How many watts do you run your vhf on?

 The reason I ask is I just bought a pair of unidens for half what a good radio would cost.$51. shipped.These will be used for fresh water only on large lakes.They max at 2.5w from the research i've done the better more pricey radios peak at 5w.So is the 5w necessary?Do you always run at max power or only when you need the extra power?I needed a pair since I just bought my son a yak and if he gets out of sight I want the instant comunication.

I have an Icom m-72. I always run it at its full 5 or 6 watts I think. The battery lasts for days so why not run it on its full potential?

Always run mine at 5.

More is better, since it will transmit farther and over/around obsticals easier.  If you are within close proximity, i'm sure they work fine.  But when he is out of sight, maybe around the next point or cove, might not be able to reach him.  But also I just will never trust Cobra or Uniden for anthing but my cordless home phone    Standard Horizon also makes a 2-pak of low powered handhelds I believe for $100.  Or you can get a SH 5W single vhf, for $100.

I always run mine at 1W and switch to higher if I know I'm transmitting to someone farther (more than maybe a mile). Especially around harbors, it is courteous to do so, so as not to "step on" other peoples transmissions.

-Allen

 

  "Rule of thumb" for Amateur radio operators is,( I know 99% of you are not HAM radio operators! I am one. Hold a general class license.) to use the lowest power that allows contact to be made. I keep my Standard Horizon on its low power (1W?) 1 Watt of RF energy at the marine band frequencies (162MHZ) will travel a fair distance over water.  If everyone is fishing within sight of each other, hi power is really not needed.
 

One thing to keep in mind, most of us have a radio attached to your chest/PFD, do you really want to be blasting 5 watts straight into your heart for any sustained amount of time?  There are enough studies pointing to cell phones being a health hazard, I cannot see how a handheld radio would be any better.

I typically run on 5w for the mere factor that IF there was an emergency of any kind, I don't want my call of distress to go by the wayside because I forgot to switch from 1w to 5w before the emergency transmission.

I have not taken into consideration the health factors of 5/6w, however the percentage of time spend with one attached to me over a year is far less than the amount of stray radio waves I acquire from sitting in front of a computer or cell phone cruising NCKA.  It's all around us regardless.

As for the only time I do/have switched to 1w is in the rare circumstance that I do want to transmit inside the harbor or in an area with high VHF traffic ... quite rare in my case.  I can count the number of times I have ever Tx on 1 hand.  I head to the water to get away from cell phones, radios & the such .... but I carry one to be safe.

   Just my personal outlook on it!

~Bill

I can understand running 1W if you're already with each other within line of site. But what about the others that are just coming in?  Sometimes we have people that comes in late and they wanna get ahold of us for location and other stuffs of course. I wanna make sure they can hear me loud and clear and vise versa.

Then 5/6w would be suggested & be courteous not to step on others would be my suggestion.

just an FYI in a marina or harbor it 1w max till you get out , just found that out yesterday


                               davy cricket

 
  If no one answers when you call using 1 watt, then you can switch to high power, typically hi-power should be kept for emergencies.  I think, most will find that communications can happen at low power.  What's the harm in trying low power first?  Plus side is longer battery life!

One thing to keep in mind, most of us have a radio attached to your chest/PFD, do you really want to be blasting 5 watts straight into your heart for any sustained amount of time?  There are enough studies pointing to cell phones being a health hazard, I cannot see how a handheld radio would be any better.

There is absolutely no real evidence for harm from VHF or mobile phones.  It is all a bunch of fear mongering.

It is non-ionizing radiation.

No big deal.

MolBasser

One thing to keep in mind, most of us have a radio attached to your chest/PFD, do you really want to be blasting 5 watts straight into your heart for any sustained amount of time?  There are enough studies pointing to cell phones being a health hazard, I cannot see how a handheld radio would be any better.

There is absolutely no real evidence for harm from VHF or mobile phones.  It is all a bunch of fear mongering.

It is non-ionizing radiation.

No big deal.

MolBasser

Add to that the fact that it only emits energy when you are pressing the transmit button. You would have to be abusing it for your transmit time to add up to much at all.

I always run mine at 1W and switch to higher if I know I'm transmitting to someone farther (more than maybe a mile). Especially around harbors, it is courteous to do so, so as not to "step on" other peoples transmissions.

-Allen

     That's the correct answer.       Running at full power when you are talking to a guy  a few hundred yards away  is totally unnecessary.  We all have to share the same few channels.