My marine radio is acting up turns on I can change channels and transmit but I can't hear anything including the weather channel.My question is how do I know whether its the radio or antenna,or something else?The radio is an 2510se shakespeare.
Bad vhf marine radio
- Thread starter ROB SWIFT
- Start date
Make sure your squelch isn't turned all the way up.
When you say that you can transmit, did you have someone else that was able to receive your tranmission? If so, that should eliminate your antenna.
If the squelch is set OK and transmit is OK I would guess you have a problem with the radio.
When you say that you can transmit, did you have someone else that was able to receive your tranmission? If so, that should eliminate your antenna.
If the squelch is set OK and transmit is OK I would guess you have a problem with the radio.
Given the inexpensive price of a good VHF these days I would replace the radio once you have verified all settings are correct and it still does not work. A good Icom is less then $300 these days.
If you have trouble on the water a VHF is THE most important piece of equipment on your boat.
If you have trouble on the water a VHF is THE most important piece of equipment on your boat.
...agree wholely with this statement. Make sure you purchase DSC capable radio and connect to GPS/Chartplotter.
And register the VHF....a lot of people forget this part
Also double check that your VHF is on the "US" setting and not "Canadian"....usually with that you would hear but not be recieved but you never know
Also double check that your VHF is on the "US" setting and not "Canadian"....usually with that you would hear but not be recieved but you never know
I had the same thing with one of my Icom's this spring, sent it out them and they repaired it, cost me about $75, turned out to be a bunch of faulty capacitors. Was going to buy new, but it was the high end Icom so $75 was a bit cheaper then a new one. Took about 4 weeks, but that was on the off season basically. If your using the boat you cannot be without one so buying a new one is your best bet, but not a bad idea to have it fixed if it can be for a reasonable price, a secondary radio is a great idea, to me a must, incase something like this happens again you have a back up that works. You never want to be out there without one. I even carry a handheld as well when I'm offshore, 3 are better then 1 
Don't Sweat the Radio
Now you can get a new handheld with the DSC, which broadcasts your position to the Coasties every few mins, is waterproof, and simple to use in an emergency. Cost is around $300, a pittance if you every have to go in the water. Keep it in your ditchbag just in case.
Now you can get a new handheld with the DSC, which broadcasts your position to the Coasties every few mins, is waterproof, and simple to use in an emergency. Cost is around $300, a pittance if you every have to go in the water. Keep it in your ditchbag just in case.
I second having a handheld onboard with dsc, I bought a Horizon HX850S, it has built in gps, cost is roughly $250. It gets a gps fix in about 30 seconds and holds it. Great item to have on the boat incase the electrical system ever has a failure. Evenm used it this year when we blew a fuse and lost the upper electronics box power while at the canyon, had my crew get out the drill and bits and take the flush mounting apart to get to the fuse and restore power and was able to keep in touch with network boats the whole time and stay safe using the vhf. It broadcasts very loud and well, but does not have the range of a fix mounted vhf, you should never use a handheld as a primary vhf on a boat, you want the range of the fix mount and antenna, but the handheld can be a lifesaver if things go wrong.
You can walk the radio over to a neighbor in the marina or the next guy at the ramp and ask if you can test your radio on his/her antenna.
Rig the radio with a cheap auto barn cigarette lighter plug so you can plug it right in- most boats have the receptacles. Then if the radio acts the same, it's not the antenna.
Make sure your antenna's connector is properly terminated with both signal and shields connected.
Alternately, you can take the radio as is into your local marine store, or West, and ask if you can do the same on their displays.
I expect they will let you and even do it for you, gratis, since it's an opportunity to sell you something. They even have watt meters that can show the transmit power, etc. I'm sure the Mom and Poppers will do it, if you are on Long Island, I have two to recommend.
Rig the radio with a cheap auto barn cigarette lighter plug so you can plug it right in- most boats have the receptacles. Then if the radio acts the same, it's not the antenna.
Make sure your antenna's connector is properly terminated with both signal and shields connected.
Alternately, you can take the radio as is into your local marine store, or West, and ask if you can do the same on their displays.
I expect they will let you and even do it for you, gratis, since it's an opportunity to sell you something. They even have watt meters that can show the transmit power, etc. I'm sure the Mom and Poppers will do it, if you are on Long Island, I have two to recommend.