VHF and nav gear - feedback wanted

segaerta

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Does anyone have good or bad experience with mainstream VHF and nav gear manufacturers like Garmin, Navman, Raymarine etc.

Looking at mid-range models, not top end. E.g. 6inch GPS / chartplotter, good DSC equipped VHF radio.

Or would anybody have an recent article or website that compares different models / manufacturers ?

Thanks,
Alain
 

Sneds

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Glad you posted that as I am in the market for same.
Am considering the Lowrance 5150C £379 inc chart cartridge and Force 4 have a DSC with navtex for £99!
To cheap to be true?
 

Whitelighter

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Found various bits of kit by Raymarine and Navman to be very good. I would reccomend the Raymarine C70 s it is excellent but the dash board of the BMB 35 suits a portrait orientated screen rather than the landscape screen of the Raymarine.

To that end, I would highly reccomend the Navman range of plotters, either the 5505/7 (5" viewable screen) or the larger 5605/7 which has a 6.4" screen. Both will easily fit the dash of your new toy, and will interface easily with my personal choice for the DSC Radio - the Navman 7100. Decent bit of kit at a sensible price.

The 07 plotters are the new higher res screens but carry a premium over the 05's. I would go for a 5605 at around £880 including external GPS arial. The DSC 7100 radio has an rp of £170. Rather usefully, the 5505/7 or 5605/7 will display AIS (some reckon more useful than Radar) for an additional £250 rrp.

I used the older 5500 on my Bayliner and it was an excellent plotter.
 

ians

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Alain

Can recommend Furuno 1650, good bit of kit and good ease of use.bit more on the pricey side compared to the Navman etc
Also have a navman 5500 which has been a little dissapointing after last sea trip it failed and has just cost 220 to repair due to water ingress.
It didnt get that wet !!

Ian
 

peterb26

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Oh no - I agree with Jez again!

I have a Raymarine C70 in my Starfisher. Its a super bit of kit and I am delighted with it.

My previous Nimbus had Simrad kit with a huge screen, and that was also excellent.

However, the Raymarine interface is just that little bit more intuitive and you can pretty much find your way round it without looking at the manuals. On the Simrad, I found the only way was to sit with the manuals and play with the kit to find your way around.

Equally - on the Raymarine, we have recently had a firmware update. No problems - download the files from the 'net to an update card, then boot up the C70 using the update card.

Job done!!

PS I am a retired IT person, so apologies if this is post homes in on things like interfaces and software updates.
 

andyball

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ah well, a balancing view here...

I find the C series stuff to be most un-intuitive, have terrible sunlight & off-angle visibility & be pretty much invisible from the right side with polarised sunnys on; tho my old raymarine instruments are evn worse- becoming unreadable when you put the illumination on, unless viewed dead-perpendicular.

noticed the crappy viewing angle when they first were shown at sbs - and having seen them installed on a number of boats since then - I haven't changed my mind.


Perhaps worth mentioning that I've been helping out a saily pal with his intermittently losing direction compass n autopilot. all very hard to pin-down, so sent the two computery boxes to Raymarine, with a very clear written description of the issues. ££'s later, they said can't find any probs, but we updated the sware anyway - re-fitted & exact same hassle. Grrr!

called Raymarine up, got a diff engineery man, stated probs as written down b4....... How do you have the rate-gyro box wired to the main box?? Umm, exactly as the manuals say how to, says me. ooh noo, says the clued up guy, you can't do it like the book says, or it won't work right at all

/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 

peterb26

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Andy - fell off my chair laughing! Just goes to show that we are all different.

However, my helm seat is pretty much directly in line with the C70, I'm not looking across it at all. Maybe thats why that aspect of it doesnt trouble me.

I've had not autopilot probs either. (But I didnt wire mine up and maybe the engineer who did it was "clued up")?
 

Garryt

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I've got a full Navman fit, bought this year, including the 6Kw Open Array radar. My lower helm plotter is the 8120 (12")and the flybridge unit is the 8084 (8.4").

I recently purchased the 8084 from the US. Including delivery, and full taxes, it cost me £840.00 (ish). The cheapest I could find it for in the UK was £1249.00 + delivery!

I wish I had bought the 8120 in the US....I would have saved even more!

Both displays are very clear, even in the daylight. The radar can be overlaid on the plotter as well. Only certain data can be passed between the two units, NOT the radar or video.

I also have the fuel flow sensors, which can be used to monitor fuel flow and generate a fuel curve so you can cruise at the most economical speed. You can also display depth data as a bottom trace, which is useful for fish finding as well!

I have the Navman 7200 VHF, which feeds weather data to the plotter. There is a facility to display "buddy" data, which apparently shows the location of people whose MMSI numbers you have stored in the 7200.

Photo's can be displayed of the harbours / marinas etc, if you use the megawide charts. I also have AIS, which is displayed on the plotter.

If you need any more info, please feel free to PM me.

Garry
 

gimmesunshine

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take a look at standard horizon
excellent well made, 3year warranty and not too pricey

ive got a c70 and as it suited where I wanted to fit it but also they do good a radar at decent price too

garmin have good reputation for support
if you can go for one make, usually looks lot neater

pays your money...
 

segaerta

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GarryT and Jez,

Good to hear Navman are fine products.

Dealer I am working with has stopped selling Raymarine and is now offering Navman instead : less expensive and better service he says.

May get back later on with additional questions, eg re. US import.

thanks,
Alain
 
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