electronics question

[sailingdog]

Sure there is, just not for small sailboats....

Originally Posted by LoTech

You better be handy with tools. There's no such thing as a quality, reliable autopilot.
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[jbondy]

Originally Posted by pegasus1457

I don't quite understand why they specify the SH chartplotter. Just marketing, or is there a zinger somewhere? NMEA should be NMEA...

Are all of these devices that claim to support standards really compatible? I'm also in the market for a radio. I have a Raymarine CP and would like to have this feature that displays the location of a distress call. If it will only really work "within the family", then I'll go with Ray for the radio.

[sailingdog]

I've used NMEA 0183 to connect Raymarine, TackTick, Standard Horizon, Garmin and Icom equipment together... so yeah, the standards do work to a degree.

[sailordave]

Originally Posted by sander06

There's a formula for that but I'm too lazy to dig it out. A hand held radio at deck level goes out maybe three miles.

Height of the antenna in feet. Take the square root of that number and multiply by 1.17 and thats the number in MILES to the horizon. Also works for seeing an object. Or a light.
So on a mast that is 64 feet high (for convenience) it's 8*1.17 or 9.36 miles. BUT you gotta figure someone else has an antenna on a mast so it's probably close to double that distance.
In reality atmospheric conditions can improve or degrade performance. But assume 20 miles is a realistic distance to talk to another SAILBOATER with their higher antenna than a Stinkpotter.