The Cobra HH425 LI is a mid-sized dual-band marine handheld VHF radio that operates on the marine and general mobile service radios bands.
It is solidly constructed on an aluminum die cast frame and weighs in at 13.3 ounces.
Buy this Cobra handheld marine VHF radio here.
Cobra HH425
The HH425 comes from the factory with an automatic AC fast charger that requires only 4 hours to fully charge its 1900 mAH lithium ion battery pack. This charger shows a red light to indicate charging and green for a fully charged battery. A DC charger cord, belt clip, AA battery case, and wrist strap are included too.
Radio Controls
Volume and squelch control knobs on the HH425 are mounted concentrically on top of the case next to the jack where an optional external speaker or microphone connects. The push-to-talk switch and lock buttons are side-mounted.
All remaining functions are controlled using ten front-mounted pushbuttons. One button control is available for transmitter power selection, call tone, channel changing, weather channel selection, quick selection of channel 16 or 9, band selection, and some scanning options.
Scan modes include numerical, memory, and tri-watch. In the tri-watch mode 16 will always be one of the scanned channels; the other two are user selectable. The HH425 can use all Canadian, International, and US marine VHF channels, NOAA weather channels, and 15 general mobile service radios channels.
Special Features
This radio is capable of sending a call tone to other VHF radios able to receive it. When this radio receives a call tone it can be set to vibrate or sound a tone.
One very unique feature on this radio weve not seen before on any radio is Cobras Rewind-Say-Again. Basically what this does is record the last twenty seconds of speech received on the selected channel. So should you miss the call and want to listen to it again all you have to do is press the REW key once. We tried it and it worked as advertised.
Performance
Transceiver performance of the HH425 was average. It earned good ratings for transmitter power stability and receiver sensitivity. At temperature extremes it went slightly off frequency and only received a fair rating for transmitter frequency stabilitystill it remained well within industry and governmental specifications at all times. With a measured 93 dBA during our audio output test we rated the audio performance good.
We rated the HH425 display screen excellent, it is quite large for a handheld and shows much information. Large block style numbers are used to display the selected channel while a single letter below shows the channel group selected.
Transmitter power output is shown onscreen as Hi, Med, or Lo. Battery level is on the bottom right and shows a filled battery shaped icon when full. As the battery charge drops the battery icon empties too. Signal strength is shown in meter form for both a transmitted or a received signal.
Battery Test
This radio lasted 15 hours in our battery life test. It passed both the drop and submersion tests too with no glitches.
Final Thoughts
This radio is waterproof and carries a JIS7 rating. This means it can be submerged to a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes without sustaining any damage.
This Cobra marine handheld VHF radio carries a reasonable street price and has a 3-year warranty.