Ultra small FM/VHF Marine Transciever

[jago25_98]

Here's the deal,
I work offshore in oil & gas traveling to various places across the world to work at sea.

I'm fed up of having to fight for a radio all the time with different boats, different companies and different nationalities and countries. So I thought I'd consider getting my own.

Only thing is:

- I need it to be as small as possible. Is ~4x1" really as small as they get? Seems a bit out of date with mobile phones these days. Really something small enough to make it look like it's sewn into my overalls would be best!
- Import/export restrictions. Your experience with marine band or going a bit wider than that to FM. Sorry, I'm a beginner and I get the impression I can use FM set to frequency stepped 25mhz to match the channels & save a few favorites to the thing.

Thanks

What I'd really like to do is get into GNU Radio, software defined, but that's another story.

 

[Moleculo]

I don't know what to tell you about the various country's marine band segments. I'm sure there are probably some common frequencies, but I know there are different ones, as well. That makes it difficult to purchase a hand held radio that will do them all, unless you get something that you're going to program yourself.

As far as size goes, what you see is about as small as you're going to get in the near future. The biggest reason for this is battery size and power output requirements. Your cell phone can be small because it only puts out a couple hundred miliwatts of power to hit the cell towers that are spaced no more than a couple of miles apart on a very high frequency. With marine radio, you need your signal to travel farther, so more power is used, the frequency is lower (causing the antenna to be bigger) and the battery needs to be bigger.

I would say to find the regular marine hand held you like best and just go with it. Standard Horizon has some good ones at fair prices and are even waterproof for a short period of time. Take a look at the HX471S: Welcome to StandardHorizon.com

 

[jago25_98]

Thanks, that is a great handset. I wonder how big it is.

This is just for communicating across the vessel. Marine band tends to be pretty standard in the industry.

The battery in the hx471s is 1300mha, the battery in the 2nd iphone is 1400mah or greater.

I guess it's one of those things. Radios have lagged behind.

Still, perhaps I could get receive only. At least that way I can hear what's going on even if I can't reply.

I know certainly there are covert surveillance bugs that transmit on a fixed channel which are very small. Not so sure about receivers/scanners.

 

[TonyV225]

I have a Uniden that I posted a few weeks back its like brandnew all paperwork books ETC Plastic still over the display heres the ad if you interested we can work something out.

http://www.worldwidedx.com/forum-swapshop/59180-uniden-mc535-vhf-marine-radio-sale-trade.html

 

[depark]

I would suggest getting a "Uniden Voyager" marine VHF. I have one and it is a small radio (3.8 (H) x 2.4 (W) x 1.3 (D) inch). It covers US, Canada and International marine VHF frequencies. The radio comes with a DC charger and a desktop charger. I really like this radio because of it's small size and great battery life. I have used it for years and would recommend it to anyone. Here is the link: Uniden | A World Without Wires - VOYAGER. Hope this helps.

73 Darryl VA7DTP

 

[Hutch]

Thanks, that is a great handset.

The battery in the hx471s is 1300mha, the battery in the 2nd iphone is 1400mah or greater.

I guess it's one of those things. Radios have lagged behind.

That is just a capacity of a battery, a 5 volt 1400 mah battery is far different in size than a 9 or 12 volt 1400 mah battery, you need to look at all the specs.

An iPhone battery is a 3.7V 1400mah Li-po battery my Yaesu radio battery is a 7.4 V 1800 mah Li-po battery which also is part of the case (so it has to be encased in plastic which tends to make it larger as well. Battery technology for both phones and radios are pretty much at the same place. They just have different usages so are engineered to meet their different needs.

If you want to see a radio that is really the same size as a cell phone look at the Yaesu VX-3.