- Operates on all US, Canadian and International VHF channels, and 15 GMRS UHF/FM channels
- Provides access to all 10 NOAA channels for 24-hour weather and hazard information
- Features illuminated keys and display, 20-second audio rewind, VibrAlert, weather alert, and instant access to channels 16 and 10
- Comes with a desktop charger with adapters for home and vehicle, a wrist strap, and a spring-loaded swiveling belt clip
- Fully submersible to JIS7 standards, and backed by a manufacturer's 3-year warranty
Pros: Covers Marine VHF, GMRS and overlaps FRS. Comes with everything you could possibly need, especially Li-rechargeable, drop-in charger, AC and DC power cords, and AA battery case. Good controls, metal frame, swivel-off belt clip, easy to read display. Detachable antenna with SMA connector and wrist strap. The documentation is better tha most.
Cons: Squelch (uncoded) and coded squelches take 1 second to unlock. FRS frequencies 1-7 are fixed to GMRS power and frquencies 8-14 are not included.
This is a very complete product especially for the money. You will not have to buy any accessories except perhaps the remote mic. Especially impressive is the inclusion of an AA battery case in addition to the rechargeable battery pack. You get both AC and DC power cords.
There are several subtle things that are "right" about this product. The audio is much stronger than most handhelds. There are actual knobs, not pushbuttons, for squelch and volume controls that are easily manipulated. The controls are logically arranged. The drop-in charger has a plate that adapts it for charging the battery alone, without the radio. The RF squelch will open the tone or DCS squelches allowing accurate, single-control setting of the RF squelch threshold or opening up of the squelch for receiving weak signals. The backlight is orange and bright enough to read easily. The LCD display is easy to read from a normal viewing angle.
I have not had enough experience with the "say again" feature to determine its usefulness but it is well implemented. The audio quality is as good as the original transmission and you get 20 seconds of stored audio. Replay is counted down on the display and you can cancel playback by merely tapping the PTT.
Weather reception has several interesting alerting features including WX alert and SAME monitoring. I did not test these as of this writing, but the WX reception is excellent.
The only negatives I could find about this radio involved the squelch and the lack of FRS power levels and FRS frquencies 8-14.
The squelch open or unlock times were annoyingly long. Uncoded squelch open time on VHF marine or GMRS bands was the better part of a second. This may not seem like much until you consider the fact that most people start speaking just a fraction of a second before they key the mic. With this radio it will lead to the guaranteed loss of up to the first two seconds of audio. For those with a long "uhhhhh" before their real message, that will work. But for most others, it will result in a lot of missed calls. The unlock time for coded squelch (tone or DCS) is almost exactly one second, making performance here slightly worse.
Given the completeness of the product, the fact that a power setting for FRS compatibility and frequencies 8-14 are missing is puzzling. Still, I believe in actual use this limitation is more than easily overcome.
After testing it looks like I'm going to be getting a few more of these. You really can't beat them especially for the price.
UPDATE: With over a year of use on many of these units I can report they are still all working well. Most notably the battery HOLDS its charge seemingly forever. We know this is NOT true but I have yet to see a case of a self-discharge over even a few months of sitting on a shelf, sometimes in heat or cold extremes. Most radio batteries are notoriously bad this way, but to my great surprise, the batteries that came with the batch I got are all still performing quite beyond expectations. Good batteries seem to be a rarity these days!
Buy Cobra MR HH425LI VP 15-Channel VHF/GMRS Two-Way Marine Radio Now
I just received two of these radios earlier this week, primarily to use as GMRS radios.
Having used them now for a few days, I'm so far impressed with the quality and reception. My biggest gripe is that the PPT button is sometimes hard to locate just right, since it is covered by the same flexible plastic which covers the light/lock button. I think these two buttons should be separated.
Regarding the squelch delay mentioned by another reviewer, the delay occurs only when CTCSS or DCS is enabled, AND the rewind function is enabled (it is by default). Even then, I timed it closer to 1/2 second. In any case, here's how to get rid of that delay: For close to ZERO squelch delay, disable CTCSS/DCS, and disable REWIND. The REWIND is by far what causes the longer delay, it seems to me. Turn it off, and by far most of the delay is gone, in fact I would say it is close to instant squelch unlock. Only problem I have is, I would LIKE to use both the CTCSS/DCS and REWIND features. Doing so will increase the squelch delay to 1/2 second or so (which is not uncommon with many radios), so you will have to decide what works for you.
This radio is VHF/GMRS only, not FRS. FRS frequencies 8-14 are FRS only, and are not shared with GMRS. This radio is not marketed as an FRS radio, therefore FRS frequencies 8-14 are not included. Frequencies 1-7, and 15-22 are GMRS (with 1-7 only being shared with FRS).
Overall I'm real happy this these radios.
Read Best Reviews of Cobra MR HH425LI VP 15-Channel VHF/GMRS Two-Way Marine Radio Here
While I do like this product, I have a very important message for anyone who has purchased one.
The instructions in the manual for programming the SAME weather alert feature (page 56) are incorrect and will not set the radio to sound the alarm if an alert is broadcast for your area. I called Cobra repeatedly for several days before I was able to reach someone in tech support who would acknowledge the problem and furnish me with the correct procedure. This oversight could be disastrous to anyone in an area prone to sudden severe weather. The operating instructions on Cobra's web site have not been updated with the new procedures. NOAA and the NWS have been informed and are contacting Cobra to have them provide the correct information to registered owners and update the info on their website.
Here is the update:
MR HH425 SAME (Specific Area Message Encoder)
SAME lets you customize weather alerts, so that you only get a weather alert if the emergency is in
your area.
For example, perhaps there is a tornado alert for an adjacent county. Do you need to be bothered with
a weather alert? No. SAME lets you program your location into the radio so that you only get weather
alerts for your specific area. This is done by programming your location code into the radio.
Please note that you cannot have both the regular Weather Alert and SAME turned on at the same
time. If you enable SAME, the regular Weather Alert will automatically turn off. If you enable the
regular Weather Alert, SAME will automatically turn off.
1. Press the BAND button to get to the weather channels.
2. Tune to a live weather broadcast.
3. Press and hold the SETUP button to enter the setup menu.
4. Press and release the SETUP button until you see *SAME* flashing.
5. Use the channel up/down buttons to turn SAME on.
6. After turning it on, press and release the SETUP button. It should say *CODE* on the display.
7. Press channel up/down to select a memory location. You can save up to 10 (0 through 9) different
location codes, depending on how large an area you want the SAME feature to cover.
8. Press the SETUP button. *SAME* should be flashing on the display.
9. You can now enter the 6-digit location code. Use channel up/down, then press SETUP to move to
the next digit.
10. After entering the last digit of the location code, press SETUP. It should say CODE again.
11. You may enter another location code, by repeating steps 7-10. Or press ESC to quit.
Marine-based SAME codes:
Land-based SAME codes:
When on the weather channels, it will say SAME on the display to indicate that SAME is enabled.
You may turn location codes on or off. For example if you have 3 location codes programmed, you
can disable one of them so that you receive warnings only for the remaining 2 areas. Proceed as
follows:
1. Press the BAND button to switch to weather channels.
2. Press and hold SETUP to enter the setup menu.
3. Press SETUP until you see *CODE* on the display.
4. Use channel up/down to select the memory location that you want to disable.
5. Press and hold SETUP until the display says HldSEt. That memory location is now disabled.
6. Press ESC.
To re-enable a location, repeat steps 1-5. After holding SETUP in step 5, wait until the display shows
the location code. It is now re-enable. Press ESC to exit.
Want Cobra MR HH425LI VP 15-Channel VHF/GMRS Two-Way Marine Radio Discount?
I purchased one of these Cobra gmrs-vhf marine radios and it was soo great i just purchased another one. Radio is quality built and outperforms everything else i have ever owned. Great reception , clear, loud and powerful. 5 watts make a big difference and the larger antenna increases the range. Super long life battery pack or comes with aa battery converter pack. This radio hold a charge for up to five days use. Easy to read oversize screen. Drop in charger with dual lighted indicators. 1-3-5 watt outputs. Im impressed. I purchased a uniden natica and i took them back as they were very poor in performance. Five stars and highly recommended. Great job cobra you have a winner here.
\
WALLY
I bought two of these radios to use during a family relocation from Southern California to the Puget Sound area. We had two cars and were driving through the Redwoods and rural sections of Northern California. I knew that there would be times when there would be no Cell Phone coverage and there may be some extreme terrain conditions that ruled out using the low-powered "blister pack" radios.
Prior to the trip, I tried the radios in a normal urban environment. We were successfully able to communicate at ranges of 1 to 2 miles (with one radio inside a vehicle, and one inside a house). I also wanted to test the radios in "ideal conditions". I drove to the top of Signal Hill, a small city in the Long Beach area with an elevation of 150 feet and was able to communicate with the other radio in Anaheim, almost 15 miles away.
On the trip I had both radios set to the "Hi" power setting (5 watts) due to the terrain features that we had to overcome. I was concerned about the battery life at this setting, however the batteries had no problem powering the radios under fairly heavy use on each 8 hour leg of the trip (the radios were fully charged every night).
Overall the performance was great. They were well worth the money.
The only change I would like to see is a true scrambling feature for true privacy.
