Hi all, I thought some of ye might like this story. I am not sure whether it is a cautionary tale, a good tale. a bad tale a sad tale....I think it will be a recommendatory tale.
I have been getting out paddling a bit more, buiochas le Dia and discovered that my radio was verclopten,broken, it would receive but not transmit, an iCom radio. So, I decided that I better get a new one. So after a bit of research and stuff I settled on another iCom, one M25 @ 180e or so, I was going to go dearer for one with gps and stuff but read that a decent radio and a PLB is a good option so i'll go that route I said.
So yesterday afternoon I took myself over to iCanoe and purchased said radio and a bag to put it into as my last one got wet and thats what seemed to do they damage, it never worked right after that dunking, (I had a bag for it but had forgotten the it)Yes yes, I know they are waterproof etc but it failed after getting wet, but perhaps that was just coincidence and after this story it may well have been.
So got my new radio and put it on charge, all was well with the world,
nearly all, I was doing a bit of moaning to some people aboit the little catch and door that opened to plug in the charging lead, I am on the record as saying that it was far too flimsy and would leak, and other expletives were aimed in it's direction.
Last night, about 7.30pm I and my son went for a walk in a populariish spot, some beach walking and some on a path. On the return leg we left the path and went down onto the beach again, after about 2 minutes I looked down and saw something blue poking out of the sand, I stopped and looked again and then said, I have witnesses, "that looks like an icom, I could only see a bit of blue as whatever it was was mostly buried in the sand. I reached down and scraped some sand away and then pulled up what indeed was an iCom M35 radio, it was buried, aerial first in the sand, less than a quarter of the radio was showing. I was amazed ass were my 2 companions. It was covered in sand, it was buried in the speaker grille, around the antenna, everywhere. We looked at it and speculated where it had come from and whether it would ever work again, it was dead but it would be as they flash upon conta t with water so the battery would exhaust itself. It dried a bit as we walked and I would pull a branch of a tree and use it to clean it as we walked, The catch that I had given out about earlier was indeed jammed and would not open. I got a lot of the sand off and put it into the car.
I got home and put the radio under a gentle flow of water from the tap, another good bit of sand washed out, the catch was still jammed so a toothbrush and water was used to try to free it, more rinsing and a small bit of pressure from a screwdriver freed the catch and more sand was released, the catch was free and was now working smoothly. I got the charger from my newly bought radio and plugged it in, I then plugged it into the found radio, bets were placed among us and I then flipped the switch on the socket. So, looking at the tides I reckon the earliest that the radio could have washed up and been buried was Thursday evening/night, so a fair time in the sea and buried nearly completely.
Switch flipped and after a few seconds CHG appeared on the screen, a whoop was uttered, it seemed to be charging, BUT, would it charge and would it work????
I left it in for 2 hours and then forgotetting that I had a new one upstairs I thought that I would have to wait for a club meet to see it it received and transmitted, then I remembered and ran upstairs and got the other radio.
The IMPORTANT bit....it is receiving and transmitting perfectly, not a bother on it at all, so now I have 2 bloody radios, But what a good recommendation for the brand, well, not too bad at least.It seems to have suffered no ill effects at all, so far.
My rant about the catch seems now to be ill founded, although care is needed when opening and closing to ensure it is free of dirt or sand particles, but it certainly kep out the water, it did its job under trying circumstances. Brilliant, my faith in waterproof radios is restored, for now anyway.