ICOM Handheld VHF - Review

Our ICOM handheld VHF lives mostly on the deck of our cabin, which is situated on an island on the north coast of BC just west of the middle of nowhere. We are about 100 nautical miles south of the Alaska border, and 65 NM from the nearest road to anywhere.

Cell coverage out here will likely never happen. But even if you’re not this far out, there are still many places your boat can take you where you find yourself out of cell coverage. So often it’s back to the good old VHF radio.

Day to day, our handheld has been extremely useful for contacting the cabin from the boat, talking to other boats (which are admittedly rare), and sometimes, even small floatplanes and helicopters.

It has also been an invaluable safety device for shore excursions in this remote, wilderness area enabling those on shore to keep in touch with the boat, to arrange pickups etc. Our area also has very healthy populations of wolves and bears, so being in touch with the boat while you're on the beach is also added peace of mind.

This unit also has an waterproof rating of IPX7 (submersible to 1m, 30min) and it floats! These features were probably among the most attractive about this radio as even if your cell phone worked out here, from painful experience, I can guarantee it wouldn't float.

Originally, we also used the handheld to monitor the all important marine weather broadcasts which was one of it’s key functions. However, as we have since added a Starlink internet system, we now primarily use the online forecasts at the cabin. That said, it’s always nice to have the VHF backup to monitor weather as needed. (see Starlink article here).

While the range on these small handheld VHF’s can sometimes be seen as a limitation, this unit is fairly impressive for a 5W VHF.  We are loud and clear with our only neighbour which is a small research station on an adjacent island about 4NM away. And depending on conditions, we’ve reached boats much further afield.

Perhaps even more impressive to me, this handheld seems to stay charged forever, and uses very little power on standby. Most often, as mentioned, it lives on the deck, is always on, and the charge can last for days.

Finally, in my opinion, no handheld VHF is a replacement for a more powerful, fixed mount radio like you would have in your boat which outputs 25W and uses much larger antennas. They are simply a different tool for a different application, and if you buy a handheld VHF expecting it to perform exactly like the one in your boat, you’ll probably be disappointed.

But for relatively short range communications, in a highly portable, waterproof package, this ICOM handheld is a solid choice. ICOM is a well known and highly regarded brand for marine electronics, and our handheld has operated flawlessly for 6 years so far with no signs of slowing down.

Price and product info here.

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