[Moderator's Note: Content unaltered. Excessive quoting (including headers/footers/sig lines/extraneous text from previous posts, etc.) have been removed. Please edit quoted material in addition to removing header/trailers when replying to posts.] Our club here in New England has had similar experiences. In the past two years, about 30 trip leaders and other active paddlers have bought HX460S units. Initially, people were very pleased by the features and size; most carry them in the PFD pocket like Mitchell or mounted on the shoulder strap (so we can hear and talk in high winds and surf). They started going bad due to immersion and most have had one die one or more times. I think the record in the club is nine units returned for replacement. That's the bad news. The good news is that most of us have had good experience with replacements. Standard Horizon has never refused to replace a non-functioning unit (even beyond the warantee period). The key reason people have gotten good service is because most of us bought them from West Marine outlets; we returned the dead radios to any outlet and they simply handed us a new radio. Those who ordered mail order were told to deal directly with SH, where they experienced some of the delays mentioned. Some of our techie members have had substantive discussions with SH reps and product managers about the design and we have forwarded our extensive threads on the issues from our message board. I also have to say that people with other issues such as corroding contact points have received similar no-questions-asked replacements from SH, albeit with some delays. More good news: there is an interim fix that many of us have tried. The weak points are the sockets for the Microphone and the AC charger. In our experience, it's not the shock of surf but simply getting wet that shorts out the contacts. Careful seating of the plug helps but it is not bombproof. If the port gets wet inside, many units (including mine) have recovered by opening the plug and letting it dry for several days. Many of us have simply plugged the MIC port (on top of the unit) with marine grade silicone caulk (clean carefully first) and re-seated the plug. No more dead radios. The AC socket is another story since that is the only way to recharge the unit. Well, actually, the small round contacts on the back of the radio make it possible to recharge with a drop-in charger. It is not included with the radio but a couple of people got one by buying a related model (the 470 I think) and it works fine. So it's possible to plug both points of water entry. Some dialectic grease on the rubber plug helps seal the port so you might try that as well. I have two 460s, both still functioning (both now with plugged MIC ports) despite two and three years of regular dunkings. By the way, I had to replace two Apelco 520s (again no problem at West Marine) soon after purchase. After four seasons, the third one finally died so the experience is not unique to Standard Horizon or the HX460S. Still, if I were buying a VHF today, I would not get the HX460S because of the vulnerability. The new standard [no pun intended] among active paddlers in our club is the ICOM M88, just as Mitchell recommends. Our 'testing program' (constant abuse without protection on or in a PFD) is not as statistically significant, but no problems to date. Scott Camlin -----Original Message----- From: owner-paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net on behalf of Mitchell McKinnon Subject: [Paddlewise] Product Warning: Standard Horizon HX460S - Repeated Submersibility Failure Radio Buyer Be Advised! (Apologies in advance to anyone receiving multiple copies due to being on multiple mailing lists.) Well, I just killed my 3rd Standard Horizon HX460S, "submersible" handheld marine vhf radio. <snip> I'm going out and buying an ICOM M88. When the SH HX460S shows up replaced (or repaired), it's being relegated to the backup role <snip> *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Jun 29 2004 - 06:19:42 PDT
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