The Marine Electronics Hub
It looks and acts like an EPIRB, but is, in fact, a simplified voyage data recorder (S-VDR). “Like black boxes carried on aircraft, S-VDRs enable accident investigators to review procedures and instructions in the moments...
I’ve never much liked the practice of inserting insulators in a sailboat’s backstay to create an SSB antenna; I want my backstays in one piece, thank you. Thus the Gam/McKim Split Lead Single Side Band Antenna looks like a...
A bonus of my trip to Annapolis was getting to try Maptech’s third generation i3. I first saw this system back in 2001, when it was being developed as the Sea Ray Navigator (and it’s...
Monitoring and control systems can potentially do anything. Once you have a system of sensors, cable backbones, PCs, screens, and so forth performing the core task of collecting and distributing information and system commands, well...
I was out testing in bright sunshine Saturday morning, and the screen on the Garmin 192C stood up very well. In fact this is the worst image I got, and it’s still quite readable (bigger...
Big power outage here earlier this morning…coffee bean grinder no grind, DSL modem no blink…I’m definitely off my stride. I’m declaring this an OFI Friday, and will soon be off to fool with the fleet. If you’re...
There’s an interesting thread about the Chinese-built SmartRadio AIS receiver (click ENG upper left when you get there) over at rec.boats.electronics, but I would caution readers that the $200 price cited seems to be introductory wholesale. (The dual...
I missed the fact that WSI, the company behind Weather Channel Marine, inked a deal with Sirius Satellite Radio in March. “Our goal is to offer the gold standard of marine services”. This is good...
One of the most interesting back stories in the marine electronics world is how the planet’s largest boatbuilder, Brunswick Corporation, bought up a series of companies like Navman and Northstar and formed a division called...
This weekend’s mail included Simrad’s “Navigation Tutorial” DVD, which is pretty darn impressive. Of course there is some ‘sell’ to it, but there’s also some sharp footage of boats and extensive, well done explanations of...
