Radio Ocean RO4800 DSC VHF Radio with Integral AIS Receiver

lenseman said:
If ever an "all Singing And Dancing" piece of equipment goes wrong . . you lose everything.
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Not necessarily. As you well know, there are different sections of circuitry for the different functions; if the AIS receiver section failed, for example, it wouldn't necessarily mean that the VHF radio failed too.
 
johnlilley said:
Has anyone have any experience of these units,seem to offer a lot for the money for a low cost. Standard Horizon make a similar unit,possibly more functions but considerably more expensive.
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The RO4800 is the same radio as the Navicom RT650. Reviews suggest that the AIS display isn't great, but then that might not matter if you're outputting to a plotter.
 
johnlilley said:
Has anyone have any experience of these units,seem to offer a lot for the money for a low cost. Standard Horizon make a similar unit,possibly more functions but considerably more expensive.
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In France a lot of people have it, there was a firmware problem when the radio was launched a few years ago, which has been quickly corrected. I only heard positive reports.

The radio is very similar to the Standard Horizon GX2100E (of which I have one), screens of both radios are tiny indeed, it's better if you send the data to a plotter, though the radio shows in text form a lot of details of the AIS message sent by the target.

Should you plan to install an AIS transponder at a later time, ask Radio Ocean beforehand if the radio AIS alarm would ring when receiving your own MMSI AIS message, with CPA and TCPA to zero.
 
I fitted on of these last year and hooked it up to a PC based plotter; so I don't use the radio's own display for AIS.

The handset has a phone style numeric keypad which makes entering MMSI numbers easy.

I also have the optional wireless handset for use in the cockpit.

So far it has worked as advertised and I'm very pleased with it.
 
Hi JohnGC.
I am interested in buying this VHF or similar. I too navigate using a notebook PC, but I only have USB ports. What conection lead do you use, and where did you get it.
John
 
jcsummerfield said:
Hi JohnGC.
I am interested in buying this VHF or similar. I too navigate using a notebook PC, but I only have USB ports. What conection lead do you use, and where did you get it.
John
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You can do it with a serial lead (you only need one fitting with bare wires on the other end) and serial to USB adaptor. If you pick up the right serial lead with the same ends (male or female to suit the USB adaptor) you can just cut in two and then have two leads. You wwill need one to feed GPS data into the PC and one for the AIS data as they tend to be at different baud rates. http://www.maptech.com/support/doc.cfm?plid=24&docid=76 is a handy guide to serial lead connections.

Yoda
 
jcsummerfield said:
Hi JohnGC.
I am interested in buying this VHF or similar. I too navigate using a notebook PC, but I only have USB ports. What conection lead do you use, and where did you get it.
Click to expand...

Hi John,

There are many USB to RS232 dongles around and a few USB to RS485/422. Non are very expensive. What you need will depend on your exact circumstances. I wanted to interface the following equipment;
Furuno G-32 - GPS output (current loop) via YAPP to R04800 - GPS input (RS485/422).
Furuno G-32 - GPS output (RS232) to via RS232/USB dongle to PC.
RO4800 - AIS output (RS485) via YAPP & RS232/USB dongle to PC.
NASA Navtex - output (RS232) via RS232/USB dongle to PC.

I needed 3 RS232 ports for the PC but I didn't want to use 3 separate USB/RS232 dongles, so I used this 4-way version (I don't think I got it from this supplier though).
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/38824435/705719267/USB-2-0-Quad-4-Way-Port-Serial-RS-232-RS232-Convertor-Adapter-Cable-Lead-Wire/ListingDetails.html?_%24ja=tsid:11518%7Ccat:38824435%7Cprd:38824435

The YAPPs are needed to convert between current loop, RS485 and RS232. For me the YAPP was a simple task as it fits my professional skills. I built them on one circuit board using though hole components and stripboard.

I could have achieved the same thing in a number of ways.

Cheers,
John
 
johnlilley said:
Has anyone have any experience of these units,seem to offer a lot for the money for a low cost. Standard Horizon make a similar unit,possibly more functions but considerably more expensive.
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I've just bought one with the remote mic. Not fitted it yet so haven't had a chance to play yet.

Only thing I've noticed is the remote mic loses its charge over 48 hours, even when switched off. Will be talking to the supplier on Monday to find out what's up

pvb said:
The RO4800 is the same radio as the Navicom RT650. Reviews suggest that the AIS display isn't great, but then that might not matter if you're outputting to a plotter.
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I don't know about the radio itself, but the remote mic differs in detail between the two : from the pics only (not seen the RT-650 inthe flesh) the Navicom mic has a different housing and a connect button on the rhs that the Furuno lacks. AFAIK the functionality is the same though.

yoda said:
You wwill need one to feed GPS data into the PC and one for the AIS data as they tend to be at different baud rates.
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The RO4800 manual gives an option for sending out GPS data on the same lines as the AIS data, AIUI the RT-650 does the same if set up to do so.

Hth,

Boo2
 
I believe the Radio Ocean set is made by Furuno as stated above...if that is so..it is probably a good piece of kit,no personal experience of this radio,but have used a lot of Furuno kit over the years....and none of it has ever failled on me.
 
Bought the RO4800 last year and hooked it to a Lowrance Hds7 but the lowrance could not communicate in and out at different baud rates, so this was returned and replaced with a Garmin gpsmap750.

All worked well, but more recently the RO4800 stopped sending out the AIS signal. However Force Four checked this and when they confirmed this they replaced the set.

The great advantage is no extra aerial nor a splitter.

Worked fine this weekend to and from Lymington on our first trip of the year.
 
I have a question concerning the RO4800. Somebody said that it is the same Radio as the Navicom RT-650. Interestingly in the german Manual they write about a MOB Function in a menu but don´t mention it later on again. The RT-650 comes withe a MOB Function. Is there a hidden Menu so someone can "activate" the MOB function?
Thanks for you help
Dahabcon
 
superheat6k said:
All worked well, but more recently the RO4800 stopped sending out the AIS signal. However Force Four checked this and when they confirmed this they replaced the set.
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I'm struggling to get any AIS display on my RO4800 (also from Force Four). I can get into display mode by a long press on the Channel button, and it displays a couple of circles with N E S W letters, but no AIS data. :-(
Does this sounds like user muppetry or another return to Force Four?
 
Boreades said:
I'm struggling to get any AIS display on my RO4800 (also from Force Four). I can get into display mode by a long press on the Channel button, and it displays a couple of circles with N E S W letters, but no AIS data. :-(
Does this sounds like user muppetry or another return to Force Four?
Click to expand...

The display I find is impractical to use for AIS positions. My set was showing an internal list of AIS stations being received, but nothing was coming out.

When mine packed up I had quite a task to determine if it was the Garmin not seeing the data, the RO4800 not sending it or a problem with the somewhat complex wiring between the two. In the end I connected it to a laptop with windows hyperterminal. I could see NMEA0183 on the wires from the Garmin to the VHF, but could not see data the other way around.

I would suggest a return. If you deal with Force Four at Bursledon speak to Andy Murdoch and tell him Trevor suggested he deal with it. Brilliant guy and mustard with Marine woodwork too.
 
I have had one for a year or two. The main shortcoming is that you can't DSC-call a No. directly from the AIS list; needs must you write it down on a piece of paper and call manually. Also the remote mic seems to fail to fully charge and doesn't hold it's charge for long. My old Garmin plotter can't read the AIS NMEA sentences, unfortunately.
 
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