[Capt. Frank]

I am looking for good voice activated radios to comunicate between the bridge and deck crew. Mfg. and where to purchase would help.

Thanks for any help
Frank

[ychtcptn]

Call Matt @ National Marine in Ft. Lauderdale. They have many different types of radio's and supply all the mega yachts with there crew comms

[Ken Bracewell]

Those voice activated units are terrible. Years ago, I thought it was invaluable to have my hands free in order to drive the boat. What I found is that they work great in calm conditions (when you don't really need a radio anyhow) and are awful in the rain and wind. The background noise will invariably key-up your mic and you'll have no communication with the crew.
Best advice- spend some $$ on a set of nice UHF units and they will pay for themselves in no time.

[nilo]

i have very recently specified 3 kenwood UBZLH68 voice activated devices for this purpose.

can you pls give some details re the UHF units, may be some brands you are familiar with.

thanks

nilo

[Garry Hartshorn]

Now I understand that at times it is handy to have deckhands with radio's but I have come to the conclusion over the years it is more often a hinderance than a help. Deck crew need to use their initative and fully understand what is going on and use good clear voice and hand communication. Also the captain needs to develop his skills so that he does not need to rely on distance information from crew. I have had deckhands tell me I was 10 feet off the dock when it was 2 and vica versa.

[techmati]

these look nice (and expensive )

IC-M90 VHF Marine Transceiver
Commercial Grade Marine & Land Mobile Radio
http://www.icomamerica.com/products/marine/m90/

[TSI AV]

Hi,

Personal experience:

1. Voice activated devices - , terrible. Getting "voice activated" in most "needclearanswer" situations. (Mr. Murphy's law).
2. Marine VHF - better, but too big and heavy.
ICOM stuff - not reliable antennas, break often.
3. Marine VHF with separate, combined mic / speaker device - more convinient.
4. Simplest PTTs, Cobras, Motorola, HYT with 5-8 km range. 40-80 $ per two pcs with charger. For me this is th best solution. Very small, light weight, reliable stuff.

5. Crew has to learn well, and understand, that these devices are not for a show and playing "US navy seals against US mariners"... However, those guys really know how to use radio communication...


rgds,

Andrei

[nilo]

Originally Posted by Garry Hartshorn

Now I understand that at times it is handy to have deckhands with radio's but I have come to the conclusion over the years it is more often a hinderance than a help. Deck crew need to use their initative and fully understand what is going on and use good clear voice and hand communication. Also the captain needs to develop his skills so that he does not need to rely on distance information from crew. I have had deckhands tell me I was 10 feet off the dock when it was 2 and vica versa.

I use them for 2 cases. In the 1st case, in order to be able communicate with the deckhand when he is on the dingy, tying a line to shore. One needs to decide which tree or rock to tie and due to distance you need a practical way of communication. once this is done, when deckhand is bringing the line back to the boat one needs to know when the line is on board, because there is tension on the chain as you are backing up after dropping the anchor, this is a touch and go moment. In this instance while you are on the fly bridge you cannot see and communicate unless you use a wireless device.

The second case is while you are docking stern to and again you do not see what is going on at the aft deck, whether the lines have been taken onboard or not.

As in both cases both hands may very well be occupied, I found it prudent to have a voice activated device, instead of the valkie-talkies I have been using so far.

Nilo

[Garry Hartshorn]

Well admitedly I haven't been tying up to too many trees lately ( well not a boat anyway ) but over the years I have docked stern to numerious times and yes sometimes it does seem to take for ever before the deckie lets me know that we are secure. But on the other hand I think back to when I was a deckie working for a captain that insisted we all have radio's with remote mic's ect.... they were a major pain. So when I started driving I weened myself away from them, however I do still use them they are always on charge in the bridge but 99 times out of 100 thats where they stay, because I have a clear plan and my deckie and other crew know what it is before we start the evolution

[aspicer]

Make sure you know you're licensing. A lot of things are handy, but illegal, and often cause interference to other licensed users.

We've had discussions going on from time to time over at the Personal Radio Association about this. Particularly be careful with GMRS - FRS combo radios. So called Bubble Packs are illegal without a GMRS license.

Some Icom Marine radios can be programmed on some land mobile frequencies, such as what they call MURS, which is also in VHF. Be careful that what you use doesn't require a license. MURS is license free and uses some old Color Dot radio frequencies. Radios are supposed to be type accepted by FCC for the band/service they are used on.

FRS radios are cheap. GMRS+FRS requires a license for most of the 22 channels they'll sell you. The "Privacy" stuff isn't really private (you're just deaf to everybody else because of Tone Squelch or Digital Squelch, but anyone else can hear you.)

I can usually find 50% or better of radio users signal just by looking at their radio handheld.

---
Alan Spicer

[infvoyager]

On large yachts you will find that the hailer (low) and hand signals similar to crane signals are used. Bow #1, fwd spring #2 ,etc. Skip orchastrates fr wing ,stern or via cameras. Crew knows the task.