B&G V60-B

[gregorybross]

Does anyone have experience with the new B&G V60-B or Simrad RS40-B?
These are VHF radios with send and receive AIS capability as well as GPS. They have nmea 0183 and 2000 connectivity. Could these be connected to an ipad or iphone. I've been waiting for Standard Horizon to come out with there version but it does not look like its going to happen.

[svmobert]

B&G V60 is a nice unit.. and the B unit just has the added AIS transponder. You will need an antenna splitter or dedicated AIS antenna in addition to the VHF antenna, since the V60-B does not have an integrated antenna splitter.

You can connect the unit to your MFD, etc using NMEA0183 or 2000, but there is no built-in wifi. If you want to put the data on WiFi, you can do that through your MFD (if you MFD has WiFi support) or you can use an NMEA2000 to WiFi bridge to do that for the whole NMEA2000 network.. YachtDevices and other companies make them.

How you do the WiFi NMEA piece for your tablet/smartphone really depends on what equipment you already have.

Also, the external GPS antenna for the V60-B is optional, but I'd recommend it if you plan to use it as your primary GPS and AIS unit.

The V60-B is readily available now.