and the hams have the 2m band, which is similar but allows more power and much more frequency range. But not popular doesn't mean bad...in fact popular often means bad. Most pop music from the 80's, for example.
Me, I use 2m.
Hope that helps.
Nearest equivalent in the US for land use, without a license, is "MURS", which I think is multi-use-radio-system, or something like that. Also VHF high band FM, but slightly different frequency, and limited to 2 watts I think. One model is the Standard Horizon HX100 (quick google search). I believe handheld radios are about $100 or so each. Probably way less popular than either FRS, the little tiny .4 watt UHF radios, or CB, which is 5w about 27MHz. Probably less popular than ham 2m, too, but you don't need a license for MURS.
So if you want to talk between a couple of friends, MURS may be the way to go. Range should be better than FRS, and much better than CB, especially if you want handheld radios. Handheld CB radios are terrible, because the antennas are so short compared to the frequency.
In my view, VHF high band is *the* way to go for line of sight to near line of site communications for most areas. Reasons being: 1. lower frequencies, like VHF low band or lower, have intermittent issues with long distance signals coming in as interference. This is rare on VHF-high. 2. Frequencies much higher than VHF-high, like 440, are more affected by vegetation like trees. (If you live in areas where there aren't trees, this may not be any problem at all.) 3. Lower frequencies, like VHF low band, are more likely to pickup noise from electrical stuff, because there is more noise on those frequencies.
Lots of systems use VHF high band. Marine is one, as you mentioned. VHF aircraft band is another. Lots of police and fire, especially rural, use VHF high band. Ham 2m band is VHF high, and very popular. And there is a lot of commercial use in VHF band. All of these on different frequencies of course.
All that said, MURS probably isn't popular at all, because the radios are more expensive and bigger than FRS, because the power is only 2w and there's no skip or cheap high power amplifiers, so the CBers don't want it, it's less powerful than GMRS so the people that bought into that for whatever reason don't want it, and the hams have the 2m band, which is similar but allows more power and much more frequency range. But not popular doesn't mean bad...in fact popular often means bad. Most pop music from the 80's, for example.
Me, I use 2m.Hope that helps.
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4x4junkie
Explorer
×2 on MURS (multi-use radio service, essentially VHF CB).
Though I wouldn't say it's range is better than that of properly set up CB units when the channel is clear (both are good out to about 8-10 miles under normal conditions), however there certainly are fewer things to potentially reduce it's range (notably electrical static from power lines & ignition systems as well as interference from signals reflected from thousands of miles away by the ionosphere during daylight hours). Placement of a MURS antenna is also easier due to it's shorter wavelength (the shorter & lighter antenna is easier to put in an ideal place such as on the vehicle roof).
CB's popularity remains because 27MHz CB equipment is more widely available than VHF MURS equipment (for one thing there still seems to be a lack of mobile hard-mount MURS units available, so you'd need to repurpose a handheld as such). The phenomenon of signals "skipping" for thousands of miles off the ionosphere keeps a lot of people interested in CB too. Some guys use modified ham gear and/or Baofeng handhelds for MURS, though others on here will be quick to point out all of the reasons why this is illegal... IMO, I think you're more likely to get popped for using a marine radio inland than for using a non-MURS-type radio on a MURS channel (especially if the radio is configured correctly for it, it being set for "Narrow" FM mode & 2 watts (or something reasonably close), for example).
BTW that Standard HX100 is a handheld marine unit, not MURS.
Dakota-Alert seems to be the most common name in MURS radios at the moment (they have both a handheld and a "base" unit, along with some other accessories you could use to monitor your property, etc), Motorola has some handheld units as well. Prices do run around $80-100 for the DA stuff, $~180 for the Motorola.
Though I wouldn't say it's range is better than that of properly set up CB units when the channel is clear (both are good out to about 8-10 miles under normal conditions), however there certainly are fewer things to potentially reduce it's range (notably electrical static from power lines & ignition systems as well as interference from signals reflected from thousands of miles away by the ionosphere during daylight hours). Placement of a MURS antenna is also easier due to it's shorter wavelength (the shorter & lighter antenna is easier to put in an ideal place such as on the vehicle roof).
CB's popularity remains because 27MHz CB equipment is more widely available than VHF MURS equipment (for one thing there still seems to be a lack of mobile hard-mount MURS units available, so you'd need to repurpose a handheld as such). The phenomenon of signals "skipping" for thousands of miles off the ionosphere keeps a lot of people interested in CB too. Some guys use modified ham gear and/or Baofeng handhelds for MURS, though others on here will be quick to point out all of the reasons why this is illegal... IMO, I think you're more likely to get popped for using a marine radio inland than for using a non-MURS-type radio on a MURS channel (especially if the radio is configured correctly for it, it being set for "Narrow" FM mode & 2 watts (or something reasonably close), for example).
BTW that Standard HX100 is a handheld marine unit, not MURS.
Dakota-Alert seems to be the most common name in MURS radios at the moment (they have both a handheld and a "base" unit, along with some other accessories you could use to monitor your property, etc), Motorola has some handheld units as well. Prices do run around $80-100 for the DA stuff, $~180 for the Motorola.