Buying a new vhf. Need clarification

[rbk]

Originally Posted by CSY Man

I have a Garmin 115 vhf, don’t like it at all, probably because the previous 4 boats had SH.
The Garmin display is small and hard to read in daylight and too many buttons have dual functions.
Love my Garmin plotter and autopilot, etc but not the VHF. (Had no choice, the boat builder equip the boats with Garmin stuff.)
Gave the dealer a brand new SH and asked him to instal it instead but the foot print was was different, would need a whole new dash to instal the SH, $$$
I gave up, returned the SH to West Marine and kept the Garmin VHF in place, but have a SH handheld VHF as a back up.
Hate the Garmin VHF…

I have a fellow across from us that installed a Garmin VHF and I was as unimpressed as you. SH look like any standard VHF when off but once on you quickly realize they’re not, easy to use and navigate, great features ect

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by PSGB

The Garmin is more expensive than the Icom or SH. Is the built-in gps and chart plotter integration worth the cost difference from the other tried and true specialist manufacturers. The integrated gps is nice redundancy in case the network fails. Opinions please ?

No need to match VHF brand to nav electronics brand.

I'd suggest you go with either Icom or Standard Horizon, perhaps consider with listen-back hailer (f you can mount one) and then the automatic foghorn function that could make use of the hailer.

-Chris

[David Mathis]

Spend the extra money to get the Garmin. A few years ago I bought brand L on a half price sale. What a mistake! I called customer service due to the unit being defective. Numerous contacts were made with the company but the email response was a waste. They usually replied sometime between 72 hours and Groundhog Day then the information was almost close to addressing the problem but not quite there. Finally, I sent copies of the emails to the seller who agreed to make an exception to their policy and exchange it. Not only was it defective with terrible customer service, it was not user friendly. Just about anytime we tried to do anything with it other than talk on 16, we needed to read the manual. Buy the Garmin, they're user friendly and have great customer service.

As to the AIS and the little emergency button, one day on Lake Champlain, we heard a frantic call by a lady with a crisis. She had never been on the lake, was alone in the boat, the weather was bad, and had no clue as to where she was. A person was in the water with no PFD and the wind was blowing the boat away from him faster than he could swim. We could not see her boat. She was advised to hold down the red button for five seconds or until it beeped. When she did, her location appeared on our plotter. We went to the location, headed a few hundred yards upwind, and found a totally exhausted person trying to stay afloat in 3-4' waves more than a mile from shore. No doubt, if the emergency system had not been activated, the person would have drowned before we found him. It's worth the investment. It's somewhat like a fire extinguisher that is a waste of money until you have a fire.

[svmobert]

If you choose an Icom radio like the M510 or M605 that has an AIS option, you can order the non-AIS version and it will use AIS data from NMEA0183 or NMEA2000 and populate the AIS vessel list on the radio for use with DSC, etc.

M605 has NMEA0183 and NMEA2000 built in.
M510 supports NMEA0183 internally and NMEA2000 with the wireless interface unit addon. The M510 and M605 also have color screens with automatic day/night modes, last call recording and playback, etc.

Example: https://seatech.systems/product/icom...xed-mount-vhf/

Originally Posted by ranger58sb

No need to match VHF brand to nav electronics brand.

I'd suggest you go with either Icom or Standard Horizon, perhaps consider with listen-back hailer (f you can mount one) and then the automatic foghorn function that could make use of the hailer.

-Chris