Hi All, Is anyone familiar with the Northstar line of marine electronics? I see a lot of it available on EBay for decent prices, but wonder about the quality. I've never actually seen or used it before, and having grown accustomed to the quality of Garmin and Raymarine, was wondering if it's any good. Specifically, chartplotters. Thanks
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Northstar...
Northstar was, for a long time, a well respected, well built small company product similar to B&G. They wer however expensive units due to economies of scale. Unfortunately Northstar was purchased by Brunswick Marine Group (Bayliner etc.) and were then merged with Navman. I think today Brunswick has dissolved most, if not all, of the real Northstar equipment and replaced it with Navman stuff but with the Northstar name... It's kind of like that FordLincolnuar. You know the Ford Thunderbird/Lincoln LS they turned into the Jaguar. Why pay Northstar/Jaguar prices when it's really just a Navman or a Ford underneath. I'm not saying Northstar or Navman is bad stuff but it's no Garmin, Furuno or Raymarine especially when it comes to customer service. When the power cord on my Northstar 952X died they charged me $112.00 for a replacement power cord! The equivalent cord for a Garmin is about $24.00...
Northstar was, for a long time, a well respected, well built small company product similar to B&G. They wer however expensive units due to economies of scale. Unfortunately Northstar was purchased by Brunswick Marine Group (Bayliner etc.) and were then merged with Navman. I think today Brunswick has dissolved most, if not all, of the real Northstar equipment and replaced it with Navman stuff but with the Northstar name... It's kind of like that FordLincolnuar. You know the Ford Thunderbird/Lincoln LS they turned into the Jaguar. Why pay Northstar/Jaguar prices when it's really just a Navman or a Ford underneath. I'm not saying Northstar or Navman is bad stuff but it's no Garmin, Furuno or Raymarine especially when it comes to customer service. When the power cord on my Northstar 952X died they charged me $112.00 for a replacement power cord! The equivalent cord for a Garmin is about $24.00...
Northstar
Northstar was a product line designed & built by the Canadian Marconi Co. (CMC) I believe they only made GPS and chartplotters. They moved production to a plant in New England to be able to sell to the US gov't and Main Sail's post covers the recent history of the company. I used a Northstar Differential GPS and it was tops, close to survey grade in performance, but cost close to $4K with the antenna. That was abt 10 yrs ago and in Canada, where everything seems to cost far more than in the US.
Northstar was a product line designed & built by the Canadian Marconi Co. (CMC) I believe they only made GPS and chartplotters. They moved production to a plant in New England to be able to sell to the US gov't and Main Sail's post covers the recent history of the company. I used a Northstar Differential GPS and it was tops, close to survey grade in performance, but cost close to $4K with the antenna. That was abt 10 yrs ago and in Canada, where everything seems to cost far more than in the US.
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