Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Yearly Archive: 2009

Trends in marine electronics, your thoughts please! 44

The future

Trends in marine electronics, your thoughts please!

Garmin_5212_GMR24HD_cPanbo.JPG

I’m working on a January Yachting feature about trends in marine electronics, and I’d appreciate your feedback.  One thing I’m fairly sure of is that multifunction displays have come a long way in recent years, and justifiably dominate the mid size boat market.  I took a solo overnight expedition last week, and had to note again that each of the four MFD/radar systems currently installed on Gizmo is pretty darn powerful.  Especially if you imagine yourself five to ten years back in marine electronics.  Note how the Garmin 24HD radome is imaging and overlaying that low ledge seen off to starboard, without any tuning, and also the NMEA 2000 data flowing onto the 5212 screen (and every other display aboard).  Note, too, the iPhone on the dash — right then running SailTrac, a trip tracking and blogging program I’ll write about soon — and the Standard Horizon HX850S, which also has a GPS and is ready to call in the cavalry via DSC should I screw up.  There are many trends to consider…

Tim Thurston, map maker extraordinaire 13

Charts

Tim Thurston, map maker extraordinaire

Tim_Thurston_Lake_Megunticook_cPanbo.JPG

Tim Thurston earned that grin.  We were out on Lake Megunticook last week, randomly comparing the digital map I helped Navionics make last fall with the survey work Tim did for his little Maine Lake Charts company at about the same time.  And while that little islet in the background is on the beautifull MLC paper map Tim made, and on that Garmin Etrex he managed to put his digital data on, it was completely missing from the Navionics map!  While this is a shallow and somewhat out-of-the-way spot I steered us to — and both maps are way, way better than what was available right until to this summer — I tend to think that Tim got the details better.  Unfortunately boater can’t make best use of those details just yet…

New Interphase FLS, high end & economy 4

Fishing & Sonar

New Interphase FLS, high end & economy

EchoPilot_Bronze_2002_cPanbo.JPG

Even though the EchoPilot Foward Looking Sonar (FLS) I tried back in 2002 couldn’t see very far and wasn’t reliable (kelp seemed able to hide even steep Maine ledges), it hooked me on the potential of the technology.  In tricky waters my eye regularly flicked to that little screen above, hoping to see the bottom ahead.  Thus I got excited when Furuno previewed a purportedly powerful FLS in 2005, and again when hints arose last winter.  But that product has never surfaced.  Interphase, however, is attacking FLS issues from two directions…

Lowrance StructureScan, hands on #1 21

Fishing & Sonar

Lowrance StructureScan, hands on #1

Lowrance_StructureScan1_cPanbo.JPG

On Monday I spent a few hours cruising around the Harbor and Bay with Lowrance’s StructureScan module attached to an HDS-10.  Impressive!  This upstart seemed to image the bottom as well as the Humminbird 1197C I was also running, and Humminbird has completely owned this niche for years.  Lowrance’s side imaging is also easier to use.  Humminbird SI, for instance, doesn’t have an auto range feature that adjusts the displayed bottom width (and resolution) according to the depth, nor does it have the useful soft keys seen above.  They both work pretty well, though, and the more I use them, the more I think they’re valuable to fisherman and even cruisers…

18″ radomes #6, MARPA & True Wakes edition 7

Navigation

18″ radomes #6, MARPA & True Wakes edition

Raymarine_MARPA_true_motion.JPG

Though it’s been a while since I wrote about the radome testing, I still feel overwhelmed with what I’ve learned to date, and not done yet.  And at this point — harbor emptying out, cold and dreary — the images are becoming nostalgic.  On the beautiful day above I was off Camden as the area’s fleet of “dude schooners” gathered for the Windjammer Festival.  Besides enjoying the scene (note the gentle sailing breeze, and also the indication that True Wind and Ground Wind are indeed different, as recently discussed), I intented to use the fleet as MARPA targets.  But I got sidetracked by a feature that partially does the work of MARPA without having to cursor around and select targets.  Click on the screen above and I’ll explain…

Cruising with Dan in Annapolis 7

Navigation

Cruising with Dan in Annapolis

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Guest Entry by Dan Corcoran

My family and I took a road trip to the Annapolis Boat show this weekend, where I took up a challenge from Ben to write on some products I find, and do so with a conservation of words (rather than my normal verbose style).  Disclaimer: These are not my normal on the water reviews, everything appearing below has not been evaluated or researched by your humble correspondent in the slightest bit!

AIS, raves & rants 39

AIS

AIS, raves & rants

ShipFinder_New_England_cPanbo.JPG

The iPhone AIS app Ship Finder got updated a few weeks back, and darned if it didn’t add a large Eastern Seaboard feed that even includes the Penobscot Bay listening stations set up by the local pilots.  That feed hasn’t been public for some time, and I’m tickled to have it in my pocket, even if the data is delayed an hour.  Ship Finder is improved in several other ways, too, and has become one of my favorites.  Red Sky, incidentally, is a handsome 30m Swan that’s been hanging around Camden this summer.  Now I know she’s at Lyman Morse in Thomaston, which is near enough to the Rockland listening tower that her 2 watt Class B transponder gets picked up.  The same tower doesn’t see even 12 watt Class A’s in Camden, largely because of the hills, but if I get down the Bay next week (hoping), maybe I can engage in some AIS-style navel gazing?  And, now, for more serious matters…

FLIR First Mate, thermal in your hand 13

Safety & SAR

FLIR First Mate, thermal in your hand

FLIR FirstMate.jpg

A significant product introduction at the NMEA Conference was the FLIR First Mate, a hand held thermal camera that’s truly designed for marine use and will list for a hair under $3,000.  Mind you, it does not use light intensification technology, or a near IR illuminator, like most every other marine night vision monocular.  This is the real thermal deal, able to see long wave infrared radiation that has nothing to do with visible, or near visible, light.  Like the FLIR M-636 I’ve begun testing, it can see in total darkness, and even in broad daylight it often sees in a usefully different way than your eye.  For instance, an MOB is going stand out like a light bulb regardless of water or skin color.  FLIR being FLIR, they took us all out on San Carlos Bay with a boat load of First Mates and other thermal cams…

VOJ to NZ, with OpenPort, FB150, & more 20

Communications

VOJ to NZ, with OpenPort, FB150, & more

VOJ_Sat_Test_courtesy_Gram.JPG

Anyone with an interest in cutting edge satellite communications should get excited about this photo.  You’re seeing the 62′ sloop Visions of Johanna (VOJ) almost all set to compare Iridium OpenPort and KVH Inmarsat FB150 systems in real blue water conditions.  When Bill Strassberg and Gram Schweikert began finalizing plans for The Big Trip from Maine to New Zealand and back, they wanted a voice and Internet system more reliable than the Globalstar set up they’ve used for years, and more powerful than the Iridium handset service I brought along on our Bermuda to Maine passage.  They decided to purchase the OpenPort system themselves, but knowing how able and fair Gram is as an electronics tester, I helped introduce him to KVH, who kindly loaned VOJ the TracPhone 150 above.  Gram just finished the FB install in Panama, where they’re about to transit the canal, and he plans to write up a series of short- and long-term tests as they cruise the Pacific.  You’ll read all about the project here and hopefully in longer articles for Yachting and Cruising World.  In fact, here’s Gram setting the scene: