Quote: (Originally Posted by
jkaterenchuk)
Dave
Would a VHF radio (with a signal strength meter) and a multi element antenna not accomplish the same thing for about 1/5th the price?
John
Technically? On a perfect day, sure.
From a seamans perspective? Not when the seas are 8 feet, the wind is 20 knots, you cannot keep your footing on the deck, and human life is at stake. When things go wrong, they go wrong all at once.... not a good time to be assembling a handheld radio and a Yagi antenna out of some hiding spot down below decks and then to try to get someone to use it while I run the boat. This is the North Atlantic... the sea is grey and cold. It'll gobble up a lost diver faster than you can think. We go into harms way: I plan to bring everyone back, every time.
For locating airplane ELT's (same things as a 121.5 EPIRB) that have gone off at the local airport, a handheld radio and an antenna work fine (that's exactly what we do). For use at sea? The real thing is best. There are handheld versions of the system for yacht use... I just think that the industrial one is worth the cost for a commercial boat. Shit, on top of the other $30K of electronics (not counting the sidescan sonar) it's a blip of noise in the signal of "the sound of money rushing to someplace else"...
Dave
Let's see: EXPLORER carries (2) RADAR's, (1) HF/SSB Radio, (6) GPS's (including the one in the raft and another in the RIB as well as one mounted over my bunk so I can watch with one eye open what's happening when I'm off watch), (1) LORAN, (2) bottom sounders,(2) bottom sonars, (1) forward looking sonar, (2) VHF radios, (2) VHF handheld radios, (1) loud-hailer/foghorn, (1) mounted EPIRB, (1) PLB in the ditch bag, an Iridium SATPHONE, a Weather Fax system, an autopilot, (2) sets of night vision goggles, (2) pairs of binoculars, one with image stablization,.... as well as a towfish sidescan sonar and the computers to run it.... Yeah: we have room for the locator system too!
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