GPS / Plotter Aerials - Are They Generic ?

[cat man do]

As the question says.

Looking at one of these head units for inside helm/nav area.
SI-TEX Explorer Plus Without GPS Antenna

SI-Tex antenna is $250 delivered
SI-TEX GPK-11 GPS Antenna

But there are so many other antennas available for considerably less.

Will they work?

[colemj]

You will need a full gps receiver/antenna for that unit and not just an antenna. The one you link to is a full receiver and is priced right about with all the rest. If you find one for less, go for it, but make sure it is a full receiver and not just an antenna.

Mark

[witzgall]

I always thought those Si-tex units were interesting, but the only benefit I think they provide is the ability to use a big screen indoors. Same sure that you want to go C-map NT only before you pull the trigger. Can they do greater than 640x480 (VGA)?

I just built a low power PC for the boat. AMD fanless mini-itx board, 8gb memory, a 256gb solid state drive, etc. for about $600.00 I runs off of 12v., and works great with opencpn. There are several off the shelf options that are similar for those that don't want to build - and are cheaper mostly.

Chris

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by witzgall

I always thought those Si-tex units were interesting, but the only benefit I think they provide is the ability to use a big screen indoors.

I have used them before on a powered boat I delivered and was impressed
It is for internal helm use on mine, I will probably have something like this unit up top

SITEX COLORMAX 6 6" COLOR LCD CHARTPLOTTER

Same sure that you want to go C-map NT only before you pull the trigger.

I already have the current cartridge for all of Oz that I scored for $150
I was thinking that when driving from the outside helm I use the cartridge in the smaller unit pictured above and when on passage I take the cartridge to the inside unit pictured below.

Can they do greater than 640x480 (VGA)?

Not sure
This is the screen I had on the boat I delivered

I just built a low power PC for the boat. AMD fanless mini-itx board, 8gb memory, a 256gb solid state drive, etc. for about $600.00 I runs off of 12v., and works great with opencpn. There are several off the shelf options that are similar for those that don't want to build - and are cheaper mostly.

I already have a laptop with MaxSea with the world on it but I want redundancy plus I am not sure if the maxsea product is actually up to date in the chart department.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by colemj

You will need a full gps receiver/antenna for that unit and not just an antenna. The one you link to is a full receiver and is priced right about with all the rest. If you find one for less, go for it, but make sure it is a full receiver and not just an antenna.

Mark

Full gps receiver?
Sorry, you have lost me there.
What does full gps mean?
(I am a bit of a Luddite at heart )

[Boracay]

Why not buy the GPS version?

I have the Standard Horizon 300i, which apart from the occasional lapse got me from Sydney to Moloolaba. After some serious dredging I used it as my primary navigation tool. Too useful to leave on the boat!

There's the 390i which is the more modern version. $999.99 from Defender. Can't see a PC output though.

[lateral]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Full gps receiver?
Sorry, you have lost me there.
What does full gps mean?
(I am a bit of a Luddite at heart )

The MFD requires processed LL NMEA data, not
raw signals from the satelites. The receiver/processor is in the dome.
As opposed to a antenna only dome with the receiver in the MFD.
As suggested, make sure it is an antenna/ receiver and not just an an antenna.
Antenna only has coax cable, a receiver for data is multi-wired.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Full gps receiver?
Sorry, you have lost me there.
What does full gps mean?
(I am a bit of a Luddite at heart )

Like Lateral described, most of those mushroom "antennas" are actually full GPS receivers that receive the signals and do all of the decoding, etc before sending the data to a display-only unit like the SciTex you are considering. They are not just signal antennas.

Mark

[ausieman]

I love my new Garmin 551s (internal gps) that comes preloaded with G2 charts for AUS & NZ with an SD slot for G2 Vision all for $699.00. It also hooked up seamlessly to a ACR AIS Receiver ($149.00) that multiplexes the nmea output with AIS data and feeds it via usb to the mini itx computer I built that runs Opencpn, Navmon, Nroute, Maxsea 10.3 and polarcom guages if I want. Now I only have to get a NASA wind sender and I'm done. Mini computer cost me about $250 but I already had the 7" touchscreen and all the software was free.