I assume the answer will be yes because it is better to have one than not - but, I live in NOVA and have a 16' aluminum bass boat (deep V) that I take on the Potomac river a lot (mostly between Pohick and Quantico) and we also get out on Lake Anna ocassionally.

I used to assume that VHF radios were more for boats at sea, but I have seen instances online of folks using them in larger lakes, etc.

Since the Potomac and Lake Anna are two large bodies of water - would it be worth getting one for my boat?

Yes, a cell phone is absolutely useless when you need to communicate with another vessel. I twisted off the vertical shaft in my bravo in the Houston ship channel, got on the vhf to alert the local traffic that I was drifting (didn't want to anchor in the middle of one of the worlds busiest channels). Immediately I get a couple of replies and I see a tug change course and return to get me. The large tankers in the area slowed or stopped. The Tug took me alongside and towed me several miles up the channel until a buddy showed up to take over.

Without vhf I would have had to call CG and hope they could find someone in my location to help before I got run over by some very large ships.

Handheld VHF would have worked in that situation. I prefer the antenna as it works anywhere in my boating area which isnt always the case with cell tech.

I always monitor the vhf once we leave the river and head out into commercial traffic.

I mounted a handheld on my dash for the best of both worlds.

Probably the second best $100 investment a boater can make. The first is a good lifejacket.

We have a good mounted VHF & have a handheld backup just in case. You never know, the Gulf is a big place. Lol.

Yep, I keep a handheld on the boat.

Whats the brand of choice ?? handheld 100-125 bucks

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Note also that there are hand-held radios with built in Bluetooth and GPS location

click here -->


with that, you can download navionics to your cell phone and tablet and have your hand-held radio send the GPS location to your mobile device

have your very own GPS map chart plotter, depth of the waters around you are, etc

all for under $180





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I have both a hand held and a mounted unit. The mounted one is tied to the Chartplotter s if needed hit one button and it broadcast your position.

We also need them to use when going through the locks.