Cobra's new floating handheld marine VHF radios

[I've written about Cobra's handheld marine VHF radios before. They offer a combination of features I like, and with this announcement, you can add "won't sink" to that list. Here's the press release. —Tim]

Boaters no longer have to worry about accidentally dropping their vital VHF radio in the water and losing it. Cobra Marine, a division of Cobra Electronics, introduces its Floating Line of VHF handheld radios, the MR HH330 FLT and the Bluetooth®-equipped MR HH475 FLT BT. Boaters can now get the most technologically-advanced features packed into their VHF radio at an affordable price.

With a bright, orange core, these unique handhelds can be easily spotted in the water, if they end up overboard. Incredibly compact for a floating radio, these units fit nicely in one’s hand and have easy-to-operate controls and large LCD screens for easy viewing.

Operating with 6 Watts of power, Cobra’s most powerful handheld radios, they easily enables long-range communication while a noise-canceling microphone blocks background noise for clearer conversations. The unique “BURP” feature vibrates water out of the speaker grill to improve performance in extreme conditions.

Similar to Cobra Marine’s award-winning MR F300 BT, the MR HH475 FLT BT also incorporates patent-pending MicroBlue™ technology, enabling users to conduct cell phone calls through their Cobra radio using Bluetooth® wireless technology. It also includes Rewind-Say-Again™ to record and replay up to 20 seconds of a call, a convenient and potentially life-saving feature.

“With the addition of the Floating Handheld Line, we’re moving ahead with all our products and expanding our offering of Bluetooth®-equipped radios,” said Tony Mirabelli, senior vice president of marketing and sales. “The Floating Line is an entirely new category of VHF radios for us and a new way to offer boaters an effective way to clearly communicate.”

The Floating Handheld Line offers instant access to NOAA 24-hour national All Hazards and weather information and channel 16 for emergencies. These radios can also scan three channels simultaneously, including channel 16 and two user-selected channels. The Scan feature runs through all channels or those programmed into the memory to find conversations in progress.

Each handheld comes with a Lithium Ion rechargeable battery, locking desktop charger with AC/DC adapters and a spring-loaded swiveling belt clip. Cobra’s new Floating Line will be available in stores in September 2009 for a suggested retail price of $129.95 for the MR HH330 FLT and $179.95 for the MR HH475 FLT BT.

A division of Cobra Electronics, Cobra Marine is a leading designer of mobile communication products for the marine industry. Products include handheld and fixed VHF radios, including exclusive Rewind-Say-Again™, All-Terrain-Radio and MicroBlue™-equipped systems.