will new ship to shore radios hook up to old antenna

[gregorious]

someone stole my old radio while in winter storage so need to buy a new one what should i buy and will they hook up to the antenna already on the boat or have things changed???
thanks

 

[Splat]

Antenna connector should be a standard pl259. Same on the old as the new. Buy with the features you want. Pretty much all radios are going to work the same, a quality antenna makes a radio.

 

[NYBo]

Welcome to iboats!:welcome:

If you are in the US, all new fixed radios will come with DSC, so that important safety feature is a given. You can go hog-wild and get a unit with built-in AIS (Automatic Identification System) but this is useful only in larger navigable bodies of water with commercial traffic. Do you have a budget in mind?

 

[kjsAZ]

and as your new radio has to have DSC (mandatory) you will also have to add a GPS receiver. Otherwise it will complain all the time that it doesn't have GPS...... So far I have only seen the Standard Horizon 1700 with an integrated GPS receiver. You will also have to get an MMSI number. If you only boat in US waters the domestic version you can get via BoatUS is sufficient and free.

 

[jhebert]

..will [a new VHF Marine Band radio] hook up to the antenna already on the boat or have things changed?...

The VHF Marine Band is part of a global frequency allocation for the maritime radio service, so I don't expect you will see any changes in the frequency being used any time in the next 50-years. The antenna on your boat that worked last summer will work this summer.

 

[gregorious]

thanks for all of the answers, now about the gps part, i do have a gps on a tractor at home here it is a john deere star fire would that reciever work with a marine radio ? it has a magnetic base so would be easy to move back and forth

 

[gregorious]

oh and kjsAZ I did see in the book that I needed a mmsi number but don't know what it's for,why i need it or where to get it ?????? I am on lake erie out of long point in ontario canada. I bought a uniden solaraD radio and really only bought it for distress and weather do i still need a mmsi number ?? and where would i get one ?

 

[kjsAZ]

you need an MMSI number to make the emergency call button work. There are 2 ways to get one:
1. if you never boat outside US domestic waters you can get one for free from places like BoatUS. Enter your info online and it's done.
2. if you plan to go abroad (even Canada or Mexico or Bahamas) you need an international MMSI which you can get from the Coast Guard and it costs something around $160
No matter what "type" of MMSI you get your info is available to those who receive your emergency call. They then know what boat they have to look for. It is very important to fill the questions out complete when you register it and change it when you sell your boat and move the VHF over to a new one.
In an emergency the radio (with MMSI and GPS) will send out short bursts of data with your MMSI and current location until it receives an acknowledgement. Much safer and better than to try to communicate this via Ch16 reading GPS data from a screen.

The tractor GPS most likely won't work. I assume that you have a radio with NMEA0183 and not the more expensive ones with NMEA2000. You will need a GPS receiver and antenna (usually combined) which outputs the correct format in the correct method (NMEA0183 or NMEA2000). The NMEA0183 used for computer type GPS's can be made to work but I wouldn't recommend it if you don't have experience with electronics.
If you have a chart plotter with GPS it will output NMEA data you can feed into the VHF.

Ooops: just saw that you are in Canada. Sorry, don't know where you get the MMSI there for sure but this may be a start:
http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst...g/sf08138.html
Most likely some more info is also in the manual.

Edit: just downloaded the manual of your radio and it contains all the info on how to connect different GPS units (NMEA0183) to it (page 29). It also contains all the info what DSC is and how it works......

 

[jhebert]

The GPS receiver from your tractor will work just fine on a boat. The G in GPS stands for GLOBAL. A GPS receiver works anywhere on the planet. There is nothing in the Global Positioning System that is specific to a particular vehicle. The only possible consideration is vehicle speed. If you are traveling in a very fast vehicle, say a super-sonic aircraft, your GPS receiver from the tractor might not be quite optimum.

For MMSI registration of a Canadian vessel see

http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/smt-gst...g/sf08138.html

 

[kjsAZ]

There's a tiny difference between the usual NMEA0183 and its marine implementation. It can or can not work depending on the equipment. Todays marine NMEA0183 is an RS422 (differential) configuration to allow for optical isolation. The conventional NMEA0183 is a single ended RS232. Officially these RS422 receiver IC's can be driven single ended but the voltage level with RS232 can either be 5V (or TTL which is 3.3Vmin for high) or full level. I am always careful as the GPS may have full level RS232 (+/-8 to 15V, the USglobalsat BR-355 has that) and the receiver may not be able to handle that voltage.
Unfortunately the Uniden spec (like so many others) doesn't contain the levels. It can/may work but without specs it's a bit of a risk that damage happens.
Yes, any GPS will work everywhere (OK, balloon guys will disagree as most of them have a maximum altitude unless they have high altitude firmware) but the voltage levels can/may be a problem.

 

[NYBo]

The GPS receiver from your tractor will work just fine on a boat.

As a standalone unit, yes. The issue is whether it can be interfaced with his radio, and that's unlikely.

 

[kjsAZ]

exactly. I just thought of a potential other issue: the GPS needs a supply voltage too and most of these pucks need a 5V supply which is not provided by the radio. I used the USglobalsat BR-355 for myself and several friends but I made a small "converter box" which contains an RS232 to RS422 level converter and a 5V power supply which automatically turns on when the VHF is powered up. Still a lot cheaper than a "marine GPS" and I know that it comes with a good GPS chip (older ones with SiRF III, new one with SiRF IV).

 

[jhebert]

As a standalone unit, yes. The issue is whether it can be interfaced with his radio, and that's unlikely.

If the criterion is whether that particular person can accomplish the interface, then I agree--unlikely. But just about every GPS made has some sort of data serial output and the data is almost always in NMEA-0183 sentences. Under that view, it can be interfaced. By the way, there is no sure bet his radio follows any real standard about its signals. Interconnecting NMEA-0183 is not very straightforward in any circumstance.

 

[NYBo]

Interesting. Is there a way to, say, connect USB input/output to NMEA 0183?

 

[kjsAZ]

Meanwhile it seems to be a lot better. I tested 14 new radios from Standard Horizon, Raymarine, Uniden, Cobra, Lowrance and Icom over the past 6 months and they all had NMEA0183 according to the latest specifications. Dead easy to connect to marine GPS/chart-plotter if one can read the colors of the wires and the manuals. These were all DSC Class D. IN+ goes to OUT+, IN- to OUT- aso...
The worst time was when there were still old type RS232 and new RS422 on the market (both for radio and GPS/chart-plotters) but that time has long gone..

Interesting. Is there a way to, say, connect USB input/output to NMEA 0183?

only when you "process" the data with a micro-controller with a serial and a master-USB port..... Not worth the effort. That's why I use the RS232 pucks and the little level converter, no micro required and fits into a 1.5x1.5" enclosure. If you have CMOS RS232 (like the Garmin puck) it's one IC. If it's full level (like the USglobalsat) then you better use two IC's.

 

[jhebert]

Meanwhile it seems to be a lot better. I tested 14 new radios from Standard Horizon, Raymarine, Uniden, Cobra, Lowrance and Icom over the past 6 months and they all had NMEA0183 according to the latest specifications.

I haven't seen your test reported elsewhere. Are the details available?

I seriously doubt all those devices complied with the NMEA-0183 recommendations. Many devices still use unbalanced signals, particularly for the TALKER. Almost all devices use their own wire insulation color codes, which do not conform to the NMEA-0183 standard.

Also, are you a NMEA member? I am curious how you obtained their complete specifications. Did you purchase them?

 

[kjsAZ]

I worked (contracted) for a company doing NMEA designs which is a member. Unfortunately the wire colors aren't really standardized and as usual with NMEA the standards can be "interpreted" by the members. It's worse with the 2000 where everyone seems to make modifications to be unique.
There's nothing published as it was proprietary work. I was surprised too but they all were according to the new recommendations (that's all NMEA is). Probably because they were all new designs and not left overs from the past?

Edit: forgot to mention that the radios I tested were all the European type approved models. I doubt that the hardware for the NMEA interface is different to the US models but it could be as some have differences in the rest of the radio. The other good news was that the mass-produced parts (randomly purchased) also met the type approval specs within the allowed tolerances.