which hand held vhf?

any model or features I should consider with my first purchase of a handheld? thanks.

[Shortwave]

VHF

Who you going to talk to?
Marine
Aircraft
Ham/Amateur

Just asking as there are many different users of VHF.

[cold zero]

survival radios

check out the vertec 700, i can talk to both aircraft and marine as well as getting weather and fm radio freqs. i recomend you get the marscom modification done. excellent waterproof rechargeable survival radio. about the size of a pack of smokes.

[Michael Strahan]

Icom

Check out ICOM. Mine is waterproof and uses AA batteries. How waterproof? It was submerged under 3' of water in the river (fell out of my pocket on a float hunt) and it still works.

-Mike