Raymarine VHF Radios

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KevinT1

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I'd like the forums views on what VHF radio to buy and specifically should I buy one of the new Raymarine RAY 60 as against ICOM

Logic tells me to go for an ICOM as that's all they make and they are good at it, but I'm tempted by the ability to connect the RAY60 into the Seatalk network and onto my AIS650 and E95 plotter - although I cannot see that it does anything ( it would appear that the RAY 60 only uses Seatalk for the GPS sentences and doesn't send or receive any DSC information to / from the plotter ).

http://www.raymarine.co.uk/view/?id=10805

( The AIS650 transmits and receives perfectly - so I don't need a AIS enabled VHF )

Have I missed something ?
 
RichardS said:
Well they're keeping that fact very low key!
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They probably don't specifically mention that it has a squelch control either :)

You haven't been able to buy a new non-DSC fixed radio in the UK for well over a decade, so it's hardly worth making a special announcement about.

Pete
 
You can't buy a fixed marine VHF radio that isn't DSC - so not sure what RichardS is trying to get at.

ICOM is robust and good after care. I've heard good and bad about the Raymarine ones.

ICOM is not too keen on NMEA2000 type stuff from what I understand. But do you need it...? Your radio needs a GPS pos which is fine by NMEA 0183. the right radio and plotter can share a dsc inbound message (again on 0183)
 
KevinT1 said:
The question comes down to why should I choose Raymarine ?
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Aesthetics, if it matches the rest of your Raymarine stuff and that's important to you. Otherwise I would buy Standard Horizon, or Icom are an acceptable alternative. Raymarine are not noted for their radios.

Pete
 
KevinT1 said:
Logic tells me to go for an ICOM as that's all they make and they are good at it, but I'm tempted by the ability to connect the RAY60 into the Seatalk network and onto my AIS650 and E95 plotter - although I cannot see that it does anything ( it would appear that the RAY 60 only uses Seatalk for the GPS sentences and doesn't send or receive any DSC information to / from the plotter ).
Click to expand...

Icom are good, as indeed are Standard Horizon. Raymarine's record with VHF radios hasn't exactly been wonderful. But there are a couple of things worth checking with any radio you're considering. First, will DSC messages interface with your plotter? Second, will the radio let your plotter initiate a DSC call to an AIS target?
 
pvb said:
First, will DSC messages interface with your plotter? Second, will the radio let your plotter initiate a DSC call to an AIS target?
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Yep - although the OP seems to have found out that it doesn't do either. If true, that's bonkers for a recent radio and plotter from the same manufacturer, specifically intended to be used together. But in Raymarine's case it wouldn't surprise me, I have a vague recollection that their radios are actually a third party unit in their own case.

Pete
 
Bit of Fred Drift... I'm surprised that VHF manufacturers have yet to adopt NMEA 2000. I would have expected to see Icom and SH to be providing the connectivity as more recent plotters are losing NMEA0183 ports.
 
Gladys said:
Bit of Fred Drift... I'm surprised that VHF manufacturers have yet to adopt NMEA 2000. I would have expected to see Icom and SH to be providing the connectivity as more recent plotters are losing NMEA0183 ports.
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B&G, Garmin, Icom, Lowrance, Raymarine and Simrad, amongst others, all offer radios with NMEA2000 connectivity.
 
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Gladys said:
Bit of Fred Drift... I'm surprised that VHF manufacturers have yet to adopt NMEA 2000. I would have expected to see Icom and SH to be providing the connectivity as more recent plotters are losing NMEA0183 ports.
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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?

NMEA 0183 is a simple serial protocol that any hardware engineer (marine or otherwise) would be completely at home with - such links have been the standard technology for debugging and configuration for decades, for hobbyists on up. NMEA 2000 is a CAN Bus network which is far more complicated to work with. Perhaps their engineers are simply stick-in-the-muds with no interest in learning new ways of doing things?

You have to pay to be allowed to use NMEA 2000. Are their management just too tight to spend the money until there's evidence that lack of NMEA 2000 support is hurting sales? I suspect as soon as Icom does 2000, SH will too, and vice versa. But neither's in any rush to move first.

NMEA 2000 is a product of the instrument and plotter makers' world. Maybe Icom and SH just don't, culturally, see themselves as part of that world? They recognise that they need a bridge to that world, but perhaps 0183 seems to have that box ticked from their point of view and they'd rather concentrate on radio stuff?

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.

Pete
 
prv said:
You have to pay to be allowed to use NMEA 2000. Are their management just too tight to spend the money until there's evidence that lack of NMEA 2000 support is hurting sales? I suspect as soon as Icom does 2000, SH will too, and vice versa. But neither's in any rush to move first.

NMEA 2000 is a product of the instrument and plotter makers' world. Maybe Icom and SH just don't, culturally, see themselves as part of that world? They recognise that they need a bridge to that world, but perhaps 0183 seems to have that box ticked from their point of view and they'd rather concentrate on radio stuff?
Click to expand...

You're behind the times! Icom M506 has NMEA2000.
 
I have the Ray 60 Vhf and the RayMic 2nd station KIT, conected to my a 77 Mfd.
I like the Radio,and the RayMic has all the functions of the Radio.
Conected It to the Mfd via SeatalkNg. It was plug and play.
The DSC allerts shows up on the Mfd.
Regards from Norway.
 
Langedahl said:
I have the Ray 60 Vhf and the RayMic 2nd station KIT, conected to my a 77 Mfd.
I like the Radio,and the RayMic has all the functions of the Radio.
Conected It to the Mfd via SeatalkNg. It was plug and play.
The DSC allerts shows up on the Mfd.
Regards from Norway.
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Thanks Langedahl, that is the 1st piece of positive information I have heard !

Do you have AIS and does the MFD allow you to send the MMSI number to the radio and initiate a DSC call ?

I have an email out to the Sales Manager of Raymarine with the same questions - let's see what he comes up with

Kevin
 
No, i dont have an Ais conected. But to my understanding It will be posible to make an DSC call from the Ais target on the mfd.
Raymarine making a Point that this is a radio that is fully intergrated whit the Mfd and DSC functions .
PS. Hope You understand my Norwegian/English writing.
 
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