Why a marine VHF radio?

Good question. As cellphone have become a standard item in most people's pockets these days, spending the money on a quality marine VHF radio and antenna may seem unnecessary to many boaters and anglers; especially if you spend most of your time on an inland lake or inshore coastal areas.

Here's the pro's and con's of both, from my perspective.

Cellphone Pro's -- the biggest benefit is to anglers who are 'buddy fishing'. One person is fishing an area, and another is fishing a different area. If one gets on the fish, you can have a private conversation to direct your buddy to the hot place. For boaters, the pro is you can call anyone who also has a cellphone to touch base, meet at a specific location, etc.

Cellphone Con's -- I think the con's outweight ALL the Pro's, by the way. First, not every cellphone company provides coverage in all the areas you might be fishing or boating in. Cellphone coverage is also 'spotty' in certain areas, and some carriers won't even let you access their system unless you have their plan. For me, I've found this to be very true in certain areas of the eastern seaboard. Finally, cell towers tend to focus inland, and very close coastal areas. So you may not have any signal just a few miles offshore. And the biggest negative is if you happen to have an emergency, ONLY the person you call knows you're in distress. With a VHF, everyone in range hears your distress call.

VHF Pro's --- As mentioned above, if you have an emergency situation occur (or even an inconvenience like running out of gas, or running aground on a sand bar), everyone with a VHF radio in range hears your call. AND, the US Coast Guard towers are very high in the air, so you could be heard from many miles offshore by the Coast Guard.
VHF radios also have NOAA weather channels that can alert you to rapidly approaching storms. Cell phones won't do that. And the Coast Guard provides regular broadcasts to inform boaters of debris, navigation hazards and more.

VHF Con's --- Ony one. If your radio and antenna combination isn't tuned for maximum performance, your transmission and receive range could be diminshed. But you can easily correct this with a short visit to a qualified marine electronics technician.

I heartily recommend that you spend the money and get a high quality VHF radio and a high quality antenna. Get the tallest antenna your boat can support. The entire package shouldn't be more than about $300, and I'm on the high side there. Get a WATERPROOF, not Water Resistant radio. And listen to the speaker when it's turned up loud. That's how you will be listening most times.... when you're running and the wind or motor noise is competing with the VHF speaker.

Having both a cellphone and a VHF is not a bad idea. But if I had to choose between the two, I'd go for the VHF every time.

If you're going to be spending a lot of time offshore, then it may be wise to investigate the cost and practicality of a satellite phone. Many companies offer packages and for the most part they are pretty reasonable, considering.

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