STANDARD HORIZON HX890NB Marine Two Way Radios, Small

Works great, great reception, sound is great. The battery life is very good as well. It's nice to havewhen I'm out on the water, just in case.

This is a great buy and has great user functionality & safety with the MMSI distress function. Well worth the cost - has held up well to two seasons of Michigan boating 50+ days out of the year. Signal is ALMOST as good as my on-boat West Marine setup with 7’ Shakespeare fiberglass antenna. Great quality at a relatively low price.For those complaining about the price did you not get the memo that BOAT is an acronym for Bust Out Another Thousand?

It is a fine VHF handheld. It's gotten quite soggy in my cockpit & not had any display issues (or any period). The little blinky light came on as if it were swimming. The GPS is nice if you need to give coords while away from a big GPS, plus tracking & Person-in-Water. Battery life is way better than my ancient Raymarine (not saying much!). The menu structure is obtuse, but not worse than any other small-display device. I haven't tested range yet, but close comm was fine.

Once again, Standard Horizon adds more features to a handheld. I can't speak to the issues people raise with regard to water tightness, but for full features you can not beat this unit. Easy to program-I put in 40 MMSI#s for our fleet through a PC in minutes. The menus are better than the SX870 making it the easiest full-function VHF to use-and it even has a scrambler. I can't imaging another feature I would want on a VHF.

Seems to work just fine my only complaint is that all the functions are soft keys, I’d prefer to have squelch and volume be knobs. Also the antenna seems really fragile so I am extra careful with it.

I keep this radio strapped onto my vest when I go Kayak fishing, have'nt had to use the DSC features of the radio yet. But I certainly feel much safer now knowing I can hit that DSC distress button to send my position to the coast guard and other boats if an emergency ever does come up.

I bought this for intercostal waterway use for safety reasons and probably won’t use the navigation features however so far I am very impressed with the battery life and reception range. Easy of was graded okay because it’ll take time to get used to the many features.

After rinsing salt air residue off my HX 890 the seal around the LCD screen failed and water intrusion was seen inside the display. I ordered a replacement and tested the new radio under a handsink submersion. The second HX 890 also failed this time with a small amount of water intrusion.I consider a handheld VHF a key piece of vessel safety equipment. If you are in a man overboard situation, the submersion feature of a VHF handheld is critical in having a working radio to hail for help as your vessel potentially leaves you behind. I don’t know if the seal problem with the two HX 890’s are simply a bad batch at Amazon, or if there is a design flaw. Having this radio around your waist and submitting it to the water pressure of going overboard is way more than what I exposed it to and certainly did not seem to meet the IPX-8 standard.As an owner of the previous model HX870, I also notice that the plastic LCD screen cover that failed seems thinner in this new model. This potentially making it easier to flex thus possibly breaking the gasket(?) seal during everyday use, packing and bumps. It is only a guess but an educated one!