We sail a Sun Cat in a large bay of Lake Michigan (Grand Traverse) with little expectation (at least for now) to venture out into the big lake. Still, for safety, peace of mind, and ability to offer assistance it seems prudent to carry a VHS radio for communications with the Coast Guard, other craft, maybe the marina.
Our needs would be relatively simple: small, floating, 12 volt charging essential; battery life something to compare; weather radio optional, and the newer GPS option maybe outside of our needs. Are the "well known" brands pretty much equal, in your views, and the shopping is for features; or are there brands or models that stand out? I find there are a lot of options in the $100 range, give or take, from West Marine, ICOM, Uniden, Standard Horizon, Cobra and others.
I just purchased a standard horizon at West Marine. It was on sale for $100. The west marine brand was also on sale for $100. I chose the standard horizon because on-line reviews were a little more favorable than for the west marine. It floats, has 12 volt adapter & a charger for house current. Most VHF have weather radio capability. This one has, of all things, FM reception.
mike
I use my Icom M36 on Lake Superior and large inland lakes in Wisconsin. We also use them at the sailing club at UW Madison.
We attach camera floats to them. The units will float but are are not very visible in the water.
http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/marine/handhelds/m36/default.aspx
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&st=floating+camera+strap
V.
We went with Standard Horizon. I read lots of user reviews, everyone seems to like them.
Standard Horizon. Great prices at Defender.com. "Friends don't let friends buy West Marine."
Wes
When my ICOM went silent, I too, went with the Standard Horizon. On sale at West Marine last year for less than $100. It works really well has exceptional battery life and is both 12 V and 110 V chargers. Weather radio also. Buddy in Florida went with the model one up from mine that has GPS +. He loves it and it also functions extremely well. Something that I did not realize is the that the audio quality on the Standard's is really both loud and clear - something that comes in handy with an outboard running or the wind howling.
I ended up ordering a Standard Horizon HX-210 with FM and weather included, so another little radio can stay ashore. It is small, floats, and had AC and DC charging cords included, so ticked all the relevant boxes for me, at least for now. With a coupon from West Marine, cost was about the same as from Defender (about $80), and I got some good local advice from the folks at our local West.