Mounted to the side panel on the right side of the driver's bolster at around knee level, facing upwards. I have a 4' Digital antenna. Digital is the brand name, not a digital antenna... I believe my range with this setup is about 12 miles.

All VHF is line of sight. So leaving an antennae down will work but if you all the sudden are getting bad reception you can raise it for a taller line of sight. Weather also depends on how signal is carried.

I thought a handheld is good for a 5 mile radius and a fixed mount is good for a 20 mile radius,,
I have a handheld myself

Actually it all depends on wattage of channel, antennae height and yes weather.

I run a 4' shakespear antenna mounted just in front of my windshield. I also have enough extra coaxial cable and and a haldfull of zipties to mount it to my boathook if the need ever arose for some extra range. Its amazing what an extra 10' worth of antenna head wil do for you in a pinch...

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs...e=VHF-Antennas

There is some good information in this article.

I had built in on my 292 and 419 and the attena beat the hell out of the gel. Then I'm strapping attena to bow rail, what a pain in the a$$. I now have a hand held for my 38 EC and it works great. Use it in Key West all the time when checking in at marina. As far as back-up, just buy two hand helds. Welcome to the Fountain family, I love mine.

On Lanier, there are so many idiots chit chatting on 16 that it's pretty useless. I have a hand held anyway. Some guys sunk a bass boat last year and I could not even get thru on 16. Had to use my cell phone.

Info got from West Marine:

What are the limits of range and power?

Handhelds are limited to a transmit power of six watts, compared to 25 watts for fixed-mount radios. Remember, VHF range is more dependent on antenna height and antenna gain than on transmit power, so you can add significantly to your range by connecting an external antenna or by transmitting from the highest location available. For normal handheld use (at five-watt transmit power), figure on a 3-8 mile range from a small boat, compared to 15-20 miles with a fixed-mount radio (at 25 watt transmit power.)

How much difference does increased transmit power make? Very little on the range of the communications. ICOM states that by switching from one watt to three watts of output you may gain 10 percent in range, but your battery life is dramatically reduced when you transmit at high power. The batteries in handhelds vary in capacity from about 500mAh to 2000mAh, and the current draw on high-power transmit can be in the two-amp range. This quickly depletes a battery if there is lots of conversation. Note: Radio manufacturers measure their battery life on a 90/5/5 basis: 90 percent standby, 5 percent receive, and 5 percent transmit at high power.

I had a fixed mount ICOM in my last boat and noticed a big difference in range when I switched from a 3' to an 8' antenna. I used a rail mount on the back of the boat. I only boat in Puget Sound so I get by currently with a handheld.