Standard Horizon Marine
VHF Radio Reviews

Standard Horizon marine is a division of Vertex Standard. They have been designing, building, and supplying top-quality marine electronics to recreational and commercial boaters for over 50 years.

Currently they market a full line of fixed mount marine VHF radios, a number of handheld marine radios, several marine chartplotters, as well as a black box sounder that couples to their chartplotters.

Recently the company revamped their entire fixed mount marine VHF radio lineup.

This new series of fixed mount marine VHF radios share a few model names with the earlier line of units—Eclipse, Quest, and Matrix are still around—but with all the new electronic upgrades and feature innovations model numbers have been fully redone.

Standard Horizon Combines VHF and AIS

The latest innovation from Standard Horizon combines a full functioning VHF radio with an automated information system (AIS) receiver. This new-to-the-market combination has been designated the Standard Horizon GX2100 Matrix AIS.

Standard Horizon Now has Entry Level Radios

Standard Horizon never really paid much attention to the very inexpensive entry level radio market until the recent release of the sub $100 Standard Horizon GX1000S Eclipse. Now they have taken direct aim at the least expensive marine VHF radios on the market.

An even newer version of this radio, the Standard Horizon GX1100S Eclipse DSC+ is the upgraded version of their entry level radio. It features a class D digital selective calling rating instead of the SC101 rating of the GX1000S.

Mid-Priced VHFs

Standard Horizon has a number of mid-level marine VHF radio models on the market today. One of the leaders in its price range is the Standard Horizon GX1500S Quest X with its biggest in class display screen.

Another mid-priced workhorse is the brawny Standard Horizon GX3000S Matrix.

It was only a couple of years ago that the entry level Standard Horizon marine VHF was the GX1255S Quest. The mid-priced stalwart was the Standard Horizon GX1280S Matrix.

Standard Horizon also had one mid-level radio that was designed for behind the scenes mounting. All functions on the Standard Horizon PS1000 Phantom are controlled using the RAM+ microphone.

Top-of-the-Line and Commercial Grade VHF Radios

The two marine VHF radios riding at the pinnacle of the Standard Horizon lineup today are the Standard Horizon GX5000S.

And the alpha-numeric keypad equipped Standard Horizon GX5500S.

The recently released Standard Horizon 5000-series VHFs replaced a venerable pair. The superior Standard Horizon GX2360S Quantum only lacked a keypad in its long feature list.

The slightly more expensive keypad-equipped Standard Horizon GX3500S Quantum also fell out of the lineup in 2008.

We long-term tested the GX2360S on our Contender test boat for two years. It offered outstanding performance and reliablity throughout the test period.