We had one on our last boat that was used in Winnipesuakee often and it was always turned on and monitoring channel 16 when we were underway. That said, it was quiet 99.99% of the time and I never used it for anything important in the 13 seasons we used it on the lake. There's good cell phone coverage so IMO, VHF is pretty redundant on the lake. I don't think MP monitors VHF, could be wrong though since I never tried to call them on it, but I never heard anyone else call them on VHF either...
VHF radios are an absolute must if you travel on the ocean or canals. We have 5 VHF radios (2 fixed and 3 portables) on our current boat in the ocean and we use them all the time. The portables go with the dinghy and two jet skis when we use them, but otherwise sit in their cradle chargers on the main boat. When we travel with other boats, we pick a flotilla channel to monitor with one radio and leave the other on 16. If any of the the other boats in the flotilla don't have two radios, we lend them one of our portables. Flotilla VHF comms are always done on low power if possible.
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