DSC Radio

[Barry777]

I'm looking to upgrade my VHF radio this season and I'm looking for advice and/or information on any product reviews available. I have been looking at a Silva D15 with the option of a Navtex upgrade, and see that both Pumpkin and Mailspeed are running an offer at the moment.

I picked up from a friend that Silva were experiencing some difficulties with the navtex interface, although it was nothing more than a comment. Has anyone any experience of the D15 and interface...or can suggest who i might speak to.



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[Talbot]

I have been looking at this as well. The Navtex aerial was delayed in supply and has only just become available which may account for the comments you have heard. I have also heard that the sound is not as good as more expensive machines, but you can attach a second speaker!
Another advantage of this radio is that you can attach a NMEA aerial and the machine becomes a GPS !

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[chriscallender]

Hi,

I assume you mean Silva S15 - I have fitted one in January but not used it too much in anger yet. A couple of comments

- It seems impossible to turn off the audio warning (couple of loud bleeps) every time a Navtex message comes in. That seems to preclude leaving it switched on overnight when you are sleeping on board, which is a pity as it would be nice to be able to wake up and have the latest weather forecast. I've checked the instructions carefully and not found any option to do this, as well as playing around with box.

- I've had some issues with it loosing the preprogrammed station IDs and filters, which means it defaults back to receiving all messages on all stations. That seems to happen when the power is isolated at the battery switch but there may be some internal backup battery which hadn't charged up when I tried this as the radio was brand new ... so I reprogrammed it last wekend and I'll see if they are still in its memory next weekend. I'll let you know the result.

Chris

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[Nick2]

Im also looking at the Silva and the Simrad RD68 DSC

Any comments on this one please?

Thanks

Nick

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[matt_york]

I have the same radio and the same issue - I was really looking forward to waking up in the morning and reading the midnight 40 forecast. There doesn't seem to be any way of silencing the alarm (which is very loud). The only thing I haven't tried is turning the volume right down.


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[Birdseye]

I have had one of the Simrad radios from when they were first introduced. If I were in the market again, I wouldnt buy one now. The controls are fiddly, the screen visibility is poor, the radio reception is not as good as my old Seavoice, and there is no way of turning off the DSC alarm.

The latter comment probably applies to all DSC sets, and its a pain. When there is an emergency 30 miles away , and repeated all ships calls, you cant turn the alarm off even though you cant help. And the alarm cant be ignored,. What the set loses in reception volume it makes up in alarm volume.

To be honest, I would think long and hard before buying a DSC set at all - as opposed to one that was DSC compatible but didnt include it as standard.



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[chriscallender]

No good I'm afraid - I tried leaving it on with the volume set to min when I was waiting on the tide to go out at the scrubbing piles on Saturday, and those loud beeps still came through!!! All I can think of is to open it up and disconnect the internal speaker since I always use an external one. Then I can unplug the external speaker when I want to shut the thing up!

Chris

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[charles_reed]

They're all much cheaper in the States - and all will be fitted with International as well as US frequencies.

In fact importing them and paying VAT and duty on them will still leave you in pocket - interestingly the usual guarantee seems to be 3 years.

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[bigmart]

The DSC Radios from the States are Generally not type approved for use in the EU. Be extremely careful if you decide to go down this route. As has been posted many times before on these fora. Do not import VHF Radio's from the States unless you receive a guarantee that the product is type approved for use in the EU & you are sure you can get your money back.

If you purchase a Non EU type approved product you will not be able to register it for an MMSI Number & you will be liable to legal action should you try to use the equipment.

Many have fallen foul of this problem when buying radios through Ebay for example.

Martin

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[MainlySteam]

While it does not affect me at all, I do wonder what is going to happen regarding type approval of VHF radios in the EU now.

Last year the IEC standard for Class D radios (which I understand the EU type approvals have been essentially based upon) was reduced back to that commonly found on the international ie non-EU, radios. The USA during the review of the standard, made it clear that if that change occured they would likely make Class D radios mandatory in their jurisdiction.

Recently Icom (which, based on past threads, many forumites do not seem to realise is a Japanese company not an American one), for example, have been making minor changes to their international radios and renaming them eg the IC-M402 and IC-M502, both of which are not available in the EU and were not Class D radios, are now IC-M402A and IC-M502A respectively and are available in the USA (at least). The original 502, with which I am most familiar out of those two radios, basically meets the new Class D standard except that it does not cater for Group calls. The only significant change I can see in the 502A version is that it now caters for Group calls which seems to me to mean that the minor changes are oriented to making these radios meet the new Class D standard.

It would then seem that the EU is going to have to alter its type approval requirements to match the new Class D, in which case all the international radios will be easy contenders for approval within it. Alternatively, the EU will have to maintain some standard which is not even aligned with any of the ITU IEC ones anymore and be even further out on its own limb.

I think that if I was in the EU and wanting to buy a VHF radio just now I would wait a while to see what develops.

John

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[Nick2]

Thanks for that response - I just don't really understand what the advantage is of buying a non DSC set and then adding the DSC separately?

Does it mean you have to have two set boxes etc?

Sorry to be extra thick today.....


Nick

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[AIDY]

Yes you are correct.

It's okay if you have room at your chart table for an additional piece of equipment, but lots of smaller boats don't.


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[Birdseye]

There isnt really any point in having two units rather than one if you have decided to have DSC. But you can buy a radio without DSC as long as its capable of having DSC added on as a second unit. I was saying that I would be tempted to do this to get rid of the infuriating alarm, and the reality of life is that DSC is, imho, of marginal advantage to the leisure sailor.

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[Birdseye]

E C approval is a testing procedure initiated by the manufacturer. He has a vested interest in product differentiation to protect his distributors in a particular territory from grey imports. In this way he protects them from price pressure and in the going protects hi,self.

Do you really think that any half decent businessman is going to look at the new regs and say to himself "here is a chance to reduce EC prices to US levels". It may slowly happen due to competitive pressures alone, but dont hold your breath.


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[Nick2]

Thank you

I now understand a lot more now. The problem for me is that I presently have a Navico unit that is sort of letter box shaped and I would like a set where I won't have to butcher the dash to fit it if its a squarer shaped type such as an Icom or Silva.

Any further comments appreciated by this impoverished motor boater....

Nick

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[MainlySteam]

No, all I am saying is that unless the EU now changes the standard against which type approvals take place it will be totally misaligned with both the rest of the world and the ITU recommendations (until now it has just been misaligned with the rest of the world). I suspect it is likely to change its requirements and if I were in the EU and looking at buying a new set I would delay doing so if possible.

Just one simple example of the possibilities, apart from the better pricing and international sourcing that may eventuate, - there have been a number of threads complaining that the alarm cannot be turned off on EU sets so one is disturbed by it at night. A number of international sets allow the alarm to be turned off (my own included) and while I have not checked the new standard specifically for that (I do not think from memory that it prohibits it) it may be that you will be soon able to buy sets with that functionality.

John

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[xcw]

Has anyone done the research and found a US sourced set which is CE Marked or legal for use in the EU?

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[bigmart]

I don't know but I would expect there are some that are. This is more likely to be the case with non DSC sets but, apparently, the EU DSC approval is slightly higher spec than the US so I would expect that some EU approved sets may find their way to the US market.

Martin

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[MainlySteam]

I do not know of any, but if there is it is likely to be an Icom because, as far as I know, no other non European radio manufacturer targets VHF sales in the EU.

It can be easily checked by comparing the models on the Icom USA http://www.icomuk.co.uk websites. For their mounted sets, I would be quite confident that there are not any. For non DSC handhelds it is possible that the USA IC-M1V carries the CE mark by accident as there is a EU version of the same radio the IC-M1EuroV which possibly only differs in the label and the cloning for the UK M channels (which you would not get in the USA sourced radio) - there again I think that is a long chance.

Frankly, I would think that you are likely to be out of luck but would be happy to be found wrong (I would be interested if any turn out to be known by others).

John

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