VHF Radio

The ubiqutous VHF radio allows easy ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communciation.

The rage over the last few years has been the proliferation of waterproof handhelds and DSC ready models. The waterproofs handhelds can be taken out on your tender for talking back to the motherhsip. Technically they can only be used on the water and not from the land and so you would need a FRS radio system (essentially very high frequency walkie talkies) to talk to a shore party. These FRS radios can be purchased from $30 to $200 for a pair depending on the features.

DSC VHF Radios

These radios allow you to cable in your GPS position from your GPS which can then be passed to the Coast Guard or another vessel.