[sailingdog]

I'd agree on the GPS units, but the 498C was discontinued a while back and is really tough to find now. As for the instruments... if you're doing the install yourself, yes, it is a bit pricey, but if you need to pay someone to install the other instruments, it can often be less expensive to install the TackTick gear yourself...which is very, very simple to do...and it turns out to be less expensive overall—since you're not paying for the installation.

Originally Posted by SEMIJim

SD, he wrote "with out breaking the bank." To me, $2500 (MAP) is a lot of money.

diverdad69,

I looked at radios earlier in the season. I wanted DSC (current radio does not have) and remote access microphone (RAM). (The latter so we could better-hear/-use the radio from the cockpit.) It looked to me like the best bang-for-the-buck that would give me those was either the Icom 402 or Standard Horizon Quest-X GX1500S. (The new radio hasn't happened yet for financial reasons.)

As for a GPS: If you can still find a Garmin 498C, that is one nice little GPS that, with optional sonar transducer, will give you your depth, as well. (I have that, but still prefer the Raymarine ST60 depth sounder that came with the boat.) If you can't find the 498C anywhere, perhaps its successor would be the way to go.

A fixed radio will usually have greater range, but that's primarily due to it being hooked-up to a higher-gain antenna that's at greater height, so your question is difficult to answer. If you're going to have it hooked up to your GPS for DSC, I would think you'd want a fixed radio, anyway.

Jim