Icom 421

[Blue5]

I have an existing Icom fixed VHF set on board and I want to upgrade to an Icom 421 with DSC capability, realising the new set will need to be linked to the GPS is this a job I can do myself with standard off the shelf wiring leads or is it a bit more complex?

 

[duncan]

extrememly easy and if the units are within a coupleof feet of each other no additional off the shelf or otherwise wireing needed

421 comes with a little 3.5mm jack with a length of shielded wire attached. The centre is connected to the NMEA out (+ve) from your GPS, the shield to the NMEA -ve or the GPS's ground (earth) if it doesn't have one - whilst both units are probably connected to the same earth it's worth making this connection!

plug jack into back of 421, fire up gos and unit and see what happens before bothering to check settings etc - you may well be lucky! Only proviso here is that if it is a Garmin GPS it will be outputting Garmin's propriatory format rather than NMEA by default so you will have to change that via the COM settings menu on the GPS.

If all is working properly, and you have entered your MMSI number in the radio, then your position should appear on the radio screen.

I found the 421 would happily take more NMEA sentences than the literature lists ie it's pretty tolerant.

 

[Bilgediver]

Yep, no problem linking the Icom 421 to a Furuno GPS. Immediately displayed position and time etc when connected.

John

 

[Blue5]

Many thanks

 

[pappaecho]

Just wondering if anyone had tried connecting the Icom unit, Garmin GPS, and the NASA AIS system together?
According to NMEA Verson 2 it should be possible

 

[hightech]

Why would you want to do that?

The VHF has no use for AIS data and I doubt the Garmin would like it either.

Makes no sense to me.