Icom M91D and Standard Horizon HX851E

[chris.moody]

Left the m91d on for 5 to 6 hours today scanning 6 8 11 16 72 77. Received quite a lot of voice comms but didn't transmit. Still showing battery full. Will try using it to transmit tomorrow and see how the battery holds up on day 2. If it lasts 2 days i will be pleased.

[Chris Caton]

Originally Posted by chris.moody

Left the m91d on for 5 to 6 hours today scanning 6 8 11 16 72 77. Received quite a lot of voice comms but didn't transmit. Still showing battery full. Will try using it to transmit tomorrow and see how the battery holds up on day 2. If it lasts 2 days i will be pleased.

sounds good Chris, if you can get a weekend out of a battery that's good news

[ShinyShoe]

Chris was that with GPS on? In my experience GPS hammers batteries in any device I've ever had with one... I guess there is a lot of maths going on, plus a lot of receieving and amplifying very weak signals!

My Icom EURO M5(?) Will do 2 days including general light transmissions no problem. But no GPS to drain it down. Usually transmitting at 5W.

[SparkUK]

The GPS on or off battery life would be interesting as it's the GPS and DSC functionality that is the biggest feature of these two radios, might as well buy a much cheaper one if the battery life is pants with it switched on.

[chris.moody]

That was with gps on, in fact I'm not sure you can turn the gps off (not had time to read all the manual yet).

My main criteria is for it to manage a full days reasonably heavy use as there is no point having a dsc handheld if you go overboard at the end of the day and it's flat. So far it's looking promising on battery life but I will need this weekend and next weekend to test it fully.

The new menu system is very east to use. It does seem to get quite warm in use which did surprise me.

If anyone else is out in the Solent tomorrow with a dsc set I can always give you a call so we can test both dsc operation and voice clarity.

[ShinyShoe]

If no-one is out you should be able to place a test call to Solent using DSC that doesn't require Solent to do anything as its automatically bounced back.

Add "Solent CG" to your address book:
[MENU] [Up /Down] --> "DSC Settings" --> [Enter]
[Up / Down] --> "Individual ID" --> [Enter]
[ADD]
002320011
[Enter]
Solent CG
[Finish] [Enter]


To place the test call:
[MENU] [Up /Down] --> "DSC Calls" --> [Enter]
[Up / Down] --> "Test Call" --> [Enter]
[Up / Down] --> "Solent CG" --> [Enter]
[CALL] (Test message will have the word "Safety" that is OK it is headed Test Message)

I think you may be able to use another DSC set to handle the test.

Doesn't seem possible to switch off the GPS.

[gtb]

FWIW I was out all day today with the SH set, chatting away to our flotilla in the Solent quite regularly, with GPS on all day, and the battery is still showing as full. Not tried using it over two days without putting on the charger between.

The GPS on the SH can be off, or in power save where it is only turned on for a period every so often - I just leave it on all the time.

We weren't using DSC, just a pre-agreed channel.

I looked at both units at the boat show, and figured it was fair to view at the show and then shop around for a good deal.

Beautiful clear day to be out on the water, great sunset too!

[SparkUK]

I'm not going to get down to a force 4 before next weekend anyway I don't think so as much feedback as possible would be appreciated.

Sent from my iPhone using Rib.net

[ShinyShoe]

Looks like you got out and got some testing done: SOLENT and ISLE of WIGHT AREA DSC TRANSMISSION LIST

EUROCARGO SALERNO,ICZI-I (routine) from EUROCARGO SALERNO,ICZI-I  F3 ch73VHF/no freq ACK [13-11-24 10:15:18]
235910073-G (routine) from 235077659-G  F3 ch77VHF/no freq ACK [13-11-24 10:20:19]
! SEARANGER,VREG3-HKG (routine) from SPARTO,P3VW9-CYP  F3 no freq/no freq ACK [13-11-24 10:23:36]
235910073-G (routine) from 235077659-G  F3 ch77VHF/no freq REQ [13-11-24 10:27:31]
235910073-G (routine) from 235077659-G  F3 ch77VHF/no freq REQ [13-11-24 10:28:01]
SD VICTORIA,2BRX2-G (safety) from SD VICTORIA,2BRX2-G  test ACK [13-11-24 11:03:19]

Only one side of the traffic was picked up by ship-tracking's aerial in Ryde - curious why that would be. Especially as it was your hand-held and I guess the other end was trasmitting 5x more power.
Can you fill in any blanks about locations of the two boats etc at the time. They never seem to have much traffic on their DSC log which seems bizzare... ...given the Solent is so busy.

[ShinyShoe]

Just re-looked at that and realised that 235910073 is your handheld being called by the other (higher power) station.

[SparkUK]

Originally Posted by ShinyShoe

Just re-looked at that and realised that 235910073 is your handheld being called by the other (higher power) station.

And once again in English for us less gifted individuals? 😄😄😄😄😄

Sent from my iPhone using Rib.net

[ShinyShoe]

Originally Posted by SparkUK

And once again in English for us less gifted individuals?

This is the DSC message that shiptracker's DSC radio scanner picked up:

235910073-G (routine) from 235077659-G F3 ch77VHF/no freq ACK [13-11-24 10:20:19]

That is:



The log entry is showing MMSI numbers rather than names in the example above.

The F3 means the caller wants to make a voice call. ch77 I think means they requested to move to 77, and the no freq means the ACK (acknowledgement call) didn't suggest an alternative channel.

So this message was 235077659 acknowledging a routine call from 235910073 (which is a handheld DSC and according to his profile is chris.moody's Icom M91.) The call acknowledged a request to go to Ch77 for voice comms.

The call from Chris didn't show up, but chances are chris was calling at 5W and the other boat was a "proper" DSC fixed set which would transmit from a bigger aerial at 25W. Would still be interesting to know where they were at the time relative to Ryde which is where ship-tracking's mast is.

[chris.moody]

The other radio was a fixed vhf on a yacht, so the aerial was high up and it would have been about 8nm from Ryde. The handheld was also around 8nm from Ryde but at sea level.

Chris

--
Tigga - Avon SR4 Rescue with 40hp Yamaha 2 stroke

[SparkUK]

Excellent, thanks for that Chris, as you say you'd expect the Tx from the handheld to struggle a little compared with a decent installation. Where's that data from?

[SparkUK]

Thanks for all your help gents, in the end I bought the Icom M91D. I'm really happy with it too, it is slightly bulky but the comfort knowing it floats outweighs this I think. I need a new fixed DSC set now!!! My boat currently has an older Icom non DSC VHF which needs replacing. I guess I'll start another thread

[chris.moody]

I believe the new fixed vhfs from ICOM share the same user interface with the m91d handheld, so that would be good for ease of use.

--
Tigga - Avon SR4 Rescue with 40hp Yamaha 2 stroke

[SPR]

Originally Posted by chris.moody

I believe the new fixed vhfs from ICOM share the same user interface with the m91d handheld, so that would be good for ease of use. -- Tigga - Avon SR4 Rescue with 40hp Yamaha 2 stroke

+1 as posted on other thread m323 and m423 are same menu and the new m5xx if too

[John Kennett]

I spent the day yesterday playing with the Icom and SH handhelds on a course with Tec Rec.

I'd been meaning to do the DSC thing for ages and finally organised it with days to spare before the new syllabus comes in. Tec Rec have a good setup by the way, with lots of modern kit and are a RIBnet trade member too

There seems to be very little to choose between the two handhelds. The user interface on both of them is pretty basic, think Garmin 12xl but not quite as good. The Icom is a bit more intuitive, but the quirks of the SH don't take long to master and the display is clearer as it doesn't lose lots of space to the soft keys.

The channel preset feature on the SH is a winner for me though as it makes selecting the channel you want really simple, without having to scroll through all the unwanted channels. This far outweighs the slight differences in menu structure for me, and is something I use pretty much every time.

Disappointingly neither of them has any way of attaching a lanyard which seems to be a major omission.

I've always liked Icoms, but have ended up buying Standard Horizon as they are better value and I've never regretted it. I was expecting to be tempted by the Icom this time, but it looks like I'll be staying faithful after all.

[gtb]

Originally Posted by John Kennett

Disappointingly neither of them has any way of attaching a lanyard which seems to be a major omission.

The Icom I saw had a lanyard attached to the top corner IIRC, and the SH has holes for a lanyard on the clip.

The SH holes are nice and big so you can get parachord through.

[SparkUK]

Yeah the Icom has a really narrow lanyard attachment point, I'm likely to just drill a hole in the clip to get a good cord through.