Standard Horizon Explorer GPS - any good?

[willk]

Linky

Anyone got one? Any good? Standard Horizon fixed sets in general?

[Trimix]

Well Ive just bought the 1600E, so I will let you know later

But I did compare it to the Icom - they were very similar apart from price. Same nice display and did the same things, so I saved the £50 to spend on an expensive antenna - which I reckon will make more of a difference than one brand over another.

[PeterM]

Matt H played with one last week I think ?. Seems like an obvious one - to put the GPS in the radio to avoid connecting wires. I carried it for 10 yards...seemed a nice compact unit considering what it can do.

Would be my choice if/when I ever fit a fixed set.

[willk]

Originally Posted by PeterM

Seems like an obvious one

So much so that I wonder is there a catch? Apparently providing sufficient shielding for the GPS receiver is the clever/tricky part. Some interweb chichat suggests there may be GPS reception issues - thing is, I don't know what sort of installations these "reports" refer to.

Personal experience from moving a plotter would confirm the fussiness of internal GPS antennae to changes in orientation and proximity to other electronics, even other plotters

[PeterM]

Originally Posted by willk

So much so that I wonder is there a catch? Apparently providing sufficient shielding for the GPS receiver is the clever/tricky part. Some interweb chichat suggests there may be GPS reception issues - thing is, I don't know what sort of installations these "reports" refer to.

Personal experience from moving a plotter would confirm the fussiness of internal GPS antennae to changes in orientation and proximity to other electronics, even other plotters

They must have found a way in dsc hand held...icom have worked it out so guess they will follow sh soon?

[SPR]

can you still put the output to your charter? so you can see where the distress call is ? The new icom's are bi-directional now,

S.

[willk]

Originally Posted by SPR

can you still put the output to your charter? so you can see where the distress call is ?.

It's old skool NMEA 0813, so I guess the same drill as before - micro soldering and head scratching, but eventually, yes

Having said that, it does display range and direction on the screen itself, so it's quite good. It will navigate to waypoints too, so some useful stuff for a small RIB...

[9D280]

Originally Posted by willk

So much so that I wonder is there a catch? Apparently providing sufficient shielding for the GPS receiver is the clever/tricky part. Some interweb chichat suggests there may be GPS reception issues - thing is, I don't know what sort of installations these "reports" refer to.

At risk of playing devil's advocate, how accurate does your location need to be for an "oh s**t" moment?

... Or are we talking "no signal" here?

[willk]

Originally Posted by 9D280

At risk of playing devil's advocate, how accurate does your location need to be for an "oh s**t" moment?

... Or are we talking "no signal" here?

TBH, I have no idea what the gadges meant - it as just from the usual trawl of boaty forums. The impression that I got was that the sets had a reluctance to acquire Sat lock, and a tendency to loose it too. I was treating it with a pinch of salt and asking here for "real world" info. The set is particularly interesting as it has a very shallow casting and probably needs only 3" of free space behind a console to flush mount.

To sort of answer your question above, I think they meant no signal and I'd accept position updates every minute or so - but if the set can't keep a decent sat lock then it will be useless for navigation and less than confidence inspiring.

I'm fully aware that there are people out there stupid enough to fit a unit like this in a wheelhouse, beside another VHF or GPS and then complain on the Intertubes about how it doesn't bl@@dy work....

[mick]

I have the none gps explorer works fine so far