Electronics fit

[BogMonster]

Thanks, so is the slow one the NMEA0183 and the fast one the NMEA2000 variant?

Will these two particular units work together to provide AIS? I can't find any installation instructions for the Garmin 551 to confirm whether it has fast & slow or not... but the Garmin does support both 0183 and 2000.

[willk]

Originally Posted by willk

This leaves you with two electronic units on your console plus a compass. The plotter may have an internal antenna and your transducer is in hull. The VHF/AIS requires only one antenna and no splitter box.

Originally Posted by BogMonster

If the two will work together it would provide chart, AIS, DSC VHF and sonar which is not a bad combination out of two boxes and one external antenna

Imagine that!

[wiLlfish]

Originally Posted by willk

, Gen. Bernardo O'Higgins

yus hee woz a famus irysh nobbur inn chilly. endid upp az a admirul inn de chillyan nayvy.

orlso sunng a sonng bowt diggin oles.

ther wuz i diggin a ole
ole inn de grownd sawt ov bigg an sawt ov rownd itt woz............

wilF

[BogMonster]

Originally Posted by willk

Imagine that!

Yeah ok ok but what I was checking up on was:-

Originally Posted by willk

Obviously you'll need to be sure the plotter in question WILL display the AIS data.

[willk]

Originally Posted by wiLlfish

orlso sunng a sonng bowt diggin oles.

Nice to see you out...

[willk]

Originally Posted by BogMonster

Yeah ok ok but what I was checking up on was:-

Ahhhh, I dunno. You must wait for Maltmouse to squeek from Éxperyance

[Channel Ribs]

Good morninxs,

The 551 does take both speeds of NMEA0183.

NMEA2000 is a whole other kettle of fish, comparable to USB versus serial ports on 'pooters.

The think to look for is two separate NMEA0183 connections.

And yep, you get an awful lot of bang for your buck with an AIS/DSC set coupled with a sonar chartplotter.

The next step up is the very exciting Garmin 750S which does all of that, plus is ready for radar too!

[BogMonster]

Ah ok ... something else I didn't realise ... thanks

Radar is definitely not on the options list! got enough things to think about, ordering loads stuff I have never seen or used is traumatic enough

[willk]

Originally Posted by malthouse

Good morninxs,

Gwit murning indeed!

And so it was:
0725 Made coffee.
0729 Drank coffee, checked Ribnet for "Flippin' Cheek" posted during night
0730 Found no Cheek, so posted some - better late than never.
0750 Broke ice off rib covers and hit the trail
1030 Cutting a wake up the Swilly, snow on the hills, sun on the water, smile on the collective gob.
1130 3-4m swell off Dunaff Head, caught some air...
1430 Had a laugh "acting as helpless casualty" for RNLI tows (not as much acting as I'd like )
1700 Home and flushed, ready for Saturday (nice WX pleeeze Mr God )
1845 Testing Electromanade - still not sure...., may have to test another one

[BogMonster]

Digging this one up again.........

Does anybody have any feedback on Furuno or particularly the Navicom RT-650 which seems to be the best priced of the very small selection of AIS equipped VHFs around - http://marinestore.co.uk/Merchant2/m...tore_Code=mrst for about £240 once I get the vat back.

Are they good / will they survive life on an open boat? Has anybody seen one or got one? A search for Navicom only turned up two threads one of which was this one, so I guess they are not that popular but I wondered why.

I have an answer back on charts for the Garmin GPSmap 551s and they look OK (got a couple of screenshots from Garmin of the Falklands chart card and it looks reasonably detailed) so I'm pretty set on that for the sounder/plotter side of things, but the VHF is still undecided. The extra £150 or so between an Icom IC-M411 and this Navicom is probably money worth spending but only if the Navicom is a decent VHF performer as well - the AIS is a bit of a 'nice to have' toy but the VHF bit is pretty important.