Electronics, Sounder, GPS, Ploters?

[Hans Baart]

I am looking to purchase some electronics. There are so many different systems out there. My querry is do I go all in one Sounder,GPS and Plotter, or should I go with seperates?What are some of the prefered makes?Thanks H

 

[Barry]

Same Family

Hans-There are several good brands including Raymarine, Garmin, Furuno and Standard. Check out Practical Sailor for reviews of the first 3 and how they integrate a sounder module into their networks. On my last boat, I had a Standard Horizon CP170C chartplotter with built-in GPS. This was connected to an Icom 502 VHF and Raymarine ST4000 autopilot. The autopilot was also connected to ST60 speed, depth and wind instruments. My new boat will probably have all Raymarine from ST60 speed, depth and wind, ST4000 autopilot w/course computer and RL70CRC radar/chartplotter w/laptop second station below.You can tell I'm an electronics engineer because all of this is going on a new 33 footer.If you want to cross brands just make sure they all speak NMEA so they will play together. And ask allot of questions.HTH,BarryBear Necessity

 

[Hans Baart]

Thanks Barry

Thank you for the infomation Barry

 

[Barry]

New Models From Raymarine

Hans-Since my first post, I ran across the new C-series from Raymarine. The price is very atractive and they are highly integrated as a family. The only down-side is they are single station units (no adding a second integrated display). Consider the size and use of your boat to determine if this matters to you. If you need two or more stations, Raymarine still has the HSB2 units. In fact Defender is having a sale on all of these models now.Barry