The Marine Electronics Hub
This entry is mainly about the new Em-Trak Nexus VHF/AIS/MOB system intriguingly diagramed above. Nexus was previewed at METS and will hopefully come to market later this year, but I’d like to preface the...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE — Marine technology company savvy navvy has rolled out Over the Horizon AIS (OHA) in its latest app update. OHA uses the phone’s internet connection to stream other vessels’ locations in real-time...
We are excited to release the all new Over the Horizon AIS (OHA) feature on the DataHub. View AIS data out to 300nm, directly on your chart-plotter and nav apps, so you can sail safer. Over the Horizon AIS (OHA) increases your AIS range from as low as 5nm to 300nm! If you are sailing at 10 kt using regular AIS and a container ship is…
Orca makes some pretty heady claims about their CoPilot navigation app and hardware. Their home page is dominated by the tagline, “The ultimate navigation experience” and promises “Better boating with Orca.” Those are bold statements, but Orca’s goals are indeed ambitious. Orca aims to deliver a smarter, more automated navigation experience by leveraging both their own and off-the-shelf hardware. So, how far along the path to delivering the ultimate navigation experience has Orca progressed so far? Let’s take a look.
Hallelujah! ACR recently began shipping its ResQLink AIS PLB to customers in the U.S. and the Americas. Meanwhile, the company’s sibling UK brand Ocean Signal has been offering the same remarkable technology to the rest of the world since November as the RescueMe PLB3. The beacons are exactly the same except for color — as shown in my METS demo photo above — and regardless of the possibly confusing dual branding, I call them a huge advance in marine safety…
Safety and survival specialist ACR Electronics has announced that its new ResQLink AIS Personal Locator Beacon is fully approved and available to the U.S. market. The ground-breaking smartphone-connected device will be on show to U.S. boaters for the first time at this year’s Miami International Boat Show. The ResQLink AIS PLB is the most comprehensive communication set on the market for a rapid response and rescue, offering significant benefits to a range of sailors and cruisers, racing, fishing, watersport and outdoor enthusiasts…
Although it acquired Vesper Marine in January of 2022, even today Garmin’s VHF/AIS product pages only list the Cortex and its accessories. The entire WatchMate product line is conspicuously absent from the product list, and the Vesper name is absent from the Cortex items. In retrospect, these are telling ommissions, as today Garmin confirmed that the WatchMate XB-6000, XB-8000 and Vision2 have all been discontinued, soon to be followed with the Vesper brand name.
Safety and survival specialist ACR Electronics launched its advanced AIS Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB) and AIS Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) to customers and partners in the commercial sector at this year’s SMM in Hamburg…
The Simrad NSX may be a value-oriented chart plotter in Simrad’s lineup but “value model” doesn’t tell the story of how important NSX is to Simrad’s, and Navico’s, future. NSX is the first MFD running on Navico’s Neon operating system. I’ve been using an NSX in Panbo(at) for the last several months and I’m pleased to report NSX is an upgrade from the Simrad Go it replaced in nearly every dimension. If this is Navico’s future, the future is bright.
Safety specialists ACR Electronics and Ocean Signal have announced the development of next generation EPIRBs which meet upcoming standards and incorporate more features to significantly enhance the chance of rescue in an emergency. Introducing integrated AIS (Automatic Identification System) within their EPIRBs for the first time in conjunction with further new technology, ACR and Ocean Signal will launch the advanced beacons this year ahead of the enforcement of new updated IMO (International Maritime Organization) Maritime Safety Committee EPIRB regulations…
