hand held radios

[lee]

i have a cat. 22 with a small short shaft 3 hp air cooled engine(which gets to and from dock to channel just fine) my question pertains to radios. i went last week to boat us and purchased a $120.00 hand held radio for the sale price of $90.00... I got the radio down to the boat and could not send. receiveing seemed ok, but no one could hear me. i can see other boats in the icw, but no one responded. there are 2 bridges within 2 miles and they did not repond. i took this radio back and they gave me another one...the same problem. i took this one back and this time they gave me a different type of radio. the new one is a uniden at the same price range. i went out in the boat this evening, set a half mile from the bridge tender and could get no resonse. the batterys are brand new alkaline that shows fully charged on the screen. all three of these radios were demo models....folks, is it that i dont know how to key the mike(each time i do it shows it is transmitting or has anyone else run up on this situation with hand helds or demos as well?????any advice before i take the radio in for my money back will be appreciatedthankslee

 

[steve c]

i use a hand held ?????

i have not had eny problems with it i dont have one of those fancy vhf mounted ones i sail on lakes i dont know what to tell you it should work mine has broad cast over several miles at least 20 miles to my marina across the lake i also make shure it is pluged in to the boat batt moor power that way good luck

 

[John renfro]

radio?

hello lee, I have used hand helds with aircraft for some years, with good results. Most people don't monitor the radio constantly, I don't know about bridge tenders, but they may be using a different channel. Go back to the store that sold you the radio, and have them fire up one of the shop radios and talk to them with your radio.  john

 

[Campy]

Radio

Be patient! I bought the same 90.00 Atlantis from West Marine and it works fine. Try it outside, I bet you've already done that, and then try the 5 watt setting both on channel 16 and cnannel 9. The coast guard should pick you up on one of them.Campy