VHF with Bluetooth

If you don't get any other solutions...I Am Not An Audio Engineer and More Research Needed but one thing I might consider would be to take speaker out from the radio, feed it through a line output converter (apparently often used for converting speaker out from car radios to a signal suitable for input to an amplifier) and into a cheap bluetooth transmitter. The whole ensemble should cost about £20. Never tried it and don't know if it would work but perhaps others could comment.
 
If not you can get a wired bluetooth transmitter that you could fit to the external speaker output, they are normally 12v powered as well. They are often used for connection to audio sets or TVs for use with Bluetooth headphone sets. I’ve used one for connection to HAM radio gear and it worked very well, many vhf sets have control for speaker output volume separate to internal speaker volume, I did not need to fit any converter as Bluetooth had no issue with input level as this could be turned down
 
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Also my be worth looking at vhf with remote mic option, we have Standard Horizon with RAM mic which has external speaker built in and perfect in cockpit, very clear.
 
Many cheap blue tooth adapters here Blue tooth audio transmitter | eBay
You would need to join the 2 audio inputs left and right channel together to get mono and you may need to get a USB power converter to power the adapter. ie 5v As said take output from external speaker socket of radio. If that cuts out the radio speaker and you want it to continue with the radio speaker you may have to open the radionand make connections to the speaker itself. If you find the audio is too loud a potentiometer ie variable resistor set as a divider network about 100k ohms should do. Or use fixed resistors. A divider network has 2 resistors (or the potentiometer divided) One resistor goes to the active source through another resisitor to the other side of the source. The output is taken from the junction of the 2 resistors and the other side of the source. Or using a potentiometer the outside terminals go to each side of the source the output goes from the centre terminal and the low side source. Search potentiometer 100k | Jaycar Electronics has lots of potentiometers. Or you can use a tiny trim pot semi permanent adjustable.
ol'will
 
Fixed set or handheld,? Some of the cobra HH models have Bluetooth functions although I don't know more details
 
Thank you everyone that is most helpful it is the fixed VHF i am looking for the radio I have at the moment has an external speaker socket but for some reason it doesn't work on my cockpit speaker. I will have a look into it but I do need a new radio I would like one with AIS so that when crossing the channel I can select the target I am concerned about and call them direct. By the time I have entered their MMSI number into the radio its too late its not to bad if they are displaying their ships name on ais but often they don't .
Mike
 
ShinyShoe said:
Fixed set or handheld,? Some of the cobra HH models have Bluetooth functions although I don't know more details
Click to expand...
I immediately thought of the Cobra handhelds when I read the thread title, but then read OP's requirements properly.

I believe the Cobra HH with bluetooth allows you to pair it with your mobile phone, so that you can keep your phone somewhere dry and can answer calls with the waterproof handheld radio.
 
Pagetslady said:
That sounds promising thank you, I have a Cobra HH would be great if it has Bluetooth
Mike
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Ah. It seems the HH is a Bluetooth speaker and Mike. So your phone could be in the cabin and you can answer a call on deck in the wet.

If you add BT to a VHF it will (possibly) be able to send to the HH but not sure I see much advantage doing that.

AIS... An interesting debate. Most (?all) in built AIS radio screens are rubbish. Better to have the AIS target on the plotter and select to call from there. In which case your AIS doesn't need to be in the VHF it can be seperate, and the VHF "simply" needs to be able to have a DSC call initiated remotely (the plotter sends the MMSI to call)...
 
ShinyShoe said:
AIS... An interesting debate. Most (?all) in built AIS radio screens are rubbish. Better to have the AIS target on the plotter and select to call from there. In which case your AIS doesn't need to be in the VHF it can be seperate, and the VHF "simply" needs to be able to have a DSC call initiated remotely (the plotter sends the MMSI to call)...
Click to expand...

Not so simple in practice. To be certain of being able to do this usually requires the plotter and VHF to be from the same manufacturer.
 
ShinyShoe said:
Better to have the AIS target on the plotter and select to call from there. In which case your AIS doesn't need to be in the VHF it can be seperate, and the VHF "simply" needs to be able to have a DSC call initiated remotely (the plotter sends the MMSI to call)...
Click to expand...
I thought DSC was a brilliant technology when I first started reading these forums in preparation of learning to sail, but have become very sceptical in practice, having seen it dismissed by more than one skipper.

Last year I sailed with a gentleman who'd recently got a new DSC fixed radio - he had tested it with friends in the marina, but wanted to do so again at sea. in more realistic conditions. Over a day or two, as we sailed from Faro to Gibraltar, he called a number of ships and got no response, so eventually called one of them on 16 and asked for a radio check. Having been told "loud and clear" he then asked them for a DSC radio check, which also came back loud and clear. Evidently they had ignored the DSC call he had made only a few minutes previously - this is in stark contrast to how quickly and efficiently ships respond if you call them on 16.
 
I think the usefulness of DSC varies.

The technical functionality of the machines are... Very 1990s. Please enter this 10digit number using the up and down arrow!

Calling on 16, some people report the opposite to you. It may well be the bridge staff are busy, or even the radio is in use for something else. I guess they may be watching multiple channels etc.

If you designed it now, you'd put text messaging in. You'd put number pads on (a few have done it, and nothing stops it being done) because you'd want a keyboard for text. You'd probably find a way to integrate it with GSM phone network. You'd probably create Mesh network for text messages. You'd make distress type selection easier than defaulting to unspecified.

But.. you'd still want to hit a target on the plotter and call it... There is a NMEA 0183 method for it, it's just not commonly implemented or even worse people implement some custom crud instead.
 
Have a smart DSC but don't think I've ever really used its functions - generally it's rather annoying with its loud screeching alarms Unless say crossing channel maybe . I must try calling a ship crossing channel next time though .
 
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