Raymarine VHF Radios

[Billjratt]

If you can defocus from connectivity for a minute, I think you should definitely look for ease of use -ie how quickly/easily can you change channels ( I HATE up/down keys) and crucially, can you read what's on the screen?

 

[Finbar]

I have all Raymarine on a Malo 36 and added a Raymarine VHF for consistency and regretted it. They are not world leaders in VHF and I would definitely go the ICOM or SH route if I were you.

 

[ShinyShoe]

Mm. I wonder what their thinking behind this is.

NMEA 2000 is really only used for leisure marine radios. Non-marine radios don't use it, and commercial shipping still uses 0183 because it's approved by the IMO and 2000 apparently isn't. So maybe it's not a big enough part of their business to bother with?

I'd think there is plenty of marine leisure use they could sell too. BUT what does NMEA2k really give the radio / GPS than 0183 doesn't? My understanding is that 2k has two big advantages:
- Multiple talkers and listeners on the same network
- Much higher bandwidth

A DSC radio doesn't need much band width. It may well want to talk / listen (listen = GPS, talk = DSC alert to plotter) but quite frankly it doesn't want to know what depth you are at, see a picture of the rocks below you, carry a radar image or anything else high bandwidth or particularly fast updating.

Likewise I can only think of one bit of kit that wants to listen to the VHF. So its easier to have a 2k backbone doing most stuff an d a single spoke of 0183 coming off to the VHF from the plotter. Also thats less complex which means it might actually work in a time of crisis...

It's not going to bother me first-hand for a long time yet, as I have a perfectly satisfactory electronics fit using Seatalk 1 and NMEA 0183 that will go on for many years. But when I am one day assembling a new system (presumably in a new boat) and everything else is NMEA2000 or Ethernet, I shall be mildly annoyed if the radios are still 0183.

Why? What 2k data are you wanting the VHF to use or vice versa.

 

[prv]

what does NMEA2k really give the radio / GPS than 0183 doesn't?

If your plotter doesn't have 0183, then NMEA2k gives you the ability to connect to it, which is the whole point of this branch of the thread.

Yes, considered in isolation 0183 is adequate for radios, but the whole point of a communications protocol is that all stations need to have it in common. Plotters and other instruments are moving away from 0183, so it will be inconvenient if radios don't move with them.

I'm sure someone makes boxes that can take a chosen PGN or two and output the corresponding sentences, and vice versa, but that's additional cost and complexity and fiddly wiring versus just plugging in one waterproof plug.

Pete

 

[ex-Gladys]

If your plotter doesn't have 0183, then NMEA2k gives you the ability to connect to it, which is the whole point of this branch of the thread.

Yes, considered in isolation 0183 is adequate for radios, but the whole point of a communications protocol is that all stations need to have it in common. Plotters and other instruments are moving away from 0183, so it will be inconvenient if radios don't move with them.

I'm sure someone makes boxes that can take a chosen PGN or two and output the corresponding sentences, and vice versa, but that's additional cost and complexity and fiddly wiring versus just plugging in one waterproof plug.

Pete

Absolutely +1