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A FEW WORDS ON MODERN NAVIGATION ELECTRONICS
In recent years technology has advanced as rapidly in marine electronics as it has in most other fields, equipment has gotten small, lighter, more capable, more affordable, and more confusing. 20 years ago it would be rare to have more than a VHF radio, a compass, and a paper chart on a 26' trailerable boat, today the options seem to nearly endless. My goal here is to help you make an informed decision about what equipment makes sense for the way you plan to use your MacGregor and for your budget. First I will go over a little vocabulary to help you tell the difference between VHF, GPS, AIS, WAAS, DSC, and your average LCD TV/DVD player, yes alphabet soup is everywhere these days. I will then give some very experienced recommendations about what works well on a Macgregor 26. VHF Stands for Very High Frequency, actually this is the description for the radio frequency band that marine ship to shore radios (and many other things) operate on, but over the years it has come to be the generic name for the 2 way radios used on boats to communicate with shore stations, such as marinas and the Coast Guard, as well as with other boats. VHF radios come in two common configurations, handheld and fixed mount. GPS Global Positioning System, a satellite based system that allows a small inexpensive receiver to determine your position anywhere on the planet with typical accuracy of better than 100'. WAAS Wide Area Augmentation System , a secondary satellite system that many, but not all GPS receivers can use to improve the typical accuracy of the position fix to better that 10'. There are many GPS satellites and only 2 WAAS satellites, so you won't always be able get the improved accuracy. Automatic Identification System, a new system that requires all large ships (over 300 tons) and all vessels carrying passengers for hire to be equipped with a transponder that transmits their position, heading, speed, and destination, as well as the description and dimensions of the ship. AIS receivers that allow you to collect this information and display it graphically on a chartplotter have become quite affordable. DSC Digital Selective Calling, a system that allows digital information about your boat to be transmitted automatically over a VHF radio. The most common use on recreational boats is to enable the transmission of a distress signal automatically at the flip of a switch. The distress signal contains the GPS position of your boat along with your Mobile Marine Services Identifier, or MMSI (I know, MORE soup). For the system to work properly, you must register your boat and be issued an MMSI, available at little or no charge . CHARTPLOTTER A unit capable of displaying a digitized nautical chart and when connected to a GPS receiver can put your boats position on the chart. Many modern chartplotters have their own built in GPS receiver. Some newer chartplotters support the AIS standard and can display the position of any AIS transponder equipped vessels on screen along with their course and speed information. Some chartplotters have built in charts, although the quality of the charts vary greatly between different models and brands. FISHFINDER A depth sounder that is capable of displaying bottom contours and, if you are lucky, fish as a graphical display rather than just a digital display of the depth number.
RADAR A system which allows you to see boats, buoys, and land around you. Many modern chartplotters allow you to overlay the radar information right on the chart display. Radar systems require a fairly large "radome" antenna which requires that you install an arch on the back of the boat to mount the radome on.
RECOMMENDATIONS For many people a handheld VHF is more than adequate, they are convenient, inexpensive, have plenty of range to talk to nearby boats and marinas. In an emergency, you will find that a simple handheld radio has surprising range when talking to the Coast Guard in areas with hills near the water. VHF radio waves are Line of Sight, so range is determined by the height of the transmitter and receiver antennas. In hilly areas (like Puget Sound and British Columbia) the Coast Guard places their antenna on top of a large hill or mountain, so your antenna doesn't need to be very tall. In flat areas (Like Florida, or the SE coast) mountains are hard to come by, so the height of your antenna is more important. One safety plus of a handheld radio is that in an emergency, it works even if you have an electrical failure on the boat. If you want maximum range a fixed mount radio is your best choice, not so much because they are more powerful, but because we can mount the antenna at the masthead which significantly increases your effective range. Fixed mount radios also can be connected to your GPS receiver to enable them to broadcast a DSC distress signal. At this time we offer the Uniden 525, it has a nice big display, is easy to use and offers the option of a nice wireless remote unit that works like a cordless phone so you can have the convenience of a handheld radio with the performance of a fixed mount radio. This also makes it convenient to listen and/or talk to Vessel Traffic Control to help you know where other boat traffic is around you in poor visibility. GPS, CHARTPLOTTERS, AIS, and RADAR
We offer a variety of options from the Garmin product line, from the basic but high quality 440S, to fully integrated systems with Radar, AIS, and large screen displays. After many years of experience with a wide range of products we have settled on the Garmin line exclusively, their products have proven to be very reliable, easy to use, have a very natural and intuitive user interface, and offer great performance. Garmin also has a great history of providing long term support and upgrades for their out of production products. The Garmin 440S and it's larger sibling the 545S are self contained GPS, Chartplotter, Fishfinder units that we equip with upgraded transducers to give speed through the water as well as GPS speed. Speed through the water is much more useful while sailing than GPS speed. Both of these units come pre programmed with very high quality charts for all US coastal waters, charts for Canada or inland lakes can be added by purchasing a pre-programmed chart chip. Both of these units can also accept data from an AIS receiver which allows you to see the position of commercial vessels right on the chart screen. The main feature upgrades in the 545S are a larger screen (5" versus 4") with much higher resolution (307,200 pixels versus 76,800) and a more powerful depthsounder. Garmin makes an in between unit, the 540S with the larger screen but not the high resolution, we feel that if you want more than the 440S, you should bypass the 540S and go to the 545S AIS is a really nice addition to your electronics package if you are planning on a Fixed Mount VHF and a chartplotter. While it is not quite like having radar since you can only see boats with AIS transponders, the large commercial boats are the ones we are usually the most concerned about. AIS is much easier to use, much less expensive and doesn't require nearly as much operator skill to use reliably as radar. Radar is considered the ultimate navigation aid for recreational boats, but it is complicated to install, requires practice to use effectively and is expensive. Many people have gotten into trouble by using a radar that was either poorly calibrated or because they lacked the expertise and practice to use it properly. Nothing is worse than the false security gained by looking at a screen that you "think" is giving you accurate data but really isn't because of operator error. If you choose to make the commitment to radar, we can install a very nice system based around the Gamin 3206, 4208 or 5208 chartplotters, these systems give you fully integrated displays which can overlay charts, AIS targets, and Radar targets. We have a custom made radar arch that mounts on the stern of the boat in place of the stock mast carrier arch which makes for a nice tidy installation. We custom configure these system on a case by case basis so costs vary, but figure about $3,000 to $3,500 to upgrade from a nice chartplotter with AIS to a full radar system.
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