[Public-List] VHF, DSC and GPS

[Kris Coward via Public-List]

I got a Garmin unit a few years back that spoke NMEA 0183; it was listed
as being serial/RS-232, but it had only 4 wires, and the message set in
the manual was NMEA 0183. I wired it into my VHF (though I had to do
some terrible things with crimps and terminal blocks, since the plug and
socket types were mismatched, and it worked for a few months before it
overheated and stopped working entirely. I got another one to replace
it, and wired it in the same as the first one, but it would appear that
the first one burned out the radio end of the connection, and my VHF no
longer has a working NMEA input (though it works otherwise).

I've neither made time for a more detailed post-mortem on that
situation, nor have I set aside budget for a VHF (and/or AIS) that'd
give me the lost GPS functionality for DSC distress calls.

I have an MMSI, and the Canadian Coast Guard also has a boat description
for the MMSI, so apart from the GPS failure, I'm fully set up for DSC
distress calls. I can't say that I've ever done much (i.e. anything) by
way of routine DSC calling, though I got my VHF license just as it was
starting to get rolled out, and the feature set seems nice.

-K

On Mon, Jan 25, 2016 at 01:51:33PM -0800, Stephen Gwyn via Public-List wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I have a VHF with DSC capability, and sccepts NMEA 0183 as input.
> But it doesn't have a built in GPS and my chart plotter doesn't
> output a NMEA signal. I'd like to buy some sort of inexpensive
> GPS unit that just outputs position. There are plenty of
> USB GPS units these days, there ought to be a NMEA one.
> 
> Does anybody know of such a unit?
> 
> On a related note, what's the uptake of DSC these days?
> Who has DSC? Who uses it? Does anybody even have a MMSI number?
> 
> SG
> 
> 
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-- 
Kris Coward					http://unripe.melon.org/
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