Why you shouldn't buy a Lowrance LVR-250 DSC VHF

[l'escargot]

Computer:-An electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.

A keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches.

A keypad is a set of buttons arranged in a block or "pad" which usually bear digits, symbols and usually a complete set of alphabetical letters.

 

[prv]

A keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches.

A keypad is a set of buttons arranged in a block or "pad" which usually bear digits, symbols and usually a complete set of alphabetical letters.

And a computer doesn't have to have either of them.

By any sensible measure, an iPhone is a small portable computer.

No idea what that has to do with a Lowrance VHF though

Pete

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

I rest my case



Yes. Probably in a number of areas of your life - technology moves on with no regard for your age.

No case at all. The monochrome screen of the ancient 3310 is still legible in sunlight; in fact, the stronger the sunlight the sharper the image. The same cannot be said for the more modern screens up to and including the most recent iPad. Maybe they are fine in your weather but down here, in Summer in the Central Mediterranean, they would be next to no use. Changing to a 'new technology' when it performs at a lower level of convenience for me than what I already have would be rather puerile at my age.

Changing existing technology and even introducing innovative solutions so that better results are obtained is something that used to earn me a comfortable living. Asking "Why?" or "Why not?" before blindly accepting what was presented to me became a way of life since a very tender age; perhaps the story of the Emperor's New Clothes also played a part...

 

[Croak]

the world is moving on without you..

You may as well get rid of your VHF if you can't keep up with changing technology as it will only give you a false sense of security, soon there will be no one out there listening to it - it will be about as much use as a set of signal flags.

No it's not, I am still here..

I use my VHF for getting out of the marina. It doesn't give me any sense of security. I was quite happy for years without one. It's alarm to tell me it has no VHF connected bores me a bit. As with the OP.

I shall continue to make v rare phone calls on my Motorola W220 and take photo's with a camera.

 

[mcframe]

But if you go sailing regularly with friends then it makes sense to get their MMSI numbers and enter them into the directory on your radio so that you can call them after preselecting the channel. Your caller via DSC has already selected the channel for conversation and when you accept the call your radio will automatically switch to that channel, no need to go via 16, hence no indication to all that you will be talking and no cluttering up 16, OK not completely private

You can also find out where your friends are by interrogating their radio, as they can to your radio, without being aware of the request.

Ostell - you must have read the manual ;-)

My best R/T last year was a DSC pos request, then a DSC call followed by "Yacht $WHOTSITSNAME, go PMR channel X, I'm already anchored and about to make my way to the beach, out"

 

[maby]

Computer:-An electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.

iPhone :- an expensive piece of electronic jewelry designed for posers.

 

[l'escargot]

....No idea what that has to do with a Lowrance VHF though ...

Nothing, just helping Croak with the definitions of some hardware, he's struggling to keep up...

 

[l'escargot]

iPhone :- an expensive piece of electronic jewelry designed for posers.

Never tried one then? You'd be hard pushed to spot who has one these days, nearly all the leading smartphones have styled themselves on the iPhone and they are far to commonplace to be a posers choice.

 

[Croak]

Nothing, just helping Croak with the definitions of some hardware, he's struggling to keep up...

Not even trying.

If I had what I have now in the 70's, I would be considered to be a rich man.

There is no reason why I can't be as happy as them.

Same goes for safety.In the 70's sailors were not considered to be foolhardy for going to sea with the equipment they had so neither should I.

The Joneses can pose with their I pods, I don't care, until they start telling me I need one too.

 

[l'escargot]

Not even trying.

If I had what I have now in the 70's, I would be considered to be a rich man.

There is no reason why I can't be as happy as them.

Same goes for safety.In the 70's sailors were not considered to be foolhardy for going to sea with the equipment they had so neither should I.

The Joneses can pose with their I pods, I don't care, until they start telling me I need one too.

Ned Ludd would be proud of you

 

[maby]

Never tried one then? You'd be hard pushed to spot who has one these days, nearly all the leading smartphones have styled themselves on the iPhone and they are far to commonplace to be a posers choice.

I've had phones with genuine moving key keypads and I've had phones with handwriting recognition - both were fine. I cannot accept a phone with a keypad drawn onto the screen.

 

[l'escargot]

I've had phones with genuine moving key keypads and I've had phones with handwriting recognition - both were fine. I cannot accept a phone with a keypad drawn onto the screen.

I doubt whether you will stop the advance with your stance - all major phone manufacturers make touchscreen phones which sell in their millions, tablets outsell laptops, notepads are almost dead and the touchscreen PC has arrived...

 

[greenalien]

Computer:-An electronic device for storing and processing data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to it in a variable program.

A computer is a bicycle for the mind - Steve Jobs (RIP)

 

[mersey]

>The sound quality from the speaker is tinny and poor compared with the Aquamarine.

All good on my LVR-880, and even with the built in FM radio.

>I defy anyone to set up the "3-Channel Watch"

It says in the manual that function is only on the US model, see page 29 of your manual, your EU model has dual watch with channel 16.

>The microphone is actually behind a tiny hole in the microphone case which is easy to miss

I have the LVR-880 and on the microphone it clearly has a large "M" by the microphone hole, that's clear enough for me.

>As for DSC - well who needs it? Who bothers with it? ...No one.

I and many people do, Other people have made good points regarding the benefits of DSC, so I won't add to that. However I would like to ask if you do actually have a modern Radio Operators License for a DSC radio? You would have learnt all about DSC and the benefits on the course.

>We all need something that can be used in an emergency by people unfamiliar with the particular marque of radio and who don't have time to "Read the F*****g Manual"

Yes, set up DSC and then people can just press the red button in an emergency.

 

[KellysEye]

We have a DSC VHF but have never used that function. I accept it has benefits to many people but I don't see a need for it. Probably because when cruising we used SSB which most cruisers do.

We bought an Icom radio which normally have a good speaker but the new one was tinny, much to my surprise and annoyance. I bought small loudspeaker and wired it to the radio. Much better.

 

[mainsail]

Why your DSC radio is probably as bad as mine.

I hadn’t intended to return to this topic – but I’ve just wasted an entire day of the depreciating balance of days left of my life trying to get my Lowrance LVR-250 to talk to my Garmin GPS. (And yes, you’ve guessed it, The two of them are STILL not on speaking terms)

You might think that an American product like the Lowrance LVR-250 would be made where the company is based - in Oklahoma, USA, in Lowrance’s home city of Tulsa – but in fact it’s manufactured rather more than "24 hours from Tulsa ".

It’s actually not made by Lowrance at all but by a company you’ve probably never heard of - the “Japan based” Pony Electric Company probably somewhere in China (where its manual is printed) and probably shipped out of Hong Kong.

Before you all start sniggering – let me wipe that smile off your face by telling you that Pony probably made your radio too. That’s because Pony not only make radios for Lowrance but also for Lay Jefferson, Kelvin Hughes, SI-TEX, KODEN, Shore Line, Nasa Marine, and several other brands whose identities are kept top-secret. Pony also make their own budget brand called “M-TECH”

Anyway, to some specific points raised on this thread:-

MICROPHONE: Yes, I had naively thought you just talked into the grill of the Lowrance (Pony) microphone and didn’t realise my hand was inadvertently covering a tiny pin-hole marked with the enigmatic letter “M”. As we now know that pinhole is the actual mic.

LOUDSPEAKER: Speaker quality is subjective of course, but I’ve worked in broadcasting for most of my life so I reckon I know what’s reasonable sound and what isn’t. The 25 year old Aquamarine 5600 radio had good sound quality. Not so the LVR-250.

THREE-CHANNEL SCAN: Mersey – no, the “3 Channel Scan” (not to be confused with the Dual Scan or the All Channel Scan), IS available on the EU version of the Pony/Lowrance . The challenge is to get it to work. After programming in the three “favourite” channels you then need to press the 3CH button – long enough for it to register but not for TOO long otherwise the radio will start doing something else. Then you have to press the SCAN button IMMEDIATELY but for exactly the right amount of time. If your press is too short you’ll just get dual scan. Too long and it won’t work either. The duration of your press has to be like Goldilocks’s porridge - just right.

ALERTS: My radio often starts bleeping as if it wants to alert me to something. (Heaven only knows what) . If you dare ignore it, it gets aggressively louder. It could be someone is trying to contact me on DSC – but I doubt it. It could even be that someone out there is sinking and needs urgent help - but, by this time, the radio is kicking up such a god-awful racket the natural reaction is to just turn the damn thing off. Phew! There we are – problem solved. ………It was probably a false alarm anyway – wasn’t it?.


DISTRESS CALLS: If on the other hand you need to make a distress call in an emergency the procedure is relatively straightforward:-

1. First you find the radio manual and work your way through to page 49
2. Open the red hinged cover over the DISTRESS button.
3. Put your reading glasses on again
4. Press the DISTRESS button
5. Up comes a handy menu listing a range of potential dire emergencies.
a. Undesignated
b. Fire
c. Flooding
d. Grounding
e. Listing
f. Sinking
g. Adrift
h. Abandoning
i. Piracy
j. Overboard
6. Rotate the CHANNEL SELECTOR KNOB until the cursor is against the plight of your choice.
7. Press in the CHANNEL SELECTOR KNOB – to give you the ENT (enter) facility – so as to register the nature of your emergency
(This might be difficult for those in plight “b) Fire” or “i) Piracy” It may also be a physical challenge for those in plight “j Overboard”)
8. Then press the DISTRESS button again and this time HOLD IT DOWN FOR THREE SECONDS.
9. At this point the radio will start to flash and bleep loudly – thus adding to the mounting panic on board.
10. Wait for a DISTRESS ACK message (distress acknowledgement) to come through from the coastguards
11. IF IT DOES - then pour yourself a whisky and finish off the Times crossword
12. IF IT DOESN’T – then compose a firmly-worded letter of complaint to the manufacturer of your radio.

MEANWHILE the radio itself will have automatically switched to Channel 16 so that you can call the coastguards direct yourself.

….Hang on a moment though. Isn’t that just what you would have done several minutes earlier with your old non-DSC set?

 

[ostell]

ALERTS: My radio often starts bleeping as if it wants to alert me to something. (Heaven only knows what) . If you dare ignore it, it gets aggressively louder. It could be someone is trying to contact me on DSC – but I doubt it. It could even be that someone out there is sinking and needs urgent help - but, by this time, the radio is kicking up such a god-awful racket the natural reaction is to just turn the damn thing off. Phew! There we are – problem solved. ………It was probably a false alarm anyway – wasn’t it?.


DISTRESS CALLS: If on the other hand you need to make a distress call in an emergency the procedure is relatively straightforward:-

1. First you find the radio manual and work your way through to page 49
2. Open the red hinged cover over the DISTRESS button.
3. Put your reading glasses on again
4. Press the DISTRESS button
5. Up comes a handy menu listing a range of potential dire emergencies.
a. Undesignated
b. Fire
c. Flooding
d. Grounding
e. Listing
f. Sinking
g. Adrift
h. Abandoning
i. Piracy
j. Overboard
6. Rotate the CHANNEL SELECTOR KNOB until the cursor is against the plight of your choice.
7. Press in the CHANNEL SELECTOR KNOB – to give you the ENT (enter) facility – so as to register the nature of your emergency
(This might be difficult for those in plight “b) Fire” or “i) Piracy” It may also be a physical challenge for those in plight “j Overboard”)
8. Then press the DISTRESS button again and this time HOLD IT DOWN FOR THREE SECONDS.
9. At this point the radio will start to flash and bleep loudly – thus adding to the mounting panic on board.
10. Wait for a DISTRESS ACK message (distress acknowledgement) to come through from the coastguards
11. IF IT DOES - then pour yourself a whisky and finish off the Times crossword
12. IF IT DOESN’T – then compose a firmly-worded letter of complaint to the manufacturer of your radio.

MEANWHILE the radio itself will have automatically switched to Channel 16 so that you can call the coastguards direct yourself.

….Hang on a moment though. Isn’t that just what you would have done several minutes earlier with your old non-DSC set?

as I said in an earlier entry:

From the manual:

"Hold down the DISTRESS key for about 3 seconds, until you see the distress call sent message (DISTRESS CALL SENT!) on the screen. The whole display starts to flash and beep loudly."

Now what could be easier than that? RTFM before you set out, and tell the crew the procedure.

Yep that annoying bleep is a DSC alarm going off. One of the keys on the radio should cancel it. RTFM (Page 44). It will also be telling you the location of the emergency just in case you are close enough to help someone is distress.

 

[prv]

DISTRESS CALLS: If on the other hand you need to make a distress call in an emergency the procedure is relatively straightforward:-

...and is in fact the same as most if not all other DSC radios, including the one you were taught how to use on your VHF course. You can also miss out the "pick an emergency" step if time precludes it.

Having pressed, and then pressed and held, the Distress button - a procedure taking a matter of seconds - you are now free to attend to the emergency, a factor rather important to those of us who sail short handed. It's all very well to designate a radio operator to chant numbers back and forth to the Coastguard if you're a racing boat with 8 on board, but the rest of us would rather let the radio do that part for us.

Pete

 

[noelex]

For most sets if just hold the red button down for several seconds it will send a distress message with your position. Simple.

This is much quicker than you could call mayday and give your position on a non DSC radio.

The nature of the distress is optional, and as you point out, it's a bit more involved, but still may be usefull if voice messages cannot be understood because of poor comunication or language difficulties. In these circumstances the extra time to send a message with the nature of the distress could be helpful.

 

[ostell]

So you are having troubles with connecting the Garmin. I presume that you have RTFM at page 11 and are using the green and yellow wires for NMEA in. The green will probably have to be connected to battery negative 'cause the Garmin GPS usually uses the negative as the (NMEA -). Also need to set the Garmin GPS to communicate at 4800 baud (Page 45 in the radio book), find how to do it in the Garmin book.