Buying advice please, new vhf

[Laundryman]

I have Garmin gps 4008 plotter. Are there any benefits to be gained by buying a new Garmin. VHF, as opposed to any other. The Garmin blurb says that their vhf200i is compatable with my plotter. What is that going to do for me? Thank you. Alan

 

[Barry Jones]

By linking the two together, you can initiate DSC calls from the chartplotter and it offers some MOB related radio functionality.

 

[richardsnowstar]

I have a Garmin 4008 plotter and I use it with a Standard Horizon VHF. The 2 talk to each other using NMEA 0183 so the VHF has the lat/long position in it for when you need to push the DSC red button in an emergency.

Any VHF set communicating with your 4008 by NMEA will do some interfacing regarding DSC maydays but a Garmin set with NMEA 2000 will do a bit more.

See
http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/GPSMAP_4000-5000_Series_OM_EN.pdf
page 96 for the comparison of what different NMEA/VHF sets will do when connected to your 4008.

One other issue is that NMEA 2000 is easily connected using plugs where you will have to connect the wires on a NMEA 0183 VHF set.

Hope this helps.