Uniden MHS127 Owner's Manual
MHS127
Handheld VHF Marine Transceiver
For more exciting new products please visit our website:
Australia: www.uniden.com.au
New Zealand: www.uniden.co.nz
Making a Distress Call
Speak slowly - clearly - calmly.
For future reference, write your boat’s name & call sign here:
1. Make sure your radio is on.
2. On the radio, press the 16/67-Tri button to switch to Channel 16
(156.8 MHz). (If the corner of the display does not show 16, press
the 16/67-Tri button again until it does.)
3. Press the push to talk button and say: “MAYDAY -- MAYDAY -MAYDAY.”
4. Say “THIS IS {name of your boat (three times) and call sign/boat
registration number (once)}.”
5. Say “MAYDAY {name or call sign of your boat}.”
6. Tell where you are: (what navigational aids or landmarks are near,
or read the latitude and longitude from your GPS).
7. State the nature of your distress, (e.g. are you sinking, medical
emergency, man overboard, on re, adrift, etc.)
8. State the type of assistance you need (medical, towing, pumps,
etc.).
9. Give number of persons aboard and conditions of any injured
persons.
10. Estimate present seaworthiness of your ship (e.g. how immediate is
the danger due to ooding or re or proximity to shore).
11. Briey describe your ship, giving the ship name (e.g. “Blue Duck is
32 foot cabin cruiser, white hull, blue deck house”).
12. Say: “I WILL BE LISTENING ON CHANNEL 16.”
13. End message by saying “THIS IS {name or call sign of your boat},
OVER.”
14. Release the push to talk button and listen.
If you do not get an answer after 30 seconds, repeat your
call, beginning at step 3, above.
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
Warning
The exclamation point within an equilateral triangle is
intended to alert the user to the presence of important
operating and maintenance (servicing) instructions in the
literature accompanying the appliance.
NOTE
Floating/Waterproof: JIS8
Uniden’s MHS127 radio is designed to meet the water proong standard of
JIS8 and will oat in water.
This Means: Protected against the effects of continuous immersion in water.
The MHS127 can withstand immersion in water up to 1.5m depth for 1hr.
Note this is not suitable for scuba diving.
The MHS127 will only meet this rating if fully assembled
and all rubber seals are well maintained and correctly tted.
This means that the carabiner clip is not connected and the
battery cover securely fastened.
NOTE
After your radio is submerged in water, you might notice that the sound is
distorted. This is because there is still water remaining in and around the
speaker and microphone. Just shake the radio to clear excess water, and the
sound should return to normal.
If your radio is exposed to salt water, clean your radio
thoroughly with fresh water, and dry it before turning it on.
NOTE
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
Contents
Making a Distress Call ..............................................................2
Warning ..................................................................................... 3
Introduction ............................................................................... 6
Features ................................................................................................. 6
Getting Started .......................................................................... 7
What’s Included? ....................................................................................7
Controls and Indicators ........................................................... 8
MHS127 Radio ....................................................................................... 8
Charger ................................................................................................ 10
Reading the Display ............................................................................. 10
How it Works? ......................................................................... 12
Normal Mode Operation ......................................................... 13
Normal mode with Triple Watch or Dual Watch ....................................13
Scan Mode Operation .......................................................................... 14
Using the radio in Scan Mode .............................................................. 14
Scan mode with Triple Watch or Dual Watch ....................................... 15
Weather Mode ......................................................................................15
Using the radio in Weather Mode .......................................... 15
Setting up the Hardware ....................................................... 16
Attaching the Antenna .......................................................................... 16
Installing the Battery ............................................................................. 16
Using the Alkaline Battery Tray ............................................................ 16
Mounting the Charger .......................................................................... 17
Charging the Battery ............................................................................ 18
Attaching the Belt Clip ..........................................................................18
Using Your Radio ....................................................................19
Turning It On ........................................................................................ 19
Setting It Up .......................................................................................... 19
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
Changing the Volume ........................................................................... 19
Setting the Squelch level ...................................................................... 19
Making a Transmission .........................................................................20
Selecting a channel .............................................................................. 20
Making a Transmission .........................................................................20
Boosting the transmission power ......................................................... 21
Saving Channels to Memory ............................................................... 21
Special Features .................................................................................. 22
Using the Strobe SOS Light/Flashlight ............................................... 22
Turning the key beep on and off ...........................................................22
Setting Key Lock .................................................................................. 22
Using the external speaker/Mic jack ..................................................... 23
Using the Battery Save feature ............................................................ 23
Maintenance and Troubleshooting ....................................... 24
Specications ......................................................................... 26
Channels and Frequencies (MHz) ......................................... 28
US Channel Frequencies and Names ..................................................28
Canadian Channel Frequencies and Names ....................................... 30
International Channel Frequencies and Names ................................... 32
Regulations and Safety Warnings ........................................ 34
Warranty .................................................................................. 35
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
Introduction
The MHS127 is a oating, waterproof, portable two-way VHF transceiver. It is
compact, lightweight, rugged and ts easily in your hand. This handheld VHF
marine radio will give you consistent, outstanding performance in virtually all
conditions and situations.
To ensure that you get the most from the MHS127’s features, please read this
operating guide carefully before using the unit.
Features
Your radio provides the following key features:
• Submersible design. Complies with oating JIS8/IPX8 water-resistant
standards.
• Memory Scan mode. Lets you save channels to memory and monitor them
in quick succession.
• Transmitter power level select/Boost. Lets you boost the transmitter power
from 1W to 2.5W or 5W for added transmission distance.
• Battery level display and low battery alert.
• Dual Watch: This mode lets you monitor Instant CH along with one regular
marine channel.
• Triple Watch: This mode lets you monitor 16CH, 67CH along with one
regular marine channel.
• Battery Save. The Battery Save feature automatically turns off RX power at
regular intervals to save battery power.
• SOS Strobe/Flashlight. A high intensity strobe LED can be set to blink an
SOS pattern or to be steady on.
• Emergency 16/67 Channel monitoring. Set unit to scan one or both of
these emergency channels regularly within normal scanning cycles.
• Key Lock. Locks keys to prevent accidentally changing channels or
entering data.
• Selectable Volume (0 - 9) and Squelch (0 - 3) levels.
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
Getting Started
What’s Included?
MHS127 Radio
Wrist Strap
Charging Cradle
Antenna
Lithium Ion Poly
Battery
Alkaline Battery Tray
(batteries not included)
AC-DC Charging
Adaptor
DC Charging
Adaptor
Screws
Belt Clip
• If any items are missing or damaged, contact your place of purchase
immediately. Never use damaged products!
• Need help? Get answers at our website:
www.uniden.com.au for Australian model
www.uniden.co.nz for New Zealand model.
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
Controls and Indicators
Antenna
Power
Push to talk
Boost
16/67-Tri
WX/SOS
DUAL/
LOCK
Strobe
SOS Light
Speaker
External Speaker
and microphone
jack
Wrist strap
anchor
LCD
Channel
up
VOL /
TX PWR
SQL/UIC
Channel down
INST
SCAN/MEM
Microphone
MHS127 Radio
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
Controls and Indicators
Belt Clip
Battery charging
contacts
Battery
latch
Battery
Button Press to... Press and hold to...
Power NA Turn the radio on or off.
PTT (Push to Talk) NA Talk/transmit on a channel.
Boost NA Transmit with a higher
power level.
16/67/TRI 1st press: Go to
channel 16.
2nd press: Go to
channel 67.
3rd press: Go back to
the starting channel.
Turn Triple Watch on and
off.
WX/SOS Select WX channel. Strobe SOS Light function.
Consecutive lighting
function.
DUAL/LOCK Select Dual Watch
function.
Select Key Lock function.
Channel Up Move up channel or
squelch/volume one
step at a time.
Move quickly up the
channels/ squelch/volume
steps.
SCAN/MEM Select Scan function. Save a channel into
memory or delete a
channel from memory.
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
Controls and Indicators
VOL/TX PWR Enter volume setting
condition.
Select transmit power L,
M or H.
SQL/UIC Enter squelch level
setting condition.
Select US, International or
Canadian mode.
INST Instant CH Call Instant CH programming
Charging
contacts
CHARGE LEDScrew holes
for mounting
Power jack
[cigarette (DC) or
wall (AC) plug]
Charging
latches
Reading the Display
Charger
The LCD display shows different information depending on what you are
doing. This sample screen shows some of this information. The following
table shows all the possible icons and what they mean.
Transmit
power level
This channel is
stored in memory.
Watch
mode
The radio is in
scan mode
Key lock
is on
The radio is
transmitting
Current
channel
number
UIC channel
mode
Battery
status icon
Weather
Channel
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
Controls and Indicators
Icon Detail
TX You are currently transmitting.
LO MID HI The transmitter power is set to L (Low - 1W), M (Mid
- 2.5W), or H (HIGH - 5W).
LOCK The keys are locked.
US, CAN, or INT Indicates if the radio is set for US channels,
CANadian channels, or INTernational channels.
TRI or DUAL TRIple Watch or DUAL Watch is turned on.
MEM The current channel is saved in memory.
SCAN The radio is in Scan mode.
WX The weather channels are displayed.
The battery is fully charged, mostly charged,
halfcharged, mostly empty, or completely empty.
88A Current channel number.
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
How it Works?
Your radio has three main operation modes: Normal, Scan and Weather.
Mode What it does Use it when you
want to...
To turn it on/off
Normal Monitors a single
marine channel and
lets you talk on that
channel.
Monitor a
channel or talk to
another radio.
(default mode)
Scan Monitors all the
channels you save
into memory.
Check a small
group of
regularly-used
channels for
trafc.
Press SCAN.
Weather Monitors the
selected weather
channel
Hear the current
or forecasted
weather.
Press WX/SOS
In addition to the three operation modes, your radio provides two different
watch modes which you can activate during any operation mode. In the watch
modes, the radio briey checks for activity on a specic channel, then returns
to its previous operation.
Watch
Mode
What it does To turn it on/off
Dual
Watch
Checks Instant CH for activity
every 2 seconds.
Press DUAL/LOCK.
Triple
Watch
Checks channels 16 and 67 for
activity every 2 seconds.
Press and hold 16/67/TRI
for 2 seconds.
Private boats must monitor channel 16 whenever they are
underway. Water-going vessels should have either Triple
Watch or Dual Watch on at all times.
NOTE
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Handheld VHF Marine TransceiverUNIDEN MHS127
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