Question regarding VHF Radios on small boats

[speaste]

Hello,

As noted in some other posts, I have a tiny (19 ft) Maxum 1900 I bought last season. I want to put a VHF radio in it just in case however which antenna do you use on such a small boat and where is it typically mounted?

[3388sam]

With our small boat we use a hand held VHF ( inexpensive)- Works great and you can take it off and on your boat.
Keeps you from drilling holes in the boat and there's not a whole lot of room on a 19' for radio's an such!
If you move up in size you can take it with you as a back up and they are fun to listen to on a busy day at the marinas!
JMHO

[Franco_2100SC]

While the handheld is a quick and dirty way as well as having the versatility of taking it with you, its not something I would want to take a chance on. I view the VHF radio as being as important as the PFD's or life ring I have on board.

I don't know if you have a cuddy, or a bow rider, but either can accomodate one of todays radios. Check out the following web page:
http://sempreveloce.tripod.com/index.html

Notice that I have the antenna mounted on the Port side. If you take care and use a fold down mount, you will be able to have the antenna fold down and rest on a cleat. Mine folds forward. a rubber band holds it in place as I motor down the road.

I can relate two seperate emergency situations that happened to friends last year, and in each case had they not had a radio on board, the whole family would have been floating in the river as their boat's sank. I'm not trying to scare you, but you know the old saying "How long can you tread water?"

KKKKFL

[3388sam]

Couldn't agree more about radio be an important piece of emergency equipment!

One reason I have hand held as well a permanent radio- small boat, one battery- it dies or goes under water - no juice, no radio.
Makes a great case to install a second battery with a switch on any size boat.
We have 3 on our 21', 1 starting and 2 house batteries, but we can configure any way with the switches.
Easy and inexpensive to add a second battery!

On our 33’ boat we have a total of three permanent radios, 2 starting batteries, and 8x 6v house batteries, but I still carry a hand held as a back up

[speaste]

So I should have two batteries in my 19' boat? How do I do that?I mean I think there is space back there behind the seat in the stern area but how do you make sure they both get a charge when the engine is running? Is there a webpage that details these types of modifications?

On the note....I am going to replace my battery this spring when I pull it out of storage. I would be interested to hear which battery people would suggest? This isn't for anything other than the starting/listening to the stereo at anchor and the like. However, I seem to be reading that a lot of batteries are marked "MARINE" when they are really just auto batteries.

I was think of perhaps one of the "dual purpose" batteries. But anyhow, if you folks have brand and or model suggestions, I'd love to hear em.

[3388sam]

Finding room is the only problem- Some times you might have to mount the extra battery on the other side of the boat and use long battery cables.

The battery switch is the key- you have a section switch for bat 1, bat 2 and both.

On the back of the switch there are 3 posts. Run 1 each positive cable from each battery to the switch and then 1 cable from the switch to the starter (you just disconnect the red + cable from the current battery and move it to the switch)
You can then either tie the grounds together or just find a new place to attach the ground from the new battery to the block.

With the switch set on both you are running and charging both batteries. If you decide to just turn the engine off and listen to the radio- just switch it to one of the batteries. If you run it down just switch to the other, start up and switch back to both!

[speaste]

Interesting....I may have to try this out this spring. Do you folks have a suggestion on the make/model of battery?