DSC for me OR NOT ?

[higrant203]

Hi everyone,

New here and new to boating as well.

Have a non DSC VHF Radio over here in Cyprus but will be shipping boat home around Aug of this year when I return to the UK.

Do I need to change my VHF to a DSC Unit? - I can get the following over here in GBP Navman 7200 for £180.00 - Nasa SX35 for £115.00 and a Silva S15 for £205.00 (any of these units any good).

Thanks in advance for any Advice

Ian /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Talbot]

I still have a non-DSC set will continue until forced to change. I see very little real advantage to me for having a DSC set, and a lot of disadvantage - continual alerts until you trurn the darn thing off.

DSC was imposed on the leisure industry in response to commercial interests only and IMHO actually disadvantages the leisure sailor. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[gjgm]

got the navman. Seems sturdy and functional. For me, just seemed sensible for the safety upgrade that you can just push the button and your identity and location are off to the coastguard.
Course, if you dont get that urgency, guess you neednt have spent the money...!

 

[higrant203]

[ QUOTE ]
will continue until forced to change

[/ QUOTE ]

When are they looking at the change as I am back in the UK with the Boat in August - If I have to buy a VHF set then I can get it slightly cheeper over here ' depending on what I buy'.

 

[jhr]

Firstly, as far as the law is concerned, your boat doesn't have to be equipped with a DSC set at the moment, but if you have to buy a new VHF, it's the obvious way to go and anyway, you won't have much choice, unless you buy a portable. From a practical point of view, at the moment, although the Coastguard have given up their dedicated Channel 16 headphone watch, they still monitor it on speaker, so you needn't worry about a distress call being missed because nobody hears it (unless you keep the boat in the Solent, in which case it will be blotted out by radio checks from, ahem, a certain flotilla sailing charter operator).

So, to summarise: keep your existing radio until it goes t*ts up, and then replace with a DSC set, preferably (personal prejudice) with the letters "Icom" on it somewhere.

 

[higrant203]

[ QUOTE ]
got the navman

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes the Navman seens a good set - if I go DSC I will link the new set with a Lowrance LMS 335C DF that came with the Boat.

Someone told me that Lowrance is part of the Silva group and I might be better pairing it with an S15?

 

[higrant203]

[ QUOTE ]
Icom

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep - Got all that thanks. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Because I am new to this I had better listen to you guys and will look also at the Icom range. I will try to find a dealer near me over here.

Good thing about being in Cyprus at the moment is the weather is good offshore - out for 11hours this week so far (thank god the fuel prices are still good) but going up again this week /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[mirage]

[ QUOTE ]
continual alerts until you trurn the darn thing off.


[/ QUOTE ]

What alerts ?

 

[Oldhand]

I wonder if you you would give the same answer if you were in an urgent distress situation and having to abandon ship? Me thinks pressing a red button to alert all and sundry of distress and providing an identification (MMSI number) and position at the same time is highly desirable. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[Robin]

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder if you you would give the same answer if you were in an urgent distress situation and having to abandon ship? Me thinks pressing a red button to alert all and sundry of distress and providing an identification (MMSI number) and position at the same time is highly desirable.

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely agree.

It is just a crying shame that some stations, and Jobourg Traffic Control is one, use the same cacophony alarm to preceed the umpteenth repeat of the same message which most frequently is NOT a distress or Pan Pan call, just navigational information. By their doing so, they risk the very undesirable probability that many DSC receivers will have been switched off by the time a real emergency call goes out. That is called crying wolf.

 

[steverow]

I agree, there's nothing inherently wrong with not having DSC, but if you were on fire, pressing the red button, knowing that your exact position from GPS is going to appear on the CG screen, and then decamping to the liferaft, in double quick time, has IMHO got to be a distinct advantage. You can always do the talking bit later from the handheld, that you hopefully remembered to keep charged in the grab bag.

Steve

 

[higrant203]

I just want the big <font color="red"> Red </font> button to press anyway /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[duncan]

silva's only the distributor for Lowrance in the UK (maybe Europe?) and there is no product link.
any gps unit capable of sending an NMEA message can be 'paired' to any DSC radio however there can be problems with the nature of the message as there are a number of acceptable message formats under the protocol NWEA0183. Providing one of your units is pretty new it you should be able to select the format the message to be sent or received - in your case both will probably be capale of adjustment.
As a for instance I had the same problem with an older JRC radar and a Garmin GPS. The radar was adamant about the message it wanted but the Garmin offered a number of choices about the message it would send - and they ended up talking happily.

 

[higrant203]

Thanks duncan

Why can't simple things be - - - well simple.

Anyone out there paired a Lowrance LMS 335C DF with decent DFC VHF of any make. Even better, any that work without to much adjustment.

 

[gjgm]

think theres a bit of history too tho. I had a query on a lowrance 3300 and ended up being sent via silva to some scottish guys who broke away, but who helped develop the sets. Must say lowrance USA seem very prompt in replying to queries, although unfortunately i m still waiting for them to update the split screen function after 10 months....
Regarding wiring up the navman radio to gps... if you can get this right in under 5 secs- it isnt the fault of the navman!

 

[higrant203]

Hi gjgm

Try coming over here to Cyprus and asking a Cypriot to fix something quickly and you may also be disappointed

Really nice people - don't get me wrong, and no offence meant but they know how to take their time.

Took them 6 weeks, 12 Coffee's and a bottle of Malt Whiskey to get the paperwork ..... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[duncan]

You won't have any problem setting this up yourself with that unit - physically you have an orange (recieve) yellow (transmit) and 2 shield (ground) wires as your NMEA0183 connections to your data plug and the software control (which you won't need anyway) is on Menu, Menu, System setup, Communication Port, Configure NMEA.
Having this unit you really shouldn't worry about the linking of the VHF - my money would be on you simply joining 2 pairs of wires (yellow and ground from this to the NMEA in and ground on the VHF) and that's the job done.

I have both the product emulator and instruction manual for that unit on this PC now, and there don't seem to be any software updates for it, so support is only a click away and I happily work for 'beer tommorrow'....

 

[higrant203]

Ok then - I will give it a go, just need to decide which DSC Radio to purchase.

Hope I don’t blow the thing up /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[duncan]

you're hoping! /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif