Reviewed by: CAPT. MIKE SCHOONVELD
I was 11 miles offshore one nearly calm day on Lake Michigan. Suddenly, my motor died and when I tried to restart it, the battery was so weak the starter solenoid would just “click.” I fiddled with the battery connections to no avail so I called the Coast Guard on my marine radio to report my situation.
When I pushed the microphone key, my chart-plotter screen showed a message, “low battery, powering off.” Then the unit shut off. I knew when a battery is weak, at some point, the battery would no longer operate a marine radio – especially transmit – so the first thing I did was tell the USCG dispatcher my GPS position as shown on my cell phone. Though I had zero bars, to make a call, at least that app worked.
All’s well that ends well, but we were lucky. The Coast Guard called BoatUS and they responded, but it took about two hours. By then, the radio wouldn’t even receive messages. My crew and I were concerned but the last transmission we heard was that the tow-boat was underway.
The first thing I did was buy a new alternator to fix the boat and the second thing was to get a Cobra BlueBound 150 handheld marine radio. I chose the Cobra over other brands for several features (including price) and also because my boat’s permanent VHF radio is a Cobra brand and it has given me decades of service.
Other features that sold me on this radio was that it has rechargeable AAA batteries. They charge with the same USB-C plug I use to charge my cell phones. Cobra says a full charge will last up to 11 hours. I’ve put spare AAA lithium batteries in my “necessary” box to use if BlueBound 150’s batteries ever did run down.
One feature I don’t want to test is that it floats. It won’t sink if I were to drop it overboard or off the dock. More important if (God forbid) the boat sinks or someone falls overboard.
The maximum output of this portable radio is 3 watts which isn’t going to blast a signal very far, but the height of the antenna dictates the distance a radio can send or receive more than the power. USCG stations are equipped with very tall antennas capable of reaching out 50 miles.
Since I’ve acquired the radio I’ve used it to monitor a different channel than my main is set on. I’ve carried it with me on other people’s boats – some of them don’t have a marine radio since they think they will usually have cell service. I know my cell phone is usually useless much more than five miles offshore and in some areas service is spotty even nearshore.
FISHING TOYS 