VHF Query - Aqua Marine 5600

[killeeklane]

Morning all

Have recently purchased a Hardy day fisher. Onboard is a marine VHF with the name "Aqua Marine 5600"

I am trying to get out hands on an owners Manual. I have searched and searched and asked and asked but cannot find a single reference to the manufacturers, makers, home page, parent company of this radio. Though there are many fitted to boats for sale invariably the owners inherited them and have no more info than I have = zilch.

Can anyone help? Who makes these? Are they still in business? Where are they? Who are they? Is there anybody out there? Heeeelllllooooooooo?
(Frustration may be getting the better of me!!!)

While the radio is basic we are having trouble in that it will Rx & Tx on chnl 16 but not on any working channel. This is either a problem with the radio or how we are using it.

Many Thanks

Paul /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Bilgediver]

Reminds me of Singapore 10 years ago.... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Singapore radio to yacht Elan Adventurer.....Please go to channel 24 we have a link call......I m ashore monitoring and ELan Adventurer is coming back on 16...no 24 ,We got there in the end and had our link call.......... I believe the radio will only transmit on 16 when set on dual watch DW try switching off DW Dual watch.

I am assuming you have done the obvious and switched it off the channel 16 switch ...

 

[narooma]

Try search again using aquamarine as one word or contact aquama@otenet.gr

 

[killeeklane]

Hi Bilgediver
That may answer the first question - Thanks for that

Hi freewind
had already popped an email off to them but looking around their website it does not quite seem to be their stuff but we live in hope - many thanks

 

[Juggler7823]

The series 5600 was made by a single manufacturer but sold by many suppliers, often with small differences in operation.

 

[killeeklane]

Just a quick update on the neverending story (good title for a film that) - Have discovered the Aqua Marine 5600 and the NASA Stingray 5600 are one and the same.

However the same story applies - cannot find any info on the NASA website or elsewhere

Please someone somwhere help meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[narooma]

Is it that you can't get Google or that you're not really trying ?

 

[killeeklane]

Hi Freewind

Thats a good idea - Never thought of that - actually really trying - thanks for you helpful advice - smartarse

 

[RMC]

I have the same radio on my boat and found out that you cannot TX on specific channels if you have selected dual watch (DW button pushed in)

 

[toad]

Also sold as the Sea Ranger 5600, Midland 5600 and the Euromarine 5600. I have a manual, all four pages of it but it tells you no more than what the buttons do and a schematic diagram. As RMC said make sure dual watch is off. If you pull the squelch knob out it dims the display.

 

[mainsail]

Aqua-Marine 5600

I too have an Aqua-Marine 5600 which I bought at the Southampton Boat Show in 1986. I have just transferred it from my sailboat to my motorboat (yes, I know that sounds impressive but one's a Mirror Offshore (no 333) and one is a Cleopatra Fox 23) but if we are going to save the planet we really do have to stop buying new boats- and new cars - and new radios.

Anyway the radio still works fine - but those who've pointed out the odd quirks are right. The only button you should have pressed in is the left hand one which keeps your signal down to 1 watt in the marina and surrounds. I'd love to have a DSC with GPS and I'm waiting until they become generally available. Meanwhile the old Aqua-Marine still does the job - and it's got a rotary channel selector. Try finding one of those on today's VHF sets.

 

[pvb]

Meanwhile the old Aqua-Marine still does the job - and it's got a rotary channel selector. Try finding one of those on today's VHF sets.

Which planet are you on? What about the best-selling Standard Horizon GX1500? Or the SH GX3000? Or the Raymarine 218? Or the Raymarine 55? Or many others?

 

[mainsail]

....OK I should have said for less than £100!

Yes I know the Lowrance and others do have rotary channel selectors but most of today's cheapo DSC radios don't have them.

Besides many of today's cheap DSC sets are of very light construction . Ask your local chandlers which brands of sets get returned to him the most. The ones with the best reputation for not falling apart are Icom apparently.

Does being afloat count as "being on the planet"?

 

[ianat182]

I used to have the NASA Stingray VHF and recentlybought the Navman 7200 DSC VHFto replace it.
I was having similar trouble to yourself, with references to the skimpy handbook too. The cause of my problem was an aerial coax that had corroded(turned black throughout its length) and corrosion at the connector to the radio. I borrowed another emergency aerial to test the radio and this was OK ,so the aerial was replaced and repositioned at the masthead instead of the pushpit. I don't think I kept the handbook, but I'll check when next aboard,if there you shall have it.

ianat182

 

[Trident 24]

Me too

I also have an Aquamarine 5600...

I replaced it a few years ago with a Silva S15, mainly due to techno geekiness. Having read on here about the Silva's reliability, I keep the 5600 onboard...just in case.

if the OP (from a looong time ago) still wants the manual, I can scan it later this week.

 

[DogWatch]

Morning all

Have recently purchased a Hardy day fisher. Onboard is a marine VHF with the name "Aqua Marine 5600"

I am trying to get out hands on an owners Manual. I have searched and searched and asked and asked but cannot find a single reference to the manufacturers, makers, home page, parent company of this radio. Though there are many fitted to boats for sale invariably the owners inherited them and have no more info than I have = zilch.

Can anyone help? Who makes these? Are they still in business? Where are they? Who are they? Is there anybody out there? Heeeelllllooooooooo?
(Frustration may be getting the better of me!!!)

While the radio is basic we are having trouble in that it will Rx & Tx on chnl 16 but not on any working channel. This is either a problem with the radio or how we are using it.

Many Thanks

Paul /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Have you got the red CH16 button pressed in, this needs to be unpressed <sic> to get the channel selector working. From what I remember anyhow.

 

[DogWatch]

I too have an Aqua-Marine 5600 which I bought at the Southampton Boat Show in 1986. I have just transferred it from my sailboat to my motorboat (yes, I know that sounds impressive but one's a Mirror Offshore (no 333) and one is a Cleopatra Fox 23) but if we are going to save the planet we really do have to stop buying new boats- and new cars - and new radios.

Anyway the radio still works fine - but those who've pointed out the odd quirks are right. The only button you should have pressed in is the left hand one which keeps your signal down to 1 watt in the marina and surrounds. I'd love to have a DSC with GPS and I'm waiting until they become generally available. Meanwhile the old Aqua-Marine still does the job - and it's got a rotary channel selector. Try finding one of those on today's VHF sets.

My navman 7200 has a rotary and is a far better radio than the 5600 ever was.

 

[mainsail]

Aqua-Marine 5600

I'm sure it is, but my Aqua-Marine 5600 - vintage Southampton Boat Show 1986 - is still going strong.

One foible worth remembering though is not to put in in a place where the case of the radio will get too hot in the sun. Mine (as per photo) is mounted high underneath the doghouse roof. This GRP roof has headlining but even so gathers an enormous amount of heat from the sun. Some of of this heat is radiated downwards onto the radio making it very hot (even if it's not switched on).

I've found that sometimes on very hot sunny days the radio works fine as a receiver but won't transmit. The bottom right transmit light - which is normally green - should switch to red when you press the transmit button on the mic hand-set. However in very hot sunshine, if the case of the radio has got really hot, the green light simply goes blank when you press the mic key - and there's no signal transmitted.

You have the option of either waiting until the set has cooled down and then trying again or moving it to a cooler location. Just to emphasise - this is not the set getting warm in operation - because it doesn't draw a lot opf current - it's simply indirect radiated heat from the sun overheating the case of the Aquamarine 5600 .

I always carry a cheapo Cobra battery powered VHF handset anyway as a back-up so this phenomenon has never been a problem.

 

[vidapura]

This is a very old thread now.. but maybe better late than never...
The manual for this radio can be found at:

http://radiopics.com/1. Manuals/Nasa/Nasa_Stingray 5600 (Manual).pdf

The stingray is the same thing.
Hope this helps somebody.
If the link ever stops working people are welcome to PM me for a copy of the .pdf file.

Vida