Raymarine VHF not transmit on 17, nothing on 81 but all other channels OK.

tudorsailor

tudorsailor

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I have a Raymarine 230e VHF. I recently had a Raymarine splitter installed for the AIS.

I now find that I cannot transmit on 17 and cannot transmit or receive on 81. All other standard channels are fine.
I currently cannot by-pass the splitter as the installer has a cable from the radio that goes to the splitter that does not have a co-axial type socket on the end.

Before driving myself mad with this, I wonder if anyone else has had a problem with just two channels. The yacht is in Croatia and I am now back in London!

Thanks

TudorSailor
 
tudorsailor said:
I have a Raymarine 230e VHF. I recently had a Raymarine splitter installed for the AIS.

I now find that I cannot transmit on 17 and cannot transmit or receive on 81. All other standard channels are fine.
I currently cannot by-pass the splitter as the installer has a cable from the radio that goes to the splitter that does not have a co-axial type socket on the end.

Before driving myself mad with this, I wonder if anyone else has had a problem with just two channels. The yacht is in Croatia and I am now back in London!

Thanks

TudorSailor
Click to expand...

Channels 15 & 17 are on either side of 16 and may only be used at very restricted power - I presume to avoid any possible interference.

In certain administration (?US) Channel 81 is restricted too. It may be there is a way of switching the VHF to "International" that might get you Ch 81 back
 
Ah ha, this is interesting. The yacht was built to be used in the States, although built in the UK. I wonder if I need to go into the settings for 81.

I do see that 17 is low power at 1w on both my handheld and the VHF. The handheld transmits loud and clear, but the main radio is either incredibly weak or not at all. I wonder if putting it through the splitter has reduced its power further??

TudorSailor
 
tudorsailor said:
Ah ha, this is interesting. The yacht was built to be used in the States, although built in the UK. I wonder if I need to go into the settings for 81.

I do see that 17 is low power at 1w on both my handheld and the VHF. The handheld transmits loud and clear, but the main radio is either incredibly weak or not at all. I wonder if putting it through the splitter has reduced its power further??

TudorSailor
Click to expand...

Active or passive splitter? If active I would be surprised if you see any change. If passive then there will be some signal degradation.

I had a US Raymarine which had some channels missing. I did a part exchange with Raymarine for the same EU version (55E rather than 55) as I'm also in Croatia and not interested in the US stuff.

Richard
 
The splitter is powered A80190 AIS active splitter, so there should not be degradation. My concern is whether it is faulty???? If it is, its still under warranty

TudorSailor
 
I suspect your radio is set to the USA or Canadian channel sets, rather than the International channel set. Make sure it's on International, and you should find it's OK.
 
tudorsailor said:
The splitter is powered A80190 AIS active splitter, so there should not be degradation. My concern is whether it is faulty???? If it is, its still under warranty

TudorSailor
Click to expand...

I see. I installed an active Vespermarine splitter to go with the VM AIS transceiver and I didn't notice any difference in the VHF after I fitted the splitter, although I didn't try and test every channel methodically so there might have been some oddities that I just didn't notice. Does your AIS have a software VSWR meter built in (or something like that - I know nothing about radio!). Mine on the VM unit reads the max reading (1 I think from memory) which I think shows that the antenna is working OK. But, as I say, this is not my field at all! :)

Sorry I can't be more help.

Richard
 
tudorsailor said:
Ah ha, this is interesting. The yacht was built to be used in the States, although built in the UK. I wonder if I need to go into the settings for 81.

I do see that 17 is low power at 1w on both my handheld and the VHF. The handheld transmits loud and clear, but the main radio is either incredibly weak or not at all. I wonder if putting it through the splitter has reduced its power further??

TudorSailor
Click to expand...
1W is the maximum permitted for 17 & 15 but most fixed VHFs only operate on 5W and 25W (I think) - it is possible that they can't transmit at all at 1W, or that there is a fault transmitting at 1W

If the radio was built for the US market you should get it configured for UK/International as there are a few differences in the channels (not sure of the details but some channels are duplex in one and 2x simplex in the other). I am sure that on any modern radio it is just a config option, but whether it is user-selectable is a different matter.

Technically you should also check that the radio as a CE mark.

I am guessing that a passive splitter will cause a small reduction in power (because I can't think how it would work without) but unlikely to be the cause
 
Channel 81 in the International System is a duplex channel for ship to shore use, transmitting on 157.075 MHz and receiving on 161.675 MHz. Thus if two vessels try to speak to each other on channel 81 neither will hear the other. In the US system channel 81(A) is simplex on 157.075 MHz, so two vessels would be able to communicate using it. Channel 17 is the same on the International and US systems, simplex on 156.850 MHz. Most radios can be configured to use either system.
 
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alan_d said:
Channel 81 in the International System is a duplex channel for ship to shore use, transmitting on 157.075 MHz and receiving on 161.675 MHz. Thus if two vessels try to speak to each other on channel 81 neither will hear the other. In the US system channel 81(A) is simplex on 157.075 MHz, so two vessels would be able to communicate using it. Channel 17 is the same on the International and US systems, simplex on 156.850 MHz. Most radios can be configured to use either system.
Click to expand...

+1

That and the answer from pvb. Instructions to change at http://www.manualslib.com/manual/138223/Raymarine-Ray230.html?page=39#manual

If it is a 230e then it is in fact the (e)uropean version of the radio - but that doesn't mean someone hasn't accidentally or deliberately set it to US channels.
 
yachtailsa said:
+1

That and the answer from pvb. Instructions to change at http://www.manualslib.com/manual/138223/Raymarine-Ray230.html?page=39#manual

If it is a 230e then it is in fact the (e)uropean version of the radio - but that doesn't mean someone hasn't accidentally or deliberately set it to US channels.
Click to expand...

This most helpful. Now I have seen this, I recall that the handset displays INT when turned on, so is on the International setting. So should 81 be working? This is less importance as my main problem is with Ch17. The marina in Dubrovnik use Ch17 as their working channel and this is where we are based.

Thanks

TudorSailor
 
tudorsailor said:
I have a Raymarine 230e VHF. I recently had a Raymarine splitter installed for the AIS.

I now find that I cannot transmit on 17 and cannot transmit or receive on 81. All other standard channels are fine.
I currently cannot by-pass the splitter as the installer has a cable from the radio that goes to the splitter that does not have a co-axial type socket on the end.

Before driving myself mad with this, I wonder if anyone else has had a problem with just two channels. The yacht is in Croatia and I am now back in London!

Thanks

TudorSailor
Click to expand...


Channel 81 is a duplex channel so if you transmit on the boat radio you will not hear it on the boat walkie talkie . Like wise visa versa. Channel 81 is used for talking to shore stations.

Channel 17 is a low power frequency which on the ship set would be 5 watts.

15 and 17 are no longer the guard channels for 16 since the frequencies were doubled many moons ago. Channel 75 falls between 15 and 16 and channel 76 falls between 16 and 17 and are now the guard channels.

This is a typical current list.

http://www.sotonwss.org.uk/freqs/frequencies.pdf
 
Bilgediver said:
Channel 81 is a duplex channel so if you transmit on the boat radio you will not hear it on the boat walkie talkie . Like wise visa versa. Channel 81 is used for talking to shore stations.
Click to expand...

However, he'd be able to check whether the 230e is transmitting on 81 by selecting channel 81A on a handheld (first change it to the US or Canadian channels set).
 
pvb said:
However, he'd be able to check whether the 230e is transmitting on 81 by selecting channel 81A on a handheld (first change it to the US or Canadian channels set).
Click to expand...

That will work providing his handheld has the American channel set and he has the manual to find out how to switch to it!
 
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