VHF/AIS

[Tillsbury]

I’m not a fan of these new complex vhf radios. To me, the vhf is a primary emergency device and I want everyone on board to be able to use it if there’s an emergency. Similarly if it’s dark and wet and fully kitted out I need to be able to use it if it still works. The ones with AIS inbuilt I suppose are better than having no AIS, but at the cost of a somewhat worse VHF in many cases.

I bought the Raymarine 60 for the sole reason of it having an external station, which works fine. But it still has “features” that annoy me. Like the b&G mentioned above, the dual watch is a pain: click-right-click-click to turn it on. But one button to turn it off! Who thought of that plan? A “dual” button is a feature of all basic VHF radios I’ve ever used, but for some reason I need to press four buttons on this one to add 16.

Sure, it can dual-watch other stations, and triple-watch, and what-have-you, but I don’t mind going to a menu for that kind of stuff. But to say “watch 16 as well as this channel” is too basic to be down a menu.

Grrr...