Marine Radio Equipment
Sometimes people or company who deeply involve in marine business can’t decide well wether marine radio or ham radio equipment they should buy to support their operation. If budget is the main consideration, choosing ham radio equipment is common decision. Because usually marine radio equipment is more expensive couple dollars than ham radio equipment. But some technical characteristic on ham radio equipment can push to problems when they push ham radio equipment worked on marine radio operation bands.
Marine radio equipments are usually built on strong and thick case. It built to handle heavy duty and long duration. So the metal case, the paint and every external covers are designed well. Some marine radio even also equipped with good seals to prevent water and vapour go inside the radio and corroding from inside.
Marine radio equipments are designed to work on marine bands. Same with ham radio equipments which well designed on ham radio bands. Some RF filters on those type are designed differently. It means, ham radio equipments can work on marine bands operation but will not give maximum performance. In common cases, it can damage the RF sections of the radio.
Marine radio equipments are designed to work on poor quality electrical power source. So it still can give you it best performance even they feed with under voltage, over voltage or unstable power source. But very difference with ham radio equipments which need perfect input power feed to it. Or you can damage the inside parts (and another extra unnecessary cost expenses).
Marine radio is not equal performance with ham radio equipment. There is only one disadvantage, the price. So please consider to keep choosing marine radio equipments if you work on marine bands. Maybe you will see higher expenses when you buy marine radios. But during their service, maybe you will save a lot of expenses and make more saving on radio maintenance post.
