does your radio actually work?

a few weeks ago I was out with Nathan on Monterey Bay.  Had my trusty radio on 69.  There were not many boats out, so I never thought much about it being so quite.  Nathan paddles up and asks if I was listening to some story being told on 69.  I check the radio everything looks fine, so I hail Nathan.  He hears me fine, but I dont receive squat.  Check it out again at home, and I dont seem to recieve any more.

No big deal, but what if I had needed to use the radio for real?  Moral of the story, do a radio check early on so you know if you actually have a radio or not.

Thanks for reminding us.  I guess we should remember to ask for a radio check before launching the yak.

Hope this doesn't insult you, but was the squelch turned all the way up?  Or volumn down too much? Or a combo of both?  Is there a Mute feature on the radio you might have pressed unknowingly?  It'd be really nice if it was something that simple, but really screwed up if you got a new radio and later found out.  Well then at lease you'd have a spare.

not insulted in the least.   I screwed with the volume and squelch.  I can get that loud static noise, so speaker is OK.  No mute button that I am aware of, but will double check. 

I really need to save up for a new radio. I have one that I carry with me but I don't use it for chitchat just strictly emergencies only. Something is wrong with the battery the charge only last for 30 minutes.

I will be getting a new vhf soon along with the new Sanyo waterproof video camera.

I really need to save up for a new radio. I have one that I carry with me but I don't use it for chitchat just strictly emergencies only. Something is wrong with the battery the charge only last for 30 minutes.

I will be getting a new vhf soon along with the new Sanyo waterproof video camera.

What kind of battery is it? Internal I am guessing?

Jeff

Are you guys using the channel lock feature?. Just a thought, but if I don't use the lock feature on my radio I often end up on another channel when the button gets hit in my vest. If your friend was on 68 or 70 but had the scan feature on, he would recieve your message from channel 69 but not be able to transmit on that channel.

Are you guys using the channel lock feature?. Just a thought, but if I don't use the lock feature on my radio I often end up on another channel when the button gets hit in my vest. If your friend was on 68 or 70 but had the scan feature on, he would recieve your message from channel 69 but not be able to transmit on that channel.

that would be possible but in my case, we checked it specifically on 69.

As long as we're going down the mistaken-button-push road, I once had some trouble with my radio (can't recall what) until I figured out that it was accidently set to Canadian rather USA.  I think I  read the manual as a last resort and figured that out.  I hope it's something simple like that.

Always do a radio check and fire up the GPS before launching.  Always mark the launch on the GPS. 

Always do a radio check and fire up the GPS before launching.  Always mark the launch on the GPS. 

I maybe wrong on this, but, are you using the same type of RADIO? There are some radios has different range and auto channel sets, I found out last time when I was at Paradise and Holy Toledo has his radio scanned different frequency, we are next to each other he gets more report than I did..

Ariel Sea

The simple answer is Portable radio batteries are usually good for 200+ charges or 2-3 years, and as they get older they lose their storage capacity. Ni-Cad batteries also suffer from chemical memory, so if it is an eight hour battery and you typically only use it for 2 hours, it will start to think it is a 2 hour battery. Ni-MH don't have that problem very much and Li-Ion are the best if you can affford them.
In my radio shop I have equipment that charges and discharges batteries several times and this sometimes helps extend the life of Ni-Cad batteries. You can help extend the life of your Ni-Cad by fully discharging it before recharging. Also if you have an older non-intelligent charger, and you leave the battery always in the charger, it will keep feeding juice to the battery and therefore shortening the life and eventually frying the battery.