Standard Horizon New VHF Floaters

1 with GPS
1 with BlueTooth
http://www.standardhorizon.com/PDF/2009MARINEUSA.pdf

Nice 

Just a word on their service my Radio is 3 1/2 years old and I guess I rinsed it off a little too hard after my last trip and it developed water in the display, worked fine just couldn't see it well. I tried to dry it out and it had no effect. So I mailed it back to them on Monday and got it back on Friday with a new display installed no charge.

....I mailed it back to them on Monday and got it back on Friday with a new display installed no charge.

That's awesome. No wonder they're leaders in their industry. If only other businesses would follow that example.

Very nice Mike.  Any word on $

Should be a little less that $300 for the first year with the BT.

I checked planet gps and the reg ular is only $115 and the bt is $269.

I bet they drop to about 200 when more come out. i see the BT unit is $150 by itself. Wonder if the BT unit is waterproof.
http://www.truveo.com/HX760S-Floating-6Watt-Handheld-VHF-with/id/1161416082

Not sure...but I am so sick of seeing idiots walking around with a bt ear piece I am going old school with the speaker mic!

Not sure...but I am so sick of seeing idiots walking around with a bt ear piece I am going old school with the speaker mic!

  Agreed 

I wondered what the bluetooth does to battery life knowing what it does to my cell phone batter life, so I looked it up.  Battery life is usually expressed assuming some profile of TX, RX and standby.  Standby is usually some large percentage of the profile, perhaps 90%, with 5% TX, and 5% RX.  The user's manual says current consumption is 50 mA without Bluetooth enabled, and 100 mA with Bluetooth enabled.  That's significant.  Assuming the 5/5/90 profile, the battery life just got cut almost in half.

Hmmm, there is also some "saver" mode that cuts standby power to 10 mA without Bluetooth and 60 mA with Bluetooth.  Not sure entirely what the save mode does to usability.

-Allen

They have a BT speaker/mic also but it's not sumbmerisable
http://www.motorola.com/governmentandenterprise/il/en-us/public/functions/browseproduct/relatedaccessories.aspx?navigationpath=id_803i/id_1388i/id_1174i/id_2353i/id_1768i&accessorypath=id_28i/id_973i/hmn3158a

Not sure...but I am so sick of seeing idiots walking around with a bt ear piece I am going old school with the speaker mic!

  Agreed 

On the same page with that one!

I can see the BT speaker/mic being convenient when they make a submersible one - otherwise, it would be way too easy to destroy, just with spray & such, let alone an actual dunking.