DSC without
GPS is close to useless - so you'd have to get a handheld with
GPS built in.
And East of Boothbay, DSC isn't going to be all that helpful anyways. No
commercial traffic to speak of in
Maine after
Portland. Coast Guard few and far between. The lobstermen will be quick to respond to a
radio call but don't tend to care about bells and whistles like DSC. Even some of the car ferries haven't installed
AIS. I don't think I've ever heard a DSC call in
Maine that wasn't caused by a guy (or his kid) pushing the wrong button.
Your bigger problem is that handheld range sucks. It's fine to call the other side of the harbor but useless over about 3 miles.
VHF is all about
antenna (and
antenna height). You'll get much better range if you get a fixed
VHF and tape a 3ft VHF sailboat antenna to the end of a
boat hook that you hold in the air
Here's a perfectly adequate fixed VHF for $100 that with a good antenna will run rings around any handheld and is even waterproof to 3ft - even has DSC
.
Cobra MR F45-D Fixed-Mount VHF Radio
No need to mount it. Just keep it in a
canvas bag with
battery clips or figure out a
power plug.