Re: [Paddlewise] Cel or VHF?

Tom_P_McAuliffe_at_fastmultimedia.com wrote:
> 
> Hi,
> Hope everyone is out enjoying the spring.
> How safe is my cel-phone in this little REI clear dry bag... other ideas?

One barrier between cell-phone death and cell-phone life.

> If you could only  have one or the other would you go with a cell or go VHF...
> SF bay, lakes and rare ocean going...  Thanks!

Someone else has already responded with an exhaustive (and accurate, I
thought) comparison of the two communication links.  I think the bottom
line is where you paddle:  Remote (non-urban): VHF.  Nonremote
(near-urban):  cell phone.

There is another characteristic of the VHF which makes it my tool of choice
in the relatively remote areas I frequent:  **leaving it on** allows me to
keep tabs of the "pulse" of the maritime community around me.  That's
important when others may be broadcasting info helpful to me:  sea
conditions, locations of other vessels, etc.  OTOH, in crowded maritime
waters (e.g., SF Bay and the like), the damn thing is a marine version of
CB -- and therefore precisely what I **do not** want battering my ears!

If you leave the VHF off, you are making the selfish choice of being able
to use it to summon help to save your own tush, but not participating in
the "safety net" a bunch of electronically linked paddlers (and
fishers/power boaters/sailers) provides.  I leave mine on in remote areas.

P.S. Folks who believe a hand-held VHF will summon help from a long ways
off need to test their rig for its range.  I've had good transmissions from
the cockpit of my yak over a distance of three miles or so, and other times
when my VHF would not give me anything at four miles or so.  Three-four
miles is a pretty good radius, but may be insufficient in most "remote"
areas,

-- 
Dave Kruger
Astoria, OR

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