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Author Topic:   NMEA-2000: VHF Marine Radio

jimh posted 12-12-2006 11:09 AM ET (US)
What is the current state of the VHF Marine Radio marketplace re NMEA-2000 network compatibility? Are there any radios currently available (or even just announced) which can connect to a NMEA-2000 network?
jimh posted 12-13-2006 09:22 AM ET (US)
I spoke by telephone to a technical support specialist at Standard-Horizon regarding NMEA-2000 network connection to their radios. There are no Standard Horizon radios available with a NMEA-2000 network connection. His understanding was that Standard-Horizon did not have immediate plans to incorporate NMEA-2000 interfaces in their radios, and that NMEA-0183 would continue to be provided.
boutdoorhunter posted 01-02-2007 09:55 PM ET (US)
[This article has been deleted because its topic was completely different than the discussion of VHF Marine Band radios with NMEA-2000 network interfaces.--jimh]
davej14 posted 01-03-2007 09:32 AM ET (US)
Jim,
Last year after I purchased my PS1000 VHF radio I realized that because it would not interface to the NMEA2000 network on my boat I would not be able to utilize the "locate" functions of the radio to display positions of other vessels on my Lowrance GPS. Standard Horizon's reply was that it would work with other Standard Horizon displays using the NMEA0183 standard. While the radio does have an NMEA0183 interface, the sentences they use to send information do not interface with Lowrance. I conclude that Standard Horizon and other suppliers are intentionally slow to get on the NMEA standard because they are concerned they will lose some of their system sales. While it may be good for their bottom line in the short run, it hurts the consumer and limits our ability to utilize the best combination of instruments for our applications.
bluewaterpirate posted 01-03-2007 10:06 AM ET (US)
DSC data exchange is a funtion of the VHF radio and not the GPS/Chartplotter(GPS/CP). Yes, your DSC capable VHF radio can exchange positional & informational data with another DSC capable VHF, however, the question is can it exchange NMEA data with your GPS/CP. The Phantom 1000 is capable of two way NMEA 0183 data exchange, however, the key question is, is your GPS/CP capable of DSC data exchange. Not all GPS/CP's are DSC capable. Most of the newer ones are but some are not. Many of the Lowrance GPS/CP's are not DSC capable. They can send, however, send positional data to your VHF but cannot receive DSC information from the VHF. Which model Lowrance do you have?
It is also important to understand that when a VHF with two way NMEA connectivty is correctly connected to a DSC capable Chartplotter/GPS positional information from responding units will be displayed both on your VHF & CP/GPS. This is shown in my video.
Click site below to watch my video ....... in the video I have 2 VHF's and 2 different GPS/CP's. One of the GPS/CP's is DSC capable and the other is not.
http://bluewaterpirate.phanfare.com/album/106135/121051/8379912
Hope this helps.
Tom
davej14 posted 01-04-2007 07:42 PM ET (US)
Tom,
I have the PS1000 which sends NMEA-0183 information in DSC and DSE sentence format. My GPS is a Lowrance LMS332c which can input and output NMEA-0183 ver 2.0 data on com1 port but it does not accept the sentence format of the PS1000 as an input.
I am hoping that Lowrance will offer a software upgrade to change this in the future. I was not educated sufficiently when I purchased these two units to realize that positional data received by the VHF would not be plotted on my GPS. The output from the GPS works fine on the VHF input.
With my present setup I have to manually enter the DSC polling information from my VHF to the GPS in order to navigate to the location. Am I missing something?
Dave
bluewaterpirate posted 01-04-2007 08:49 PM ET (US)
You've done nothing wrong, your Lowrance just doesn't have the capability to display DSC positional dats automatically. It can only pass info to your VHF.
Tom

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Author	Topic: NMEA-2000: VHF Marine Radio
jimh	posted 12-12-2006 11:09 AM ET (US) What is the current state of the VHF Marine Radio marketplace re NMEA-2000 network compatibility? Are there any radios currently available (or even just announced) which can connect to a NMEA-2000 network?
jimh	posted 12-13-2006 09:22 AM ET (US) I spoke by telephone to a technical support specialist at Standard-Horizon regarding NMEA-2000 network connection to their radios. There are no Standard Horizon radios available with a NMEA-2000 network connection. His understanding was that Standard-Horizon did not have immediate plans to incorporate NMEA-2000 interfaces in their radios, and that NMEA-0183 would continue to be provided.
boutdoorhunter	posted 01-02-2007 09:55 PM ET (US) [This article has been deleted because its topic was completely different than the discussion of VHF Marine Band radios with NMEA-2000 network interfaces.--jimh]
davej14	posted 01-03-2007 09:32 AM ET (US) Jim, Last year after I purchased my PS1000 VHF radio I realized that because it would not interface to the NMEA2000 network on my boat I would not be able to utilize the "locate" functions of the radio to display positions of other vessels on my Lowrance GPS. Standard Horizon's reply was that it would work with other Standard Horizon displays using the NMEA0183 standard. While the radio does have an NMEA0183 interface, the sentences they use to send information do not interface with Lowrance. I conclude that Standard Horizon and other suppliers are intentionally slow to get on the NMEA standard because they are concerned they will lose some of their system sales. While it may be good for their bottom line in the short run, it hurts the consumer and limits our ability to utilize the best combination of instruments for our applications.
bluewaterpirate	posted 01-03-2007 10:06 AM ET (US) DSC data exchange is a funtion of the VHF radio and not the GPS/Chartplotter(GPS/CP). Yes, your DSC capable VHF radio can exchange positional & informational data with another DSC capable VHF, however, the question is can it exchange NMEA data with your GPS/CP. The Phantom 1000 is capable of two way NMEA 0183 data exchange, however, the key question is, is your GPS/CP capable of DSC data exchange. Not all GPS/CP's are DSC capable. Most of the newer ones are but some are not. Many of the Lowrance GPS/CP's are not DSC capable. They can send, however, send positional data to your VHF but cannot receive DSC information from the VHF. Which model Lowrance do you have? It is also important to understand that when a VHF with two way NMEA connectivty is correctly connected to a DSC capable Chartplotter/GPS positional information from responding units will be displayed both on your VHF & CP/GPS. This is shown in my video. Click site below to watch my video ....... in the video I have 2 VHF's and 2 different GPS/CP's. One of the GPS/CP's is DSC capable and the other is not. http://bluewaterpirate.phanfare.com/album/106135/121051/8379912 Hope this helps. Tom
davej14	posted 01-04-2007 07:42 PM ET (US) Tom, I have the PS1000 which sends NMEA-0183 information in DSC and DSE sentence format. My GPS is a Lowrance LMS332c which can input and output NMEA-0183 ver 2.0 data on com1 port but it does not accept the sentence format of the PS1000 as an input. I am hoping that Lowrance will offer a software upgrade to change this in the future. I was not educated sufficiently when I purchased these two units to realize that positional data received by the VHF would not be plotted on my GPS. The output from the GPS works fine on the VHF input. With my present setup I have to manually enter the DSC polling information from my VHF to the GPS in order to navigate to the location. Am I missing something? Dave
bluewaterpirate	posted 01-04-2007 08:49 PM ET (US) You've done nothing wrong, your Lowrance just doesn't have the capability to display DSC positional dats automatically. It can only pass info to your VHF. Tom