Lowrance LINK-6, Simrad RS-20 New VHF Marine Band DSC Radios
Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 11:39 am
Perhaps the most innovative feature is a new flush-mount fastening design that will permit the radio to be installed in a cutout without requiring access to the rear of the panel to install fasteners. This should allow panel mounting in tight spaces on the helm of small boats.
The radio has a clear, white-dot-matrix LCD display with option for inverted light-dark presentation for night display. The hand microphone has somewhat angular styling and four pushbuttons (channel +/−, power Hi/Lo, channel jump to 16/9.)
The firmware in the radio includes a start up assistant to help users initialize the radio. The start-up "wizard" prompts for user input for:
--region
--country
--MMSI
--callsign
--GNSS source selection
--time offset
After country selection the radio's firmware adopts the Marine Band channel plan for that country from its internal listings.
The radio user interface also allows for simplified selection of favorite channels and set up of channel scanning. While this may seem a bit trivial, it should be a very useful addition. The user-interface of many current radios is often quite confusing for set up of channel scanning and often awkward to implement.
The LINK-6 will be produced in two colors, white (shown above) and dark gray. Availability in the USA is expected in the near future. The LINK-6 appears to replace the LINK-5 as the lower-tier radio in the Lowrance line.