Vhf radio

rasbury

I have such a limited boating area I never looked into connecting my 541 garmen plotter to the radio which has the distress button on it- what exactly does this do and how do I hook it up? I see my Garmin has extra ports...what is involved and will that give my location in an emergency?

Ian

Your Garmin can likely send the coordinates to the VHF via the 0183 protocol - a pair of wires is all that is needed. You need to configure the plotter to send the data and the radio to expect it. That way when you hit the distress button the coordinates are sent. It will also send your current position to others you have saved in the radio via the MMSI

skennelly

I have been trying to do the same thing with my Garmin plotter and can't for the life of me get it to work.

LaRea

Right -- DSC provides your location even if you can't.  It's essential safety gear.  If you aren't sure how to connect the GPS, invest $300 in a new VHF with a built-in GPS.  It's 2023 ..  nobody should go boating without a working DSC distress function.  

Liberty44140

I’ve been researching this as my original Raymarine VHF microphone cord is starting to split. It gets coordinates on the screen from my MFD.

From what I gather (and please correct me as I need advice too):

1- if you have a newer gps/chart plotter MFD like I do, RM axiom 12, you can connect an NMEA 0183 to a $150 standard horizon 1400 VHF or $170 Icom M330 VHF and get gps coordinates/MSSI on the low cost vhf and have all the same safety features of the built in gps vhf. 

Open to comments on these two low cost VHF units.

2- connection is actually incredibly simple. There is a green, yellow, and maybe brown wire coming off of both devices that need connected by simple shrink/butt connectors. Depending on brands some wire colors may connect a little different but instruction is easily available.

3- if your older MFD does not have NMEA signal output then yea you need to buy the $300 or so built in gps VHF

im like you Ras where I really only use it 4-5 times a year to call in for a dock or call a friend when rafting up where there is no cell service but of course want to be fully up to speed for safety

did I miss anything?

LaRea

I think that sums it up!  Personally, I'd rather not rely on the MFD to provide GPS info to the radio.  

Liberty44140

Thanks!!

rasbury

I will be on the water and take a better look at what I have...thanks for the input..

skennelly

@Liberty44140 - I wish it was so simple.  I think I'm a pretty intelligent person when it comes to wiring and configuring things.  This one is stumping me.  You are correct about 3 wires though.

LaRea

Each device has wires for "0183 in" and "0183 out".  
Connect the 541 "in" to the VHF "out".
Connect the 541 "out" to the VHF "in".

On a Garmin 541, the colors are:
blue = 0183 out (transmit)
brown = 0183 in (receive)

rasbury

As per my other post o did not get any further than the dock...so these are wires to be connected? I figured there would be a harness with plug ins...you know, simple!

Liberty44140

skennelly said:

@Liberty44140 - I wish it was so simple.  I think I'm a pretty intelligent person when it comes to wiring and configuring things.  This one is stumping me.  You are correct about 3 wires though.

My feedback on the wires is entirely from watching a few utube videos of guys diy connecting theirs. Trying to learn for when I do it. Please post your findings. 

LaRea

The following opinion will make me sound old and cranky.  That's because I'm old, and right now I feel cranky.    And it applies only in waters covered by the Coast Guard's Rescue 21 system (all US waters except inland lakes and rivers).

Opinion:  If your VHF isn't already connected to GPS, and you can't figure out how to connect it, install a new VHF.  It's critical safety equipment.  

https://www.navcen.uscg.gov/rescue-21-distress-system-coverage

skennelly

@LaRea - We get it.

Liberty44140

As my tinkering around online to decide a path forward continues, I probably will buy a GPS enabled VHF. Turns out standard horizons GPS enabled 1400g is only $50 more than their cheapest option the 1400 and can be bought for $170. Agree the benefit of not needing to rely on your MFD would be nice, and even though I know it’s possible for my Axiom 12 to send info to a DSC VHF I’m gathering that for the nema 1083 I may need an adaptor from Raymarine. 

LR even though your vhf is gps did you still tie it to the axiom anyway? Adaptors for 0183 needed? 

Willhound

Another unintended advantage of an all in one is that I had my VHF hooked to my chart plotter but I also had a shallow water alarm set on the plotter and while sitting in the marina I used to like monitoring the VHF. The shallow draft alarm would be going off and I'd have to either turn it off and then  remember to turn it back on before leaving the dock again, or turn off the chartplotter, but then this triggered a lost signal alarm from the VHF that I would have to keep cancelling. Another advantage of having coordinates on your radio is you could check your position on a paper chart should the electronic plotter fail. Although I guess all the readily available positioning apps on our phones make that less useful.

johnny44

Has anyone replaced their blackbox VHF radio with a simple swap out of another blackbox? My 350 EC has a Standard Horizon PS1000 blackbox VHF located in a panel under the captains seat (it's a pain to get to). I was thinking about updating it, but there don't seem to be too many replacements that would be an easy changeout.

YYZRC

johnny44 said:

Has anyone replaced their blackbox VHF radio with a simple swap out of another blackbox? My 350 EC has a Standard Horizon PS1000 blackbox VHF located in a panel under the captains seat (it's a pain to get to). I was thinking about updating it, but there don't seem to be too many replacements that would be an easy changeout.

@johnny44 the Standard Horizon GX1850 is very shallow and will fit where the speaker is mounted now. 

I had planned to do this but I bought a handheld VHF for redundancy instead. 

Liberty44140

I think I already have the axiom adaptor. Here is the current connection from the old Raymarine vhf to the axiom MFD. also shows where it plugs in to the NMEA bus. The yellow and green wires are coming off of the bus, the red and yellow wires come off the vhf. The new standard horizon and Icom vhf have yellow and green wires gps data so I think I just remove the red and yellow for old vhf, plug in new yellow and green for new vhf, and I’m in business. Thoughts?

rasbury

How you going to test without the cc showing up!?

Liberty44140

Huh?

aero3113

@Liberty44140 , I think he meant to say CG (Coast Guard).
@rasbury , you can send out a test to test the system.

aero3113

https://navcen.uscg.gov/dsc-testing

rasbury

I'm looking through my manuals to see if there is any assistance there after my other issue is resolved..

LaRea

That link shows how to verify that your radio can make DSC calls.  To test the GPS connection, just look on the VHF display.  If the display shows latitude and longitude, you're in business.  

Even with no GPS connected, you can still use the red distress button to send a DSC distress call.  The call won't give your location, but it will continue transmitting until somebody acknowledges it.  In an emergency, if you only have five seconds to spare, use it to press the distress button.  

rasbury

Wow, my little radio does a lot! Also, this picture shows the hook up. Looks pretty simple to me- but what I don't have is the cable which must have come with it and I had no clue what it was for...mine is a vhf 480 from west marine...

Liberty44140

How did things end up Ras?

launched yesterday and was able to see that the gps coordinates and time come up nicely on the M330 screen from the chart plotter. For anyone reading this that has Raymarine you do need an nema wire from the hub which I already had and that tied in to the vhf nicely. 

Here is what I used to connect the wires. Had to connect 18g to 26g and this was the best option I could fine, plus I had a couple left over from
another project. Love Wago connectors!

YYZRC

Agreed - the Wago are awesome!