Here are a few more thoughts on Radios

1. helm location I find it really important to have a radio at the helm location. Most of the time when you are using the radio it is for navigation coordination purposes. You might be entering a marina, avoiding another vessel or hailing a friend you see on the horizon. At any rate it is important to have a radio at the helm. This can be achieved in a few different ways. You could have a fixed mount radio. This is optimal as it will will serve as a backup to another radio that may be located in side the accommodations at the navigation station. A second alternative is a RAM mic, which is an extension microphone with channel control that simply plugs in at the helm. Not quite as good as a separate fixed mount radio as there is no redundancy. A third alternative is a portable/handheld. The drawback here is that it may not always be there when you need it and it will be not as powerful due to the antenna height and relative power output.
2. good visibility. When mounting a fixed mount radio or a RAM mike it is always important to choose a location that you can easily see the display from your normal helm position. When someone is hailing and you want respond and select a working frequency this should be easy to do and you should not have to do any boat yoga to achieve the desired results.
3. not to close to compass. People often forget about their magnetic compasses and clutter up the area above and below with various electronics including radios. Compasses should not have any electronics, wires or ferrous metal within a meter of them. It continues to boggle my mind when I see a binnacle with a large cluster of electronics directly above a magnetic compass. That compas will be useless in an emergency.
4. construction of mount: Here is a shot of all the components to make a great mount on the side of the cockpit that allows me to look straight at the radio. The year before I had to stoop down and turn my head sideways to see the screen! Great boat project for February.