Help! I Need VHF Radio Advice!

[Grizzly Adam]

Hey, Y'all ...

I need some serious advice on what to get here ... let me fill you in on my situation:

I routinely do a great deal of cardio exercise work (up to two hours a day), and when the weather cools down, I'll add solo canoeing to my regimen, as it rests the lower body and works the upper body. I'm a longtime canoe fan ... I've been canoeing for years and am very experienced (will use a kayak paddle for the cardio) ... so that's not the problem!

Here's my problem:

I'm limited in my range and location for this kind of exercise because of the remoteness of this area. I have excellent blackwater streams to canoe very close to my home, but they are entirely undeveloped and wild, and the terrain around them is extremely hostile and difficult. In many areas, there is no walking out. The bottom is deep soft muck, the land "floats" in mats in many places and you can break through, and the brush and pocosin is impassable, or nearly. It's a wildlife haven, but it's incredibly unforgiving to people on foot.

I used to throw caution to the wind and just go, but I'm older and wiser now and realize that I could get in real trouble if I had a spell or something unforeseen happened.

I need a good, reliable hand-held portable VHF radio for my safety while out on these wild streams.

My distance from the nearest civilization could and would be anywhere from 4 to 15 miles.

Whatever I get needs to be tough, waterproof and floatable (if possible), and reliable with very good range.

Does such a critter even exist in a portable hand-held?

Does anyone have any experience with such units?

Can anyone recommend one for me?

I am in the dark here ... I have no personal experience with them.

Note: There is no cell-phone capability in most of the area where I would be, but local fishermen monitor radio via scanners ... they leave them on all the time.

Can y'all help me? I appreciate it. Thanks!

[Grizzly Adam]

Have thought of it, Bob, since ham radio is so vital when hurricanes take our power down (11 days after Isabel).

I have a shortwave receiver. No experience with transmitters, of course.

So what do you carry? A portable shortwave transmitter?

I really don't know anything about it!

I assume range is far superior and virtually unlimited?

Would such a radio broadcast to the channel local fishermen scan, or to one the Coast Guard monitors?

[Grizzly Adam]

Hey, Bob ...

Guess what?

I've known Bryan Ainsley since 1992! He's a member of my congregation, and a good friend of mine! I see him every week of life! His wife and April are best buddies!

Bryan is our A/V sound-man at Cabin Swamp. He used to be in the Air Force, and traveled with the crew that set up the electronics for Reagan when he appeared before the public!

Bryan used to be very active in ham radio. Don't think he does much any more, but he's still got all his stuff, as far as I know.

I also have two county sheriff's deputies in the congregation, and know the sheriff well.

I know 5 of the others, too!

I'll ask around!

Thanks!

[w8cop]

Satellite phone would be your best bet

[Meat Hunter]

No matter what you read in the marketing literature regarding the range of VHF handheld radios, it is absolutely not true; except possibly in the unimpeded flat desert country and possibly not even then. That is a fact.

Some of my hunting friends, who have the same problem with range in terrestrial situations as you, have begun using handheld marine radios.

They report that they have outstanding results regarding extended range. I am am also advised that they have their radios set on one of the more obscure marine channels. Whether this is legal in a terrestrial and non-marine environment, I do not know and would not give you advice. But, it works for them.

[pdislow]

Grizz there are versions of hand held VHF radios that are truely submersible to shallow depths.
VHF radios work well over water as they do "line of sight" very well. they are less effective in hilly country...
The higher the output wattage the better your chances of "getting out " from under vegetation...
for your area near the sounds and the A and P canal the marine chanels are probably a good capability to have... I have had very good service out of some icom and motorolla and standard as well you may like to give chuck Furlough at seaport electronics in Norfolk a call he will steer you in the right direction with expert knowledge on the subject. Philip in Wilmington

[saxman]

I used the marine radios untill I found out they werent legal on terra firma.
I carry a hand held CB but will try these this season
http://www.trisquare.us/exrs.htm
I have this one in camo
http://www.trisquare.us/tsx300.htm
I will try to call my wife on it today when I go to my gig.
They even text.