Cobra MR F55 EU DSC radio ?

Refueler

Refueler

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Just waiting postman to hand over the box - having hunted down best deal IMHO.

So what I'm asking - has anyone found any quirks, tricks, likes / dislikes with their Cobra MR F55 set ? Was it critical about antena ? (I have seen some makes that are very touchy about antena connections).
 
If it's anything like my MR 75 it should be great. The only problem I had was getting it to talk to my Garmin GPSmap176 - soon solved, courtesy of the excellent Yahoo GPS users group. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Re the antenna, I don't think that they are that fussy. I changed my antenna two weeks ago after the previous one (VTronix) blew off c/w windex. Judging by the state of corrosion that I found in the bit that remained at the top of the mast it is a wonder that anyone was hearing me at all!
 
Thanks for that ... I already have the twin pack of Cobra handhelds and well pleased with those.
One reason for chossing the MR F55 was the display of Lat Long - giving me a position repeater without wiring in a true GPS repeater display - at a truly budget price ... OK some other sets display Co & Spd as well .....
 
We've just purchased the SH GX1500 - that (reportedly) not only displays lat/long, but COG & SOG too ....
 
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We've just purchased the SH GX1500 - that (reportedly) not only displays lat/long, but COG & SOG too ....

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Bet you didn't pay £84.99 for it though !! even with £12 p&p it still comes in cheaper than anything else with position display that I could get sent to me here in Latvia. Forget locally here - they think you only want Raymarine ! and then it's not the budget RM gear !!
 
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na - it was 120. .... but then it can take a remote fist mike too ....

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Nice .... but I'm a 25ft'r ... so not much call for a remote mike station. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Just fitted one with the help of lots of lovely people on the forum - and wired in a GPS - so I am one very chuffed 15 yr old having naffed of a kid in my school doing Physics!!
AND it worked first time very loud and clear - if a kid can make it work you can

Mel
 
Well it arrived ... and very pleased I am as well ... it's nice and compact ... buttons big enough for my fat pudge fingers. Simple and obvious how to work.

Made new mount to move to new location from old ... shortened antena cable ... wired in and bingo. NMEA cable is as simple as you can get ... ground and +nmea .... took 30secs to get Lowrance 3500C talking to it. Another 30 secs to get the eTrex talking to it as back-up if Lowrance fails. That's with still leaving PC feed from eTrex and-or Lowrance in place as well.

Yes - I'm a happy chappy !
 
Ah, thank you. Interesting. It still took me ages to work out that the fault had to be with me, and after changing what I thought was the brown cable for what I thought was the green ... it worked. Colour blindness is a bit of a _ugger sometimes; it never occurs to me that I am wrong for the colour is what I say it is and if I think it's green then it's green.....until it ain't !!!!!
 
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Ah, thank you. Interesting. It still took me ages to work out that the fault had to be with me, and after changing what I thought was the brown cable for what I thought was the green ... it worked. Colour blindness is a bit of a _ugger sometimes; it never occurs to me that I am wrong for the colour is what I say it is and if I think it's green then it's green.....until it ain't !!!!!

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The NMEA standard dictates that no fault should occur if wrong lead is touched etc. As long as power leads not involved. Second that VHF only usually requires 2 leads connected for data ... that's signal ground and NMEA+ out from plotter. You can safely test-touch leads till you get data flow ...
 
I have never had any problem with the red. Red is clearly red even though my syndrome is known or refered to as 'red-green' blindness. I know British traffic lights' green is very blue-pigmented for this reason but its the hundreds of greens, pinks, lavenders, purples, magentas.... I know the names but cannot recognise them. My wife is a plants-smith and grows wonderful plants but I can't imagine her frustration that I can't see a violent pink flower in a bush or plant with green foliage. It all snaffued a career in air trafic control....all for the better in the long run!! Out.
 
fitting mine now. Only quibble is that, as I bought a white one, to go nicely in the cockpit, I'm a little dismayed to find they've fitted it with two bloody great BLACK ferites (one on power one on GPS lead). They aint lookin great against the gel. Ferites are also so close to the radio that it's not going to be easy to move them inboard.

It shouldn't be an issue I guess, but it is......

would it be a terrible idea to cut them off and fit them elsewhere?

C.
 
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Black Ferrites

Sy-Revolution said:
fitting mine now. Only quibble is that, as I bought a white one, to go nicely in the cockpit, I'm a little dismayed to find they've fitted it with two bloody great BLACK ferites (one on power one on GPS lead). They aint lookin great against the gel. Ferites are also so close to the radio that it's not going to be easy to move them inboard.

It shouldn't be an issue I guess, but it is......

would it be a terrible idea to cut them off and fit them elsewhere?

C.
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er...yes it would.....they need to be as close as possible to the items they protect. Why don`t you mask them carefully and just paint them white?
 
I used to have one on my previous boat and was very pleased with it - it was the time they recalled them over some minor DSC transgression (I think) - the customer service was great and I got a new radio out of them.

I was in correspondence with another user on a different forum, who used the MR F55 as a backup to his pukah Icom unit. He reported that the sound quality of the Cobra was far superior.
 
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