Quote:
Originally Posted by What Anchor
I apologize for going off topic, but I am in the market for a new VHF and would like one with an AIS receiver. I have looked at both the B&G V50 and Standard Horizon 2200. Both seem good, was there anything that swayed you towards the B&G. I think it is much easier to connect to the chart plotter than a SH since it has a NMEA 2000 line out.
Thanks
Carl
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I have an
Icom M304 that the last owner made errors while imputting the MMSI number. It must have been 2 errors because the "free reset" has been used up and it will no longer accept a new number. A couple of the digits are transposed so it can not be used for DCS calling and it will transmit the wrong MMSI number if the
distress button is pressed. Also, i was having trouble interfacing with the NMEA-0183 even though I have a multiplexer. I contacted
Icom and they wanted a minimum 1 hour of labor to reset the radio from one of their "approved factory repair stations" which is $98/hour plus Insured postage paid both ways = probably another $40+ so I wasn't going to mess around paying nearly $150 for basically the same radio I can buy new for $199.
So I was in the market for a new radio that had NMEA-2K, and a
remote mic.
I will never EVER buy another Icom product so long as I live, so it had to be something else. I've got all B&G
equipment so I looked at their VHF and liked their
remote mics. We have an aft
cabin with no pass-through belowdecks so keeping/charging the remote mic in the aft
cabin lets us use it as an intercom when we are not underway and the cabins are occupied and buttoned up, and nobody is in the
cockpit. I can even buy another mic as well if that was ever needed and use both at the same time as intercoms. The main VHF is in the main
saloon at the nav desk.
We have an Em-Trak Class B AIS transponder already, so we don't really need the AIS receiver on the VHF, but a backup doesn't hurt. I'm giving up on trying to use anything
marine network related that isn't NMEA-2K so any radio I buy needed to be compatible and it is amazing how few radios on the market are 2k. 0183 is just junk and not worth the headaches. The V50 was a little more
money than I wanted to spend, but looked like a decent piece of
equipment that will last us 10 or so years and had all the bells and whistles I wanted.