Time for a new handheld VHF

I have excellent history and performance with my old Standard Horizon handheld VHF. But it lacks DCS so time to rethink safety. I say that because a few years ago I purchased a Standard Horizon...forgot which one... that had the DCS feature but gave it to our son who once got lost in fog in his kayak. So much for that one.

Does anyone have experience with the HY870 or the HY890's that can share their experience? Standard Horizon of course.

I don’t have any experience with those units, but I will share a good piece of advice I got when I was looking at handhelds in the big West marine in Fort Lauderdale. The salesman told me to pick my price range and or needed features, then buy the one which fit best in my hand that met my needs and budget. Stupidly, I had never considered how a radio fit in my hand, and it is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle.
Best,
Maldwin

Hx890

I have the HX890 and having used quite a few handhelds, this is my favorite. I love the fact you have direct access to the volume and channel controls. The squelch is one button push then adjust. The radio is easy to program and for me feels great in the hand. Battery life is pretty good, but right now my typical usage is 4-5 hours a day. I have programmed my MMSI number, but have not programmed anything that relates to DSC.

I did program the radio with it's own MMSI number as I use it on whichever boat I may be captaining on at the moment. If I lost it, I would replace it with the same....

Maldwin said:

I don’t have any experience with those units, but I will share a good piece of advice I got when I was looking at handhelds in the big West marine in Fort Lauderdale. The salesman told me to pick my price range and or needed features, then buy the one which fit best in my hand that met my needs and budget. Stupidly, I had never considered how a radio fit in my hand, and it is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle.
Best,
Maldwin

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GOOD ADVICE! Thank you for your reply

Maldwin said:

I don’t have any experience with those units, but I will share a good piece of advice I got when I was looking at handhelds in the big West marine in Fort Lauderdale. The salesman told me to pick my price range and or needed features, then buy the one which fit best in my hand that met my needs and budget. Stupidly, I had never considered how a radio fit in my hand, and it is one of the most important pieces of the puzzle.
Best,
Maldwin

Click to expand...

I actually tried the West Marine VHF470 and hand feel was plain awful for me. Plus the button layout just doesn't come close to the convenience of the HX890. The West Marine VHF160 is a rugged little radio that takes a beating, but I felt the need to move to a DSC capable radio professionally.

We have a Standard Horizon handheld. Can't remember the model number, the radio and the manual is down on the boat, but it's the version with DSC and my inlaws got it for us about two years ago. I may have already told this story on the forum before, but last summer I accidentally left it in the bottom of the dingy, turned on when we left the boat for the weekend. We expected to be back in a few days but other things came up and it was two weeks before we returned. I had skipped covering the dingy, so the radio was floating in about three inches of rainwater when we got back and had been that way probably for a week. Stone dead. I took off the cover, plugged it into the charger, and waited a few hours. Fired right up and has worked fine ever since. Any product that can take that kind of abuse and still work well, I'm a fan.