VHF/27Meg or VHF/VHF

[juggernaut]

Fella's chasing some opinions.

I have a VHF and 27Meg on my cruiser. In a recent storm the 27Meg antenna snapped and the 27Meg unit could receive but not transmit.

So should I replace the 27Meg setup with another 27Meg or go for a backup VHF for redundancy. I realise VHF is superior but a lot of people still use the 27Meg and in the case of an emergency I would have both to use and would be "heard" by more boaters even if not the local VMR in the case of the 27Meg - depending on distance.

Or with the VHF for redundancy I am more able to reach the local VMR and access to repeater channels.

Most of my use is coastal.

Thoughts?

[Feral]

Very rare a backup VHF would prove useful, expensive bits of kit that are generally rock solid reliable. Just get a new aerial.

[Out-Station]

VHF, i recon 27 is near worthless in this day and age. I run 2 * VHF in the boat both for rediundancy but normally run one on scan and the other on chat. My rule is "one motor, 2 VHF's".

Scott

[juggernaut]

Feral - I also need a new unit as it doesn't transmit.

[Crunchy]

Going through the same decision process, leaning towards a back up VHF.

[SatNav]

27mHZ was good but now a thing of the past, long past. VHF is the only creditable option

[scottar]

"Other boats hearing you" in an emergency on 27Mhz relies on other boats having a 27MHz radio (unlikely in the modern era) and then having said 27MHz switched on (even more unlikely as nearly every bit of electronic gear attached to a modern boat will cause the thing to make noise and thus get it turned off). Unless you have specific requirements (some fishing clubs still require fitment to gain membership) I would get a second VHF. Price difference these days in the overall scheme of things is negligible. I have two VHF's in my rig which has at one time allowed me to maintain communications due to a speaker fault. The other benefit of multiple VHF's is the ability to have one set to 16 and the other to the local repeater or VMS frequency

[juggernaut]

Just surfaced from yesterdays AFL grand final party.......who won?

So it's s resounding yes in favour of a VHF over a 27 Meg. Thanks for everyone's feedback.

Scottar, I always ran both my radios when out in the boat. There was always more "traffic" on the 27 Meg compared to the VHF - so I can only conclude there are still a few boats with 27 Meg radios, OR the boaties with 27 Meg radios seem to get into more strife than VHF equipped boats.

[scottar]

Sure they are definitely still out there - Possibly depends on location. In my last few years in the industry, VHF sales outnumbered 27 MHz by somewhere in the vicinity of 50:1 at least - possibly a higher ratio. There is also the thought process that "most boats don't have 27MHz these days so we will do our boat to boat chatter on that". Regardless, from a safety perspective, VHF would be my pick.

[juggernaut]

Anything I should observe re spacing/placing of the 2 antenna's.

I was going to go for a 6db gain 2.4 metre antenna being the same as the current VHF antenna and utilise the 27 meg antenna mount on the side of the hard top. The current VHF antenna is mounted on the other side of the hard top. Spacing would be circa 10 feet between the two with radar mounted on the top of the hard top in the middle. Off to each side of the radar dome I have GPS and tv antenna's. Sound OK from an interference point of view?

[scottar]

Should be fine.