Public Safety Marine radios

[kb7gjy]

Ok, I’m throwing this here, Mods please move if there would be better placed somewhere else.

I’m trying to put together a personal/department use (read my boat) for river rescue. I belong to a very small rural fire department. Like most departments, funds are tight, so I will do it alone on the equipment end of things. Yes, I am aware of the mobile licensing, and it will be approved by the department as we have a built in buffer of the amount of mobiles we are allowed to use.

I am looking for an affordable VHF Public safety grade fixed mount radio for marine use (600 to 1000 depending on options).
Our department borders Canada. Inland water only (Idaho). We have a mutual aid agreements along the river due to ice rescue and the next closest resource, is 20+ miles away even for structure fires. Marine emergency response is 20 miles away unless they are on the water already, plus hooking up the boat, once you find someone to run it, and training is limited So there is a need and I have the ability to address the issue, I'm north county, less than a mile from the boat ramp.

So, on the radio end here is what I would like.
Everyone up here wants 100+ watt radios for everything. I disagree. At almost all points on the river I am less than 30 miles clear line of site to the main repeater, the other would be hit and miss just due to the location of the repeater.

Radios, already on the boat; Dual band Ham, CB, Handheld PS radios currently.

I’m looking for suggestions on a marine VHF radio w/ AIS, maybe transponder included. I am leaning toward Standard Horizon or Icom. I don’t see a reason to add HF/MF to the boat. Adding AIS, both a receiver and/or transponder is to add to the capabilities of the boat and with an eye toward the future.
I also would like to add a VHF public safety radio w/ field adjustable squelch. Reason being that there is a few areas on the river that have a high “RF” environment (IE Broadband noise all across the spectrum, 27 MHz to 450+ MHz). Call me old school, but a rotary dial style squelch would be great for the quickness to the squelch break. Alphanumeric display is mandatory.

Trunking, P25, NXDN, Edacs, are not used here due to the systems and topography of the county. Everything public safety is Analog, even State police.

The Boat

The boat is a one off 1975 StarCraft Cabin Cruiser Chieftain Mark 4 Hard Top, 25’ all aluminum Jet boat. Very similar to the ones the USCG employed on the Columbia River to go after illegal gill netting operations. 455 Olds engine and an Eleminator Jet Drive with racing impellers (Very close tolerances, better HP pitch). USCG used twin Jets, this is a single engine single jet, boat.
Sonar is a Hummingbird Helix 9 G2N with Mega side imaging and Mega down scan.

Radar may be added later due to the fog that settles on the river in the spring and fall, which can make seeing past the bow difficult at best.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask, and if you have suggestions to my radio thoughts, I would love to hear your suggestions. Besides the 455 is a gas hog, lol

 

[mmckenna]

Kind of hard to beat the Icom or Standard/Horizon radios, I've had good luck with both of them. Solid radios.

AIS is nice, but only useful if it's actually in use in your area. In other words, beaconing out your position if there is no one listening is probably not very useful. However, adding a AIS receiver somewhere in sight of the river might be useful if your agency wants to track the boat. If other agencies use it, then sure.

As for public safety VHF radios with a rotary squelch, I'm not aware of any, however I do know the Kenwood radios can be programmed with a Squelch button that will allow you to change the squelch setting fairly easily.

There are also a number of the Kenwood VHF radios that now have Part 80 certification, so while you may not want everything on one radio, you could use one of the newer Kenwood's and have both your agency frequencies as well as marine VHF frequencies legally in the radio.

As for 100 watt radios, I understand what you are saying, Rarely is that much power needed in a well designed radio system. Even if running simplex frequencies it's overkill. CalFire has moved away from them and gone to 50 watt radios since it really doesn't impact performance. Those who don't understand radio will always assume that 100 watts will give you twice the range of 50 watts.

No point in having HF SSB radio on the river. It's not required and not needed. Expensive and does still require licensing.