VHF Radio Repair/Replacement

[ralay]

We have a VHF radio with AIS from Standard Horizon that came with our boat.  It's the model pictured here:

http://www.standardhorizon.com/indexVS.cfm?cmd=DisplayProducts&DivisionID=3&ProdCatID=83&ProdID=1560

In the past month, the display has mysteriously stopped working.  The radio still functions and the display still backlights, but there are no longer any channel numbers, AIS info, etc. displayed on it.  I highly doubt that the warranty is transferable, so we're trying to decide what to do with it.  I got directions to reset the unit from SH, but to no avail. 

So the questions are:

A. Does anyone have any idea what could be wrong with the radio?  Is there some possibility that there is something user serviceable that we could fix?

B. Has anyone ever sent a radio back to the manufacturer for repairs?  Is it worth paying to ship and repair a radio that is probably several years old already?  Are there any other venues that do radio repairs?  Should we just buy a new one?

If it were a regular VHF, I think we would replace it before paying to have it fixed.  We are, however, VERY fond of the AIS feature.  There is a lot of commercial traffic here in Texas and the AIS has proved itself incredibly useful for picking out ships among all the oil platform lights, dealing with barge traffic in the ICW, and for dealing with such unpleasant situations as having squalls reduce visibility to zero while crossing the Galveston ship channels.  Unfortunately, this means a replacement will likely be more like $300-400.  Ideas?  Opinions?

[Tim]

I would check with SH Customer support, age can easily be identified by serial number and you might be surprised what they will do for you.

[mike_kelly]

I recently got a flat rate quote from them to fix my radio for $50. So it is worth calling and finding out the repair rate for your rig.

Good Luck