Surfski Knowledge Base

• Online Discussions
• 2013 Bellingham Bay Incident w/ Radio Used/Discussion
• Use
  • These radios may be of little use to your paddling partners if you do not turn yours on at the beginning of your paddle
  • Test how you are going to wear your radio. Make sure it is secure and easily accessible on the water. If you wear it on the front of your PFD make sure it does not interfere with your remounts
  • Clearing water from the mic
  • line of sight
  • DSC Digital Selective Calling
    • Discussion of Use During Incident 2014
• Maintenance
  • Charge
  • Batteries
  • Salt water - as with all of your metallic gear, if you paddle in salt water:
    • rinse them off with fresh water afterwards if they got wet during your paddle
    • some use “Salt Away” to remove recent salt stains and protect against further accumulation. But don't expect it to remove long standing salt deposits/rust
    • some use vasoline to protect against corrosion - don't use on charging/conducting elements
  • “Waterproofness” - the weak point on some VHF radios can be the covering over charge ports (make sure they are completely closed and if you need to - cover the closure with tape). Trouble has been reported with some models that have a cover (possibly due to forgetting to make sure the cover is on correctly). Some models like the Horizon HX40 have solid exposed pins for charging which may provide a more reliable water tight seal.
    • Jeff Hegedus <jhegedus@…>11/06/11 #11683 “I rinsed my IPX7 rated waterproof handheld after every paddle, and the two copper electrodes between the gasketed snap-in rechargeable battery pack and the main unit still fully corroded (they are spring loaded for a good connection, and the spring failed). Its something that you wouldn't normally notice until failure occurs; I had it serviced, and now keep the radio in a dry bag when in my pfd pocket. The dry bags can be purchased at West Marine. Handhelds are not really designed for daily immersion, but rather for boaters that occasionally get them wet…”

Followup 2012
Caution: Toasted VHF Radio
Jeff Hegedus
10/14/12 #13446 GEAR CHECK TIME. Crap, my waterproof IPX7 rated VHF radio, always carried in a dry bag in my PFD pocket, was destroyed. The dry bag had a pin hole leak; I end each paddle with a swim, and the bag stored the unit in water. The bag was three years old and had a ton of wear, not its fault. The radio is not designed for continuous immersion, not its fault. Glad I checked.

• Brands
  • Horizon
  • ICOM