Marine radio 19’ boat

alldodge

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The radio DOES come with built-in GPS. It's limited, but it shows your position, speed and bearing. If I remember right, it also has a MOB (man overboard) marker and waypoint logging capability. It transmits position with the DSC activation.

Badrano, It's fine. It's a functional VHF- not much else to say about it. Mine's biilt-in to teh dash. Bought it replace the original non-DSC radio when I bought the boat. Modern VHF's are pretty cool- they even have a "phone book". Plug in your buddy's IMSA id and call him. It rings just like a telephone on the other end.

What model number is it?

Edit: found it Standard Horizon GX1700 and go figure it does have a built in, learned something today :thumb:
 

JoLin

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Ray no longer supports a serial interface to VHF? Interesting...

My a78 doesn't. Didn't realize it until after I bought it. Need additonal Ray hardware to convert the GPS output to a NMEA standard input to the VHF. Cost might have been the same as buying a VHF with built-in GPS, but I needed a DSC-equipped VHF anyway.
 

JimS123

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In the olden days, "everybody" had a VHF, including the Sherriff, State Police boats and Coast Guard. Now, when I turn mine on, "nobody" is out there talking any more.

I have the cell phone numbers of the Sherriff, State Police, Coast Guard and SeaTow, so contact can be made in a minute. No need for a VHF any more.

However......if your boating area has no cell phone coverage, maybe you should think about a VHF. If you do have coverage, maybe you should log in the proper phone numbers.
 

southkogs

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Sure your not talking about a CB?
LOL :D

Same thing on our lakes. I've got a VHF on my boat, but the only thing I'll hear on a given day is the USCG announcement. On occasion, I'll hear a request for a radio check.

There are usually about 4 agencies operating on the lake I frequent at any given time. There are about seven that can be, plus Tow Boat U.S. They monitor the VHF, but not very much use. Even the tow boat prefers you contact them via cell phone for the location information it gives them.

Obviously, it's different on big water and even on our rivers where there's commercial traffic. But my area is much like Jim's.
 

alldodge

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I like not hearing the radio sounding but when calling folks are around. Biggest issue, is so many don't listen to 16, they stay on there own channel (not according to rules). That said my comment came from the Sheriff and State police, have not heard of them with marine radios.
 

JimS123

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Sure your not talking about a CB?

OMG, noooo. I think that was popular back in the 1980's when "Smokey and the Bandit" was at the the theaters. It was outdated on boats right after it was a gonner on boats.
 

dingbat

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Biggest issue, is so many don't listen to 16, they stay on there own channel (not according to rules).
There is no need to “listen” to 16. Most radios are dual watch. Automatically switche to 16 if a broadcast is picked up.

I’ve not picked up a civilian channel 16 alert in a number of years. Superseded by DSC transmissions ​​​​​​
 

alldodge

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Now where getting into splitting hairs. Many radios have dual watch/scan, but this requires it to be turned on/used. Marina's in my area are on different channels, 14, 16, 74 and some others. So if you scan any of these you hear, "Sam need you over at the gas dock" , "Bobby house 812 is at the bouy's" and so on.

Never heard a call on DSC but have caught a few on 16 and 71
 

porscheguy

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Actually it's not IMSA, it's MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity.) And when the VHF is connected to a GPS, or has internal GPS like the Standard Horizon 1700, as stated, you press the distress button and it broadcasts your position, speed, and course. Each radio gets its own number. When you register to get your number, you're entered into the coast guard database. From that number they can see your name, address at time of registration, vessel info, and IIRC, emergency contact info. So you essentially have the ability to transmit all of that info with the push of a single button. It's a valuable feature and many people who have boats with VHF never bother to utilize it.

I've got the standard horizon 1300 and my biggest regret is not spending the extra $50 to get the 1700. I've got mine connected to my GPS, but I'd much prefer the redundancy of having the internal GPS of the 1700.
 
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