Displaying VHF information on MFD ?

peterjaw

peterjaw

Well-Known Member
Joined
25 Sep 2017
Messages
384
Location
Taipei, Taiwan
Visit site
Good day, captains,
I just bought a Stnadard Horizon GX 1850G VHF.

According to its manual, I can request the position data of other boat
through DSC and show it on the VHF display screen. It looks like this:
group.png

I have NMEA 2000 connection between my VHF and MFD (Simrad NSS EVO3).

I wonder if the position data could be displayed on my MFD?

I assume it is possible, but I don't find any instruction in either manual.
Does anybody have experience about this?

Thank you very much for help.

By the way, I don't have AIS and this VHF is not AIS compatable. This VHF has built-in
GPS receiver.
 
Last edited:
peterjaw said:
I have NMEA 2000 connection between my VHF and MFD (Simrad NSS EVO3).

I wonder if the position data could be displayed on my MFD?
Click to expand...

The evo 3 manual has this in the AIS section:

You can also see messages and position for DSC transmitting devices within range
Click to expand...

If you've got everything hooked up by N2K why not just try it? Get a neighbour to send you a position report and see if it's displayed? The problem I found with this was that some people aren't prepared to say "oh: I don't know how to do that: let me find the radio manual and find out". Instead they'll just say "my radio can't do that" (if it's a DSC radio it probably can...).

Other radios may not be configured to automatically respond to a position request so you're best starting by getting your neighbour to send a report to you.

If a position report is not displayed and you're happy all the wires are in place I'd probably start by contacting simrad: You'd expect standard horizon to have got sending dsc pgns right however N2K-connected radios are a relatively new thing so I wouldn't think it inconceivable that receipt of NMEA-0183 DSC position reports is better tested than NMEA-2000
 
laika said:
The evo 3 manual has this in the AIS section:



If you've got everything hooked up by N2K why not just try it? Get a neighbour to send you a position report and see if it's displayed? The problem I found with this was that some people aren't prepared to say "oh: I don't know how to do that: let me find the radio manual and find out". Instead they'll just say "my radio can't do that" (if it's a DSC radio it probably can...).

Other radios may not be configured to automatically respond to a position request so you're best starting by getting your neighbour to send a report to you.

If a position report is not displayed and you're happy all the wires are in place I'd probably start by contacting simrad: You'd expect standard horizon to have got sending dsc pgns right however N2K-connected radios are a relatively new thing so I wouldn't think it inconceivable that receipt of NMEA-0183 DSC position reports is better tested than NMEA-2000
Click to expand...

You are right, laika.
Ask my neighbor to send a position message through DSC is the simplest way to answer my question.
I just would like to double-check if I need to configure the machines other than setting everything up in "automatic".
I will find a chance to do the experiment, if I don't see anything on my MFD then I will start
to figure out what could go wrong: my setting? or simply "no way".
 
peterjaw said:
Ask my neighbor to send a position message through DSC is the simplest way to answer my question.
I just would like to double-check if I need to configure the machines other than setting everything up in "automatic".
I will find a chance to do the experiment, if I don't see anything on my MFD then I will start
to figure out what could go wrong: my setting? or simply "no way".
Click to expand...

I'm not certain, but you may find you have to look at "Vessels" in the "Tools" menu to see DSC messages.
 
Position requests are covered in the VHF manual, page 49.

If you get a position back it will show on the chart plotter, if it's capable of communicating with the VHF. If it doesn't, that's that. Older SH VHFs had a "to waypoint" option if the position was received, this should send it to the plotter (if it'll work).

More often than not the VHF and plotter have to be the same manufacturer for this to work. It's such a pain the bum to use that almost no-one ever uses the feature, i can't ever recall a customer asking for it.
 
PaulRainbow said:
More often than not the VHF and plotter have to be the same manufacturer for this to work. It's such a pain the bum to use that almost no-one ever uses the feature, i can't ever recall a customer asking for it.
Click to expand...

If no-one ever asks you to make it work, on what do you base the assertion that the VHF and plotter usually need to be from the same manufacturer?

There's standard NMEA-0183 sentences and an nmea-2000 pgn for DSC. Sure the transmitting or receiving devices may not correctly populate the fields but it should in theory allow for interoperation. ICOM don't sell may plotters but fortunately my radio works with my Raymarine MFD :-)

This is an interesting read: http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/DSC_ChartPlotter.html
 
Last edited:
laika said:
If no-one ever asks you to make it work, on what do you base the assertion that the VHF and plotter usually need to be from the same manufacturer?

There's standard NMEA-0183 sentences and an nmea-2000 pgn for DSC. Sure the transmitting or receiving devices may not correctly populate the fields but it should in theory allow for interoperation. ICOM don't sell may plotters but fortunately my radio works with my Raymarine MFD :-)

This is an interesting read:http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/DSC_ChartPlotter.html
Click to expand...

You seem to be an expert on the subject, i await eagerly for you to post a solution for the OP.
 
PaulRainbow said:
......
If you get a position back it will show on the chart plotter, if it's capable of communicating with the VHF. If it doesn't, that's that. Older SH VHFs had a "to waypoint" option if the position was received, this should send it to the plotter (if it'll work).
......
Click to expand...

This is what I am thinking, Paul.

To the bottom, the contents of communications are just coordination. Those are just character/numeric
data, not fancy multimedia streaming. If these coordination can be shown on the tiny screen on the VHF, why not on the plotter?

I will try to test with my neighbors next time I go to marina.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top