I am looking to buy a VHF radio and the two that I am looking at is an ICOM M88 and a West Marine VHF150. They look almost identical except for a couple of hour difference in the battery life but the West Marine radio is half the price. Does anyone have experience with these two radios and are they really almost identical? If one is better, which one and why? Thanks alot Richard *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
Richard Cohen wrote: > I am looking to buy a VHF radio and the two that I am looking at is an > ICOM M88 and a West Marine VHF150. They look almost identical except for a > couple of hour difference in the battery life but the West Marine radio is > half the price. Does anyone have experience with these two radios and are > they really almost identical? I can only comment on the ad info - the M88 has some features that you probably will never use like the Land Mobile radio channels. The latter likely require a license to use in most jurisdictions and you can only communicate with others that have the same frequencies available. Among your paddling buddies, that likely means no one. It's a useful feature for commercial users, but not recreational. Icom makes good radios and they are pretty tough. I can't say what the West Marine radio is like - compare them side-by-side and see what you think. If size is not an issue, the Icom M72 looks like a superb radio - a good replacement for the venerable M1V. It's IPX8 instead of 7 and higher power Tx. Mike *************************************************************************** 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/ ***************************************************************************
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