Continuing with my electronics upgrades and questions, as a new to big boats, I am currently doing a retro-fit to our 96 Hunter 376. I currently have a VHF at helm, my question is do I need another at nav. station if I plan to have a portable one as well. We are located in Tx, and plan on doing some Caribbean next year. Have a new C90W with 4kw radar in and just looking for some further advice.
VHF at Nav. do I need it?
- Thread starter StellaBlue
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Anything you need to write down, particularly if wet or blowing. e.g. Weather forecasts, anything giving lat/long positions, Maydays? Occasional calls to chums when in harbour to arrange venues and departure times etc.
I had my main set brought 'indoors' on the shelf above the chart table so no holes in the panel and use the HH for short range calls to other boats and marinas etc when we are under way.
BTW Sea Law requires a written log of every call but most rarely bother.
I had my main set brought 'indoors' on the shelf above the chart table so no holes in the panel and use the HH for short range calls to other boats and marinas etc when we are under way.
BTW Sea Law requires a written log of every call but most rarely bother.
IMHO, you need the VHF at the helm, below not so much, but it is nice. We listen to weather, cruiser nets etc while fixing breakfast. PO put radio below and extension mike in cockpit, but 2 radios is even better for redundancy, as would be 2 antennas.
The days of a fully equipped nav station below decks are gone with fully crewed wood boats. Short handed, you need a chart plotter(and paper charts), depth finder etc at the helm. That will become your nav station.
The days of a fully equipped nav station below decks are gone with fully crewed wood boats. Short handed, you need a chart plotter(and paper charts), depth finder etc at the helm. That will become your nav station.
I keep a grease pencil at the helm in case I need to write something down quick. Plenty of flat fiberglass around to mark on. Realistically I seldom have used it. My boat is too small for a nav station anyway. Also I can't see the channel numbers on my VHF with my sunglasses on so I keep it on 16 and use my handheld to switch to a working channel when I need to.
I our area, Charlotte Harbor, the constant radio checks drive you crazy anyway so you sort of tune out the radio. And the Coast Guard talks so fast and mumbles their announcements are almost useless.
I our area, Charlotte Harbor, the constant radio checks drive you crazy anyway so you sort of tune out the radio. And the Coast Guard talks so fast and mumbles their announcements are almost useless.
A new acronym: SWTFRC
Stop with the flippin' radio checks - already.
It's not what's "right" but what works for you on your boat. We have an old VHF at the nav station and a HH at the helm.
Stop with the flippin' radio checks - already.
It's not what's "right" but what works for you on your boat. We have an old VHF at the nav station and a HH at the helm.
I have, and would recommend, having the 'main" VHF below at the Nav Station and a WHAM (Wireless Hand Actuated Mic) that I keep at the helm for channel control and long distance comm. That VHF has DSC and is wired into the GPS Chartplotter which sends Lat & Lon to the VHF for visability when using the VHF below deck and to automatically transmit location to the USCG if in trouble. The combination was about $200. I also keep the hand held VHF at the helm for short distance comm. If you are updating all electronics, give this some thought. It's not a big expense, and improves safety.
I have a permanent VHF within reach of the helm inside the aft cabin with a remote mic in the forward cabin and I listen to weather reports or leave it on scan while eating or hanging out but if I had to do it again I would install two radios cause if one fails you have a back up and you could hook both radio's to one antenna with a PL259 coax cable tee.
I had problems with the remote mic and had to replace it after it was discontinued and after a lot of wasted time I should have just bought another radio
I had problems with the remote mic and had to replace it after it was discontinued and after a lot of wasted time I should have just bought another radio
There are channels that do automated radio checks, no need to tie up channel 16.
To the OP, it is whatever makes your boat the way you want it. It is nice to have it down below when you spend time on anchor. If for no other reason, the no see ums know if you are thinking about coming out to the cockpit. To be honest we anchor past the no see um line from shore.
This would probably mean you are back to one radio. You should not transmit from radio one into radio two, even if radio two is off. A switch could be installed to share the antenna, isolating each radio from the other. As others have mentioned a second antenna and cable would provide true redundancy.
Be cautious about over complicating things. Make sure at least one radio will work, and you'll be able to work it, when things are going very bad.
Hi Guys,
I have a Standard Horizon radio mounted inside with a remote mic at the helm. Usually I use the remote mic. However, there are times when it's really blowing, the engine is on, etc. and there is a lot of noise at the helm. inside it's nice and quite and I can hear the radio much clearer. This is important when you're tired, you have reached a harbor, and you're trying to get a slip assignment, directions to the slip, weather you need port or starboard tie, etc.
Barry
I have a Standard Horizon radio mounted inside with a remote mic at the helm. Usually I use the remote mic. However, there are times when it's really blowing, the engine is on, etc. and there is a lot of noise at the helm. inside it's nice and quite and I can hear the radio much clearer. This is important when you're tired, you have reached a harbor, and you're trying to get a slip assignment, directions to the slip, weather you need port or starboard tie, etc.
Barry
This is what will work and I wrote before thinking
http://www.shakespeare-marine.com/accessoryshow.asp?menupick=AS-2
Here's something I learned a few days ago, and had never noticed. If you're wearing polarized sunglasses, try tilting your head to one side or the other to read your display. Sometimes that works depending on the type of display. Of course it's so simple everyone has probably already tried.
As for the original question, I have a full size VHF in the cabin and a handheld when at the tiller.
Jerry
As for the original question, I have a full size VHF in the cabin and a handheld when at the tiller.
Jerry
For Rad - and others
Would not recommend putting two VHF radios on same antenna via a tee piece.
Two reasons:-
1) Radios will share incoming signals equally so this will reduce the receiving range of both to 70% of a 'clean' antenna cable. (As will a passive 'splitter' for AIS).
2) Transmitted power will be lost by being absorbed into the other's receiver so range will be lost here also to same extent.
and - lost count already!
3) Each radio's receiver might not like having 25 watts forcibly injected from the other's transmitter and could be destroyed.
Also my optician was amazed when I said I wanted NON polarized sun glasses for sailing - but he understood when I explained about all my LCD instruments becoming almost impossible to read.
Would not recommend putting two VHF radios on same antenna via a tee piece.
Two reasons:-
1) Radios will share incoming signals equally so this will reduce the receiving range of both to 70% of a 'clean' antenna cable. (As will a passive 'splitter' for AIS).
2) Transmitted power will be lost by being absorbed into the other's receiver so range will be lost here also to same extent.
and - lost count already!
3) Each radio's receiver might not like having 25 watts forcibly injected from the other's transmitter and could be destroyed.
Also my optician was amazed when I said I wanted NON polarized sun glasses for sailing - but he understood when I explained about all my LCD instruments becoming almost impossible to read.
Exactly! This will also work, and my not lose as much on the receive side:
http://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-008459
The Shakespeare switch isn't a tee and insertion loss is supposedly <1.2dB. Compared the the coax switch, it's more but still an insignificant number overall. The drawback to the manual coax switch linked is having to know to switch it and to have to route both radio antenna cables to a convenient place where the switch can be operated. A plus for the auto switch is someone not familiar with the swtch setup could operate either radio in an emergency without trouble.
If convenient, I would go with the manual switch because it's just made better but it adds a bit of complication to the setup. Just my two cents.
where do you get insertion loss is supposedly <1.2dB with the switch
and we're talking vhf boat radios with an antenna on a mast so transmitting a longer way is superior compared to the average plain old boat with a 5ft antenna so if there's any loss I would think it wouldn't matter and to keep it simple and not have to remember what switch to turn this would solve the problem easy- Status