Has anyone installed an electronic fog horn or similar that when activated automaticly sounds the appropriate fog signal when motoring or sailing? Any feedback or advice on these would be appreciated. If not what type of fog signal device do you use other than a compressed air horn. Got stuck in fog last year for a few hours and after the compressed air ran out we went to our backup, a conch shell. Got old pretty fast. Thanks
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Use an air horn that you blow into, like a conch.
I use canned air only when in emergencies, such as some other boater heading straight toward me, or contacting draw bridge tenders. In fog, I use a manual air horn that you blow into one end of it. It never runs out of air, unless you do. I guess you could connect a laptop to a set of speakers, and play a fog horn .WAV file on timed intervals.
I use canned air only when in emergencies, such as some other boater heading straight toward me, or contacting draw bridge tenders. In fog, I use a manual air horn that you blow into one end of it. It never runs out of air, unless you do. I guess you could connect a laptop to a set of speakers, and play a fog horn .WAV file on timed intervals.
Use Electronic Loud-Hailer
An electronic loud-hailer connected to an external PA horn works pretty well. The one I have is a Standard Horizon LH-5 which has a number of settings for the Coast Guard approved signals - not only the one for traveling through fog but a number of others which could be useful. When you're in fog there are so many other things going on - navigating, looking and listening for traffic, looking for waypoints like a buoy, etc. The automatic feature frees one for the other things that are needed. I run a 16ga speaker wire from the nav station to the forward hatch and then outside to the pulpit where I clamp on the horn. This way the horn is away from the cockpit so I don't get my hearing overwhelmed by the noise. Also, the LH-5 has a listen-back feature so the horn, which is facing forward, can sense noise ahead and this is sent back to the hailer and you can hear the noise, what ever it is, over the loudhailer. The hailer is capable of hearing and amplifying things that you probably wouldn't notice, like noise from another boat. One of my projects for the future is to get a compressed-air airhorn for mounting on the bow but I want it to be actuated by the loud hailer. The airhorn I want would put out a lot more db's. We can get a lot of fog here and I've gone for hours using the hailer. Going out through the Strait of Juan de Fuca along the Vancouver Island shore in fog there are a lot of small fishing boats. Running along with the hailer going I can see them on the radar moving out of the way in front of me.
An electronic loud-hailer connected to an external PA horn works pretty well. The one I have is a Standard Horizon LH-5 which has a number of settings for the Coast Guard approved signals - not only the one for traveling through fog but a number of others which could be useful. When you're in fog there are so many other things going on - navigating, looking and listening for traffic, looking for waypoints like a buoy, etc. The automatic feature frees one for the other things that are needed. I run a 16ga speaker wire from the nav station to the forward hatch and then outside to the pulpit where I clamp on the horn. This way the horn is away from the cockpit so I don't get my hearing overwhelmed by the noise. Also, the LH-5 has a listen-back feature so the horn, which is facing forward, can sense noise ahead and this is sent back to the hailer and you can hear the noise, what ever it is, over the loudhailer. The hailer is capable of hearing and amplifying things that you probably wouldn't notice, like noise from another boat. One of my projects for the future is to get a compressed-air airhorn for mounting on the bow but I want it to be actuated by the loud hailer. The airhorn I want would put out a lot more db's. We can get a lot of fog here and I've gone for hours using the hailer. Going out through the Strait of Juan de Fuca along the Vancouver Island shore in fog there are a lot of small fishing boats. Running along with the hailer going I can see them on the radar moving out of the way in front of me.
There was a thread about someone who made a CD
with all sorts of necessary hailing sounds. Do an archive search on fog, foghorns, CD's, you should be able to find it. Run it through your stereo system or add a separate speaker just for that. John's idea of having ti up forward is very good.
with all sorts of necessary hailing sounds. Do an archive search on fog, foghorns, CD's, you should be able to find it. Run it through your stereo system or add a separate speaker just for that. John's idea of having ti up forward is very good.
electronic
Marc, I'm in New London and if you want I have an older electronic one you can have. I replaced it with the radio/loud hailer combo. It's been in my garage for a couple of years but should still work. billtaichi@aol.com
Marc, I'm in New London and if you want I have an older electronic one you can have. I replaced it with the radio/loud hailer combo. It's been in my garage for a couple of years but should still work. billtaichi@aol.com
Car Horn
In her book, "It's your boat too", Suzanne Giesemann talks about how she and her hubby hooked up a car horn (yes, from an auto parts place) and used it for fog - not 'automatic', but very 'push button' for the purpose. Of course, as she states in the book, everyone thought there was a '57 Chevy in the harbor on foggy days. ;-) Dave Crowley s/v Wind Dreamer II
In her book, "It's your boat too", Suzanne Giesemann talks about how she and her hubby hooked up a car horn (yes, from an auto parts place) and used it for fog - not 'automatic', but very 'push button' for the purpose. Of course, as she states in the book, everyone thought there was a '57 Chevy in the harbor on foggy days. ;-) Dave Crowley s/v Wind Dreamer II
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