Panbo

The Marine Electronics Hub

Category: Safety & SAR

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Press Releases / Safety & SAR / AIS

ACR Electronics and Ocean Signal Develop Next-Gen EPIRBs Ahead of IMO’s 2022 Mandate

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…

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Press Releases / Safety & SAR / When things go wrong...

ACR: Search and Rescue Operation off Key Largo Saves Five Lives

Sea angler Jacob Tanner, from Broward County, Florida, has told how activating an ACR Electronics EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon) saved his and four other lives when a day out fishing went terrifyingly wrong. Jacob had taken his uncle and three of his uncle’s friends out in the family’s 25ft leisure fishing boat off Key Largo and had started kite fishing while drifting in around 150ft of open water. Waves were about 5 or 6ft, but slow rollers quite a distance apart…

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Press Releases / Safety & SAR / AIS

Milltech Marine Announces Acquisition and Eyes the Future

Milltech Marine, a global leader in marine safety specializing in Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) and communications systems, announced today it has been acquired by Jason Young, former Global Sales Director for Vesper Marine, a leading manufacturer of AIS solutions. Young has committed Milltech to continuing its legacy of exceptional customer service, while expanding its reach to small manufacturers looking to move into the American market…

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Navigation / Safety & SAR

Omnisense Ulysses Micro meets the FLIR M232, thermal cameras compared

When you think of a thermal night vision camera you might not think of Omnisense, but you probably do think of FLIR. Omnisense hopes to change that with their Ulysses line of thermal cameras. With a strong feature set, broad MFD support, and competitive features, it looks like an interesting comparison. I’ve been testing both the Omnisense Ulysses Micro and the FLIR M232. It’s been fun comparing the two and I see strengths and weaknesses to both but read on to see if there’s a clear winner.

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Editors' Blog / Navigation / Safety & SAR

2022 GPS rollovers: Furuno, Airmar, JRC, and who else?

While I certainly knew that it was not June 8 2002 when I took this photo last Saturday, the Sunrise/Sunset times shown above are also quite wrong, and it’s hard to tell what other calculations get screwed up when a networked device like this Maretron DSM starts receiving a system date that is 1,024 weeks old. Yes, the problem seems like the well-publicized April 1999 GPS week number rollover, except that it just happened a few weeks ago on the attached Airmar PB200, and lots of older gear from Furuno, JRC and probably other brands are experiencing a similarly delayed and under-publicized rollover in 2022…

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Editors' Blog / Navigation / Safety & SAR

Omnisense Ulysses Micro thermal camera testing underway

manufacturer other than FLIR, but these looked like high-quality cameras competing on performance and features, not just price. It took longer than I would have liked, but I now have an evaluation unit on hand and mounted on Panbo(at). Testing is underway and I’ll have much more to show soon, but the early results are certainly promising.

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Press Releases / Communications / Safety & SAR

Vesper Marine Releases Hailer and Fog Horn Functionality for All Existing Cortex Hubs

Vesper Marine, a leading manufacturer of innovative marine electronics, announced today the activation of Hailer and Fog-Horn capability on all existing Cortex M1 hubs when upgraded to software version 1.7. The free update also includes enhancements to VHF control and sensor flexibility…

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Press Releases / Navigation / Safety & SAR

Furuno DRS2DNXT Delivers Big Radar Features In A Small, Compact Package

Boaters with NavNet TZtouch, TZtouch2, or TZtouch3 systems and limited space for a Radar antenna will be excited to learn about a new option from Furuno that encompasses all of the Solid-State Doppler features that make their NXT Radars a must-have. The DRS2DNXT, just announced by Furuno, delivers all the features of the larger NXT Radars in a compact 19″ Radome. The DRS2DNXT is the perfect solution for smaller vessels or those desiring a compact backup Radar with the same features and modes their larger Radar provides…

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Communications / Safety & SAR / Monitoring & Tracking

Bivy Stick, ACR’s new satellite tracker with strong outdoor roots

For years ACR has touted the merits of EPIRBs and PLBs as the preferred way to summon help when lives are on the line. So, when ACR announced they’d purchased Bivy, the maker of the Bivy Stick two-way satellite messenger, I was immediately anxious to get my hands on one. Let’s see what got ACR into the two-way satellite messaging business.

2

Editors' Blog / Safety & SAR / The future

EPIRB and PLB Return Link Service, what’s the holdup?

Over 15 months ago, I got excited about the first PLB with Return Link Service (RLS), a Cospas-Sarsat system improvement that would let a boater know that their distress signal had been received ashore along with their location. And it was supposed to be operational in early 2020, at least for some regions, and RLS capable EPIRBs would soon follow. But you still can’t purchase Orolia’s FastFind ReturnLink or any other RLS beacon in the USA and some of the countries that do permit them only allow RLS PLBs while others only allow RLS EPIRBs. What happened?…