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Topic starter
March 18, 2019 9:55 pm
Posing a couple of questions to the experts: My Boat is a 2007 Hunt Yachts Surfhunter 29, Volvo D6-435 with a MJP Jet Drive. Present electronics; Raymarine E120, Raymarine RD424, Simrad AP28; ICOM 504. All equipment is original to the boat. I’m not sure upgrading an entire navigation suite is worth the money at this time or in the budget.
I also have 2 iPad’s with apps that I have been using for primary navigation along with the E120. So far that has worked well.
I would like to install an ICOM 506 with AIS; will it talk to the chart plotter? The electronics shop at home base is not sure and will not guarantee it will work.
Would it be better to install a stand alone AIS transmitter/receiver that will work with the E120, obviously with a separate antenna(how close can the antennas be)? What manufacturer AIS would be recommended and Install ICOM 506 w/o AIS. If upgrading navigation suite in the future I would probably use Garmin or Raymarine. I had a new Garmin 7610xsv installed on my Hunt Harrier 25, it worked very well and was easy and intuitive to use. A couple of summers ago I cruised the Hunt 25 from Portsmouth, RI., to Bradenton, FL. The Garmin and iPad worked very well together. Suggestions to equipment are welcome. I will continue to use the ICOM radios since it fits well in the panel. Although home-base is Atlanta, I cruise every few months. This summer will be the Chesapeake and possibly Maine or southern New England.
March 20, 2019 12:24 pm
For Icom 506, connecting to an open 0183 port on the E120 that can be set to 38400 bps should work fine, AIS receive only.
Raymarine AIS700 might seem obvious if you want a transceiver. If you dig in the docs you'll find E120 has to be connected to AIS700 0183 anyway and the bigger problem is you cannot upgrade the AIS700 firmware without having a much newer Raymarine plotter, even though the manual say you can use the USB port.
I think a better choice for your situation may be a Garmin AIS800 since you are leaning Garmin in the future. Not sure if AIS800 firmware can be upgraded without a Garmin plotter.
Also Raymarine AIS700 is external antenna only, Garmin AIS800 has an internal antenna with an optional external antenna.
Topic starter
March 22, 2019 5:16 pm
Decided to keep current Nav suite. Not worth the upgrade at this time. Navigation Apps offer a ton of great information. I’ve been using Aqua Map since it came out and Navionics too. So the choice is the Raymarine 700 or Garmin 800. Garmin has a built in antenna, Raymarine uses spitter for a shared antenna. Any opinions which will work better with my E120 which has been upgraded as far as it can go and I understand the AIS will be able to upgrade with the older system
Thanks
March 22, 2019 5:43 pm
Both Raymarine AIS700 and Garmin AIS800 have built-in VHF splitters. Garmin unit has internal GPS antenna and optional external GPS antenna. You won't be able to upgrade the AIS700. Not sure how Garmin does upgrades, I think it is from a big file with everything from a Garmin plotter.
There are other options, Digital Yacht has a comparable unit where it looks like they have not needed to issue a firmware update but it's likely done with a Windows PC since they don't sell plotters.
https://digitalyachtamerica.com/product/ait5000/
Whatever you pick, you don't want to be stuck having to ship the unit out for firmware upgrades.
Topic starter
March 23, 2019 11:48 am
Thanks for the digital yacht link. This might be a great option
https://digitalyachtamerica.com/product/nomad/
Although the range is limited, in low visibility like I had from Block Island to Stonington I was concerned about traffic that was 1-3 miles away. The portability is very appealing too. Opinions are very welcome
Topic starter
March 23, 2019 12:26 pm
Topic starter
March 25, 2019 6:00 pm
Ordered the Digital Yachts Nomad this morning after talking with them. Until the end of the month they are offering 20% off on orders, use promo code Spring19. They also said Defender Industries will offer a special. It should work well with iPads etc. I will upgrade my VHF. But the required Raymarine cable R08004 is not made anymore that works with a classic E120–found one new on eBay.
Raymarine and ICOM techs were very helpful today, as was DY.
This post was modified 5 years ago by Malcolm Douglas
May 13, 2019 7:55 pm
Picking up on the same thread here, I have a 20 year old sailboat with 15 year old electronics - everything works great but I don't have AIS and would like it. For purposes of this note, I have a Raymarine E-80 chartplotter and a fairly old VHF radio; both are stand alone devices (the chartplotter has GPS). I am considering purchasing a replacement radio and am hopeful that the Standard Horizon GX-2200 has a NMEA 0183 output with enough AIS data to enable my E-80 to display targets as an AIS overlay. Currently, the Seatalk1 port is being used by a Raystar 125 GPS and I am hoping to plug the GX-2200 output right into the NMEA 0183 port, sprinkle some fairy dust and BOOM, the whole thing will work. For brevity, I'll leave it at that.
Am I within reason? Are there better VHFs with integrated AIS and/or AIS NMEA 0183 output you might recommend?
Jeff
S/V Zephyrus
Bavaria 38 Ocean
Topic starter
May 13, 2019 8:21 pm
Standby, I’m having an ICOM M605 installed next week. I had Standard Horizon with AIS receive on a previous boat and it worked well. Since the Garmin was newer it was 2000 vs 183. I’ll know how it works late next week!
Topic starter
May 13, 2019 8:23 pm
Correction. Fat fingers—- ICOM 506 not 605
May 14, 2019 10:28 am
Thank you. Looking forward to your feedback and standing by...
Jeff SV Zephyrus
Topic starter
June 19, 2019 10:21 pm
After spending days with Raymarine and Icom and $$$. The Icom 506 with AIS Receive: The Icom will NOT talk to the E120 Classic on 0183, only on 2000. It won’t even talk with the GPS antenna to get position and time. So DSC is not useful at this time. Fortunately my 2 handheld are both GPS/NAV.. Icom has to use 2000, maybe a Standard Horizon would work. I might convert the system to 2000.
