The Icom M92 is a floating marine handheld VHF radio and GPS navigator combo. Its full designator is the IC-M92D. This VHF/GPS combo features a built-in high-sensitivity 48-channel GPS receiver that includes navigation capabilities with a man overboard function.
Other standard features include a high capacity lithium battery pack, large dot matrix display screen, built-in DSC functionality, and a powerful audio system.
Icom IC-M92D
Icom Exclusive Features
It also has a couple Icom exclusive features, including provision for a visual alarm should the unit go in the water as well as AquaQuake to rid the speaker of water quickly following a submersion.
Unit Basics
The Icom M92 handheld marine VHF radio package ships with the radio, rechargeable lithium-ion battery pack, charger tray, AC charger power cord, belt clip, DC charger power cord, wrist strap, screws to permanently mount the cradle, and an instruction manual.
A long list of optional equipment is available for the M92 including a variety of rapid chargers and a water proof speaker microphone.
The radio body stands just under 6-inches tall, is about 2.6-inches wide and 1.6-inches deep not counting the removable belt clip attachment. Overall height including the removable antenna is right at 12-inches.
On my scale, with the 1500 mAH lithium-ion battery pack installed, the IC-M92D weighed in at 10.7 ounces. That weight places this radio on the light end of the weight spectrum when compared to other GPS equipped marine handheld radios.
The drop-in charger cradle will hold the radio with the battery installed or charge the battery alone. A complete charge cycle with the supplied AC charger system can take as long as 13 hours depending on the battery state of charge when the unit is place in the cradle. No charge time is stated in the manual when using the DC charger cord and I did not test this feature. This charger displays a yellow-orange light to indicate charge in progress and green light to indicate a fully charged battery.
Radio Controls
All controls on this radio are pushbutton, with 14 buttons on the front panel, 1 on back, and 1 on the left side. The left side holds the push-to-talk switch with the case back holding the DSC emergency calling button under a spring loaded red cover. The front panel has up/down, left/right arrow keys, four soft keys, volume/squelch, menu, clear, enter, and power buttons.
The antenna on this unit is removable and with proper coupling could be connected to your vessel’s main antenna on a to provide backup VHF capabilities with increased range over use with the standard small whip antenna.
One button soft key operation is available for a number of functions including the selection of transmitter output power, switch to weather channels, entering channel name menu, selecting screen backlight slider, choosing a favorite channel, using AquaQuake, using the MOB function, going to the waypoint list, and selecting the compass page as well as several others. Addition functionality is available by accessing the main menu.
Scanning
Scan modes include weather alert watch, DSC watch, dual watch, and triple or tri-watch. In the tri-watch mode channels 16 and 9 will be scanned with the third