any sailors out there?

humaxf1

Got my mits on a Standard Horizon (Yaesu) HX 471S marine VHF handheld.

Nifty lil rig and rugged too. Submerisible upto 1m for 30mins, allegedly, so splashproof at least.

Has the usual 88 channels VHF, AM/FM broadcast and Airband receive and FRS. Also has capability for GPS corordinates relay over the air to a coast radio station in the event of an emergency. Speaking of safety, it has a fairly bright LED which blips out S O S in morse or can act as a torch if your stuck.

Yaesu seem have gone towards the swivel beltclip as like the VX-177 for eg, but I'll have it in a drybag most of the time.

watty

I've got a very old rig (in storage) 1970s vintage! I got a newer old rig for my dad's boat as I don't believe his Mobile will "phone home" if he ends up in middle of North Channel. But Portpatrick or such should still get his VHF. I got a nice fibre-glass whip for it. Must fit it all in next few weeks. I was looking for a Marine proof cheap solar panel to trickle charge the battery.

If you ocean going, then you want HF too of course. Though Inmarsat and/or Thuraya may be good options.

The HX 471S sounds tasty OK.

Now all I need is my OWN boat

deRanged

that looks very nice - I like the idea of getting the air band too.

humaxf1

There are presets for airband and broadcast bands, so very handy only having up/down buttons. Airband RX is quite good, given the aerial (which is fixed because of the FRS I believe).

All in all, you have to hand it to Yaesu.

Guy I knew a good few years ago had an old Seavoice base set...back when you chose the channels and a clunky channel selector like an old AM 23 channel CB I had. How things have changed. My brother had a Sealab 9000 handheld yearssss ago. Thumbwheel channel selection, dual-watch switch (woohoooo) and a small LCD clock. Cost him a small fortune, but performed well. Got back to Dun Laoghaire on it from the Kish lighthouse.

I now have HF RX capability, so is there much happening on 2182KHz? or other ship-ship frequencies.

Happy boating.

watty

It's a pity the FT817ND only receives up to 152MHz.

humaxf1

any warranty breakings mods to expand coverage?

should have went for the 857D

telecinesk

no doubt there is......dont ask here or there would be a witchunt. on you.... happy boating, nearest sea is 1600km from front door here. I wont be needing that radio somehow. 857D , yes rather useful.

watty

Mods aren't illegal. At least not in Ireland. Only transmit outside licenced band is. You can operate outside of band to drive IF of a transverter as it is low power on a coax, and thus just an IF.

Also RF signal generators arn't illegal. I have one VHF/UHF radio that's wide that I use as a signal generator.

Actually I bought one of thouse iTrip type gadgets and removed the 19kHz/38KHz/Audio modulation to varicap so as to use it as a 101MHz to 103Mhz PLL L.O.

I may modify my FT817ND to USA settings if the 60m/5MHz licence arrives.

In the UK if you are on a beginners licence you might be limited to certain CE gear. No such limitation here.

My HF manpack does 100kHz to 30MHz continous TX. As long as I only actually TX within licence conditions, it's legal.

The FT817ND has two breaks in RX coverage:
It does 100kHz to about 60ish MHz
76MHz to 152Mhz approx
420MHz to 500MHz ish approx.

All bands are AM, CW, LSB, USB, NBFM, WBFM and selectable alternate filter. TX is any mode on any enabled part of band.

I wanted a very portable / pocket if possible. The FT817ND meets that and contrary to myth does do 4W to 5W on battery. The 857 is optimised as design for car etc. I'd go for the FT897D if I was buying a bigger rig. 22W on internal battery and longer duty cycle on 100W than 857.

I have a custom 2700mA battery in my FT817ND instead of standard 1800mA

It can't do 4m as that is too near IF, even if modded. Only early 817 supports SW mod. The later models (all ND?) are only able to be mod via HW jumpers in front panel. Easily to break it.

It has 3 bands apart from all the Amatuer bands (bands auto arrange in order of frequency), so my 3 extra bands are 5MHz/60m, VHF/FM Band II broadcast and 108MHz to 137MHz AM Air band.
It will do 137.xx MHz FM for WX

Modification for TX on 27MHz and 446MHz is possible, but use would not be legal other than as an IF for a transverter or bench signal generator in a workshop/lab.