Wot VHF

I second ShipsWoofy - the Navman 7200 is a fine set. I looked at all the other brands at the boat show and also quite liked the Raymarine 54E, but couldn't get one anywhere. The feature both the 7200 and 54E had was the rotary knob to select channels - some sets only have arrow keys that mean you have to scroll through all the channels to get to the one you want, the rotary knob is easier. The advantage of the 7200 is the addition of a numeric keypad on the hand mike - simply punch in the two digits of the cannel you want and you're there! The barometer and air temperature are a bit gimicky but do work, whilst the fish symbol (ideal fishing conditions) is no use to me. I also find the 7200 display a decent size with plenty information.

When looking at other sets you will find some have functions that are only accessable via a software menu - I think it was the Silva that needed entry into two or three menus and sub-menus just to change from hi to lo power - on the 7200 there is a dedicated button. On the new Icom you would need to set say your local marina (80?) as a special channel to dual scan with 16, on the 7200 you just go to 80 hit dual watch and it will scan both (you can scan three channels if you wish).

You really need to go to a local stockist and see try the sets out - then get the one you feel comfortable with.

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I bought a Silva S10 about 3 months ago and hated it. Firstly, no dial for vol and squelch, and secondly because it started breaking after 6 hours use. I sent it back for a refund and then crippled the bank acount buying an Icom at the S't'n boat show. Very nice set, and with the command mike thrown in "free" I get control from the cockpit. wiring was simple and even with a 10 year old GPS the NMEA was recognised. It was expensive though......

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Don't know owt about Magreggor 26s spelled that way or otherwise. I do have a DSC VHF though and in the short period of ownership so far it has been a pain in the arse. The radio itself is very good, it is the noise it makes and the crap it picks up that is not and which may one day lead to it being float tested. Were it a handheld and not fixed I suspect it would already be entertaining the little fishies! /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

<hr width=100% size=1><font size=1>Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!</font size=1>
 
Dunno abt you but it's not the remote mike I need, it's the remote speaker. i can't hear a blinking thing with the engine going. I try to stick to radios with a telephone handset.

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I have fitted my new set but not the remote mike yet. It can be turned up so loud that, for all the world its like having a speaker in the cockpit & thats still not on full volume. You can hear the transmissions easily over the engine & my engine is old & noisy. The speaker on the radio has a 4.5Watt output & is as clear as a bell. It also has the Loudhailer & Foghorn functions, like the Icom M601 but it cost over £180 quid less. Anyone who knows will tell you that the Standard Brand is easily equal to Icom for quality & the remote mike controls all the functions on the radio including the DSC. The Icom doesn't. Now the big question is what happens if I get one of those alarms before I manage to fit the remote mike.

Martin

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Got a Nasa SX35 at the begining of the season. Dead easy to fit. We've also fitted a remote Speaker.
Never been a problem apart from the French Alerts whilst in Normandy and Brittany but I supose I should read the instuctions one day to sort that out.
Range seems good, transmitting Traffic Info to & from Solent CG whilst off Cherbourg Outer ent. Priced at about £180 seems a bargain compared to others from 4 Years ago on our old Yacht. I think it came out as the recommended set on one of the group tests in YM or PBO.

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Ditto Solent

I have not heard a single alarm all year, and have spent a great deal of time on the water between Southampton and Torquay.

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Re: Ditto Solent

It sends and it receives. Perhaps I have been lucky and no-one has sent a DSC Mayday whilst I have been in range.
BTW set is Icom 601

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Re: Ditto Solent

I thought the whole point of "mayday calls" was so that you could help if necessary, sorry they interfere with your passage making

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Re: Ditto Solent

Em, now you have me totally confused - I never said anything about maydays or passage making, let alone maydays interfering with my passage making...

<hr width=100% size=1><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by tome on 06/10/2004 16:55 (server time).</FONT></P>
 
What Mayday calls?

Who said anything about Mayday calls? I have yet to even hear a DSC MAYDAY. What I do hear is All Ships Alerts, mostly as anyone knows who bothered to READ what I said, emanating from Jobourg Traffic Control which is based on the NW corner of Cherbourg peninsular. These alerts are related to activities in and around the Casquets Traffic Separation Scheme yet are broadcast from an aerial which on CH70 at least has a huge range, far greater than that from their working Channel CH80 to which you are automatically transferred and on which when you rush below to acknowldge the alert there is often NOTHING heard as you are out of range. If you ARE in range then you will hear a repeat of the same message you rushed to answer (ie rushed to stop the noise) 20 minutes before. Jobourg alerts are sometimes heard as far away as Belle Isle (Mid Biscay, so a bit past Hurst) which is nearly 400mls by sea away, though maybe only 150 mls as the crow flys overland.

Probably doesn't affect a little mobo in the Solent because your aerial is too low for you to receive at that range, if you were farther west or offshore for any time you might hear something, if you don't you are lucky or you have a duff set.



<hr width=100% size=1><font size=1>Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!</font size=1>
 
Re: Ditto Solent

With a typical aerial installation height on a mobo your range will be much less than on a yacht with a masthead aerial and since your trips have been inshore you have missed the pleasure of the Jobourg alerts I suspect, no doubt aided by very short passage times when the set would be 'on'. Or you have a duff set or one without DSC.

<hr width=100% size=1><font size=1>Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!</font size=1>
 
Re: Ditto Solent

I have to say this has me a tad worried.
If it a "routine" call and not a safety call your radio should give a very diff alram from a Distress or Safety/Urgency call.

If should not be the very loud Distress alram.

Our radio's have 2 very different tones (some say not loud enough for the routine calls!)

If you radio is giving a very loud alarm for routine non safety alerts one of 2 things are happening:-
You radio is not in spec or the sending station is sending the wrong cat alram.

Now we very often have sets on test here (herne bay, kent) we get very few alerts.
Our antenna is far higher than most yatchs.

Just another point of view.

Regards

<hr width=100% size=1>Jon Brooks
Marine Dealer Manager
Icom UK Ltd.
01227 741741
 
Re: Ditto Solent

I haven't heard an ICOM alert alarm, our set is a NASA. The majority of alarms set off in central Channel are from Jobourg Traffic Control and are the full Monty as far as noise goes. I don't believe this is a 'set' problem as lots of others hear the same and a number of us have been saying so on the forums for months. Jobourg Traffic appear to have very good transmission range but then so do the UK CG stations, but they seem to use DSC alarms less frequently. As I have said before, Jobourg DSC signal on CH70 is receivable way beyond their voice transmissions on CH80, it sets off the set alarm and switches the set to CH80 (even if you were on say CH79 listening to a French forecast), you then run below to acknowledge the alarm (and stop the racket) only to find it is on CH80 and there is nothing heard, you are out of range. If you do hear the voice transmission it will usually relate to Casquets TSS area, maybe more than 60 miles awy from you. The end result is that sooner or later the set is switched off, counter productive as far as DSC goes but peaceful.

<hr width=100% size=1><font size=1>Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!</font size=1>
 
Re: Ditto Solent

I believe the current IEC 62238 standard for Class D requires the loud alarm (eighty something db or thereabouts from memory) for category distress or urgency, and only requires for category safety and routine that these be distinguishable from the distress/urgency one (but the EU may have its own special requirement).

I think that could mean, if the calls you are hearing are not distress or urgency, that both alarms on your set may be of the same loudness (which you would know if so or not from comparing the troublesome ones with routine calls) as long as they are otherwise distinguishable. Perhaps this is a cost saving practice.

My own Icom set (not an EU one) sounds the emergency alarm for category distress and urgency (never heard one of these though) and beeps for everything else, much as Jon says.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>I am the cat but I am only 6.
 
Re: Ditto Solent

I think (and I have talked with Jon Brookes at Icom UK today by phone) that the alarms we hear are sent out as 'safety' therefore full volume. Whether they really are 'safety' is another matter. We do hear an occasional 'selcall' type tone from French CG sources seemimgly accompanying their transmissions which may be the alternative alert, that is no bother. I suspect we have an over enthusiastic transmitter in Jobourg, and he has a huge range!

<hr width=100% size=1><font size=1>Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!</font size=1>
 
Re: Ditto Solent

If they are category safety then your set should not sound the distress/urgency alarm as I understand the standard to be (unless UK/EU has a special requirement beyond Class D on that). But as you say they could be just transmitting them at what would seem to be the incorrect category (I would assume "Urgency" which is, in my understanding, the same as a Pan Pan, and would seem entirely inappropriate).

If the EU require the Distress/Urgency alarm to sound for category safety then you are all going to be in for sleepless off watches for sure.

Sounds a pain.

John

<hr width=100% size=1>I am the cat but I am only 6.
 
Re: Ditto Solent

However they categorise them, the kind of call is usually:-

Deep draft vessel in position xyz course 123 speed xx wide berth requested
Large piece of timber approx x mts long in position xyz
Tug and tow in position xyz course 321 spped y kts, wide berth requested
Weather warnings (fog, winds F7 and above)

And so on. But they repeat each one every 20 bloody minutes!!! You can imagine, this is the busiest shipping area in the world I believe and I cannot imagine how many vessels pass through daily and how many are 'deep draft'!

Strangely we have heard several Pan Pan calls from French CG stations without the DSC alarms.

Robin


<hr width=100% size=1><font size=1>Sermons from my pulpit are with tongue firmly in cheek and come with no warranty!</font size=1>
 
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