john980
New member
Dear Sir,
I hope that you will publish this letter of woe, in the hope that it will help others not to make the same mistake as I did recently. The mistake was mine and I take responsibility for it.
Just before Christmas I decided to treat myself to a new MFD (combined chartplotter and fishfinder)
1) I needed a reliable modern chartplotter with charts, that supported AIS. (As my 3 year old tablet based system had successfully done, with the excellent QUARK AIS receiver.)
2) I needed a button driven MFD, because I believed that I could operate it much more accurately in a choppy sea, than a touch screen model.
Because Garmin had wi-fi and Active Captain (a phone based app, which could update and interface with the MFD ), it just pipped Raymarine’s MFD’s.
So far, so good.
I googled “Does Garmin Echomap have AIS” and “How do I set up AIS on Garmin Echomap?”and in my excitement I made these 2 errors.
I did not read the small, or should I say, the no print, of Garmin's adverts.
I ASSUMED that three years after I had set up a system to show AIS images on my tablet display and 16 years after using an excellent Standard Horizon chartplotter with AIS, that no marine navigation system sold today would exclude this feature.
WRONG!!!
As my Garmin had 2 spare wires coming out of the back of it, I ASSUMED that they could be connected to my existing NMEA setup.
When this did not work I contacted Garmin Marine Support, who eventually admitted that Garmin Echomap UHD2 cv models have NO ability to display AIS images !
So if you want to use this essential safety measure at sea, learn from my mistake :- DO NOT BUY a Garmin Echomap UHD2 cv model.
Garmin Marine Support also told me that there appeared no prospect of Garmin correcting this omission.
Save up another £250 or more for the sv model or GPSMAP models, if you want to buy Garmin.
No excuses; my fault and I cannot exchange it! Anyone want to buy a very nearly new MFD, for use on inland lakes??
Yours faithfully ,
J T Calton
P.S. Oh, and then there was the choice of, which transducer? I chose a GT 24TM, but please argue amongst yourselves, I do not want to hear how wrong I was, I already suspect!
I hope that you will publish this letter of woe, in the hope that it will help others not to make the same mistake as I did recently. The mistake was mine and I take responsibility for it.
Just before Christmas I decided to treat myself to a new MFD (combined chartplotter and fishfinder)
1) I needed a reliable modern chartplotter with charts, that supported AIS. (As my 3 year old tablet based system had successfully done, with the excellent QUARK AIS receiver.)
2) I needed a button driven MFD, because I believed that I could operate it much more accurately in a choppy sea, than a touch screen model.
Because Garmin had wi-fi and Active Captain (a phone based app, which could update and interface with the MFD ), it just pipped Raymarine’s MFD’s.
So far, so good.
I googled “Does Garmin Echomap have AIS” and “How do I set up AIS on Garmin Echomap?”and in my excitement I made these 2 errors.
I did not read the small, or should I say, the no print, of Garmin's adverts.
I ASSUMED that three years after I had set up a system to show AIS images on my tablet display and 16 years after using an excellent Standard Horizon chartplotter with AIS, that no marine navigation system sold today would exclude this feature.
WRONG!!!
As my Garmin had 2 spare wires coming out of the back of it, I ASSUMED that they could be connected to my existing NMEA setup.
When this did not work I contacted Garmin Marine Support, who eventually admitted that Garmin Echomap UHD2 cv models have NO ability to display AIS images !
So if you want to use this essential safety measure at sea, learn from my mistake :- DO NOT BUY a Garmin Echomap UHD2 cv model.
Garmin Marine Support also told me that there appeared no prospect of Garmin correcting this omission.
Save up another £250 or more for the sv model or GPSMAP models, if you want to buy Garmin.
No excuses; my fault and I cannot exchange it! Anyone want to buy a very nearly new MFD, for use on inland lakes??
Yours faithfully ,
J T Calton
P.S. Oh, and then there was the choice of, which transducer? I chose a GT 24TM, but please argue amongst yourselves, I do not want to hear how wrong I was, I already suspect!
