Uniden Mystic, a new lease on life

... written for Panbo by Ben Ellison and posted on Mar 30, 2006

Uniden Mystic DSC Menu Panbo

When I had lunch in Miami with the Sea Smart folks, they showed up with a Mystic, the somewhat weird but wonderful VHF/GPS hybrid that Uniden introduced about three years ago. I tested it then and was very impressed with design, build, and performance (gave it an FKP award, too). I still am, and now you can buy one for $300, or $390 with all U.S. Charts. (But note that Magellan Blue Nav charts are getting old, and you can only load one small area at a time into the Mystic).

Think about what the Mystic would give you in combination with a Sea Smart account. Where ever you went within 5 watt VHF range of the coast stations, you’d have live operator access, phone service, web tracking, and DSC distress calling in addition to regular VHF comms and a little B&W plotter. Plus you can plot other DSC radios on a Mystic, and vice versa. The thing’s too big to swing on your belt but easy to lug from boat to boat, or across an island. I’m hoping to see a Mystic upgrade or competitor someday, plus a bunch of smaller handhelds with GPS/DSC built in, no plotting. (But I do not know of anything about to happen).

Posted by Ben E on March 30, 2006 5:33 PM

Comments

So there's an "All Ships" selection on the DSC Menu. Is this not simlar to AIS? Different frequency/channel?

Posted by: John Williams at March 30, 2006 6:03 PM | Reply

And, why not a handheld or portable Gps/Plotter with a built-in AIS receiver? Pheraps, this could cost less than a Gps/VHF transceiver.

Anyway, a more complete Gps/VHF/DSC/AIS witch could have 3 versions: handheld/portable/fixed mount, would be great.

Pascal

Posted by: Pascal at March 30, 2006 6:05 PM | Reply

Not really, John. AIS transmissions are completely automated, and on different channels (though, to confuse things, AIS can use DSC calling channel 70 for special purposes like changing frequencies). An all ships call simply means that every radio in range will ring and switch to the working channel you specified. A DSC distress call is just a special form of "all ships" call that sets off a extra loud alarm and switches everyone to 16. If you make an individual or group DSC call, all radios in range will 'hear' it on 70, but only the ones with the right MMSI numbers will respond.

Posted by: Ben at March 30, 2006 6:15 PM | Reply

Oh, Ben. Like all tech-guys you are too close to the problem and go out of your way to make it difficult. :) I'd bet a software hack could make the Mystic do AIS. (Only half kidding.)

Posted by: John Williams at March 30, 2006 6:28 PM | Reply

I think that the overall idea of the well known "NASA AIS Radar" is very good. If it have an internal gps (very cheap ) and better construction (Weather Proof, Color screen) I already have bough one.. It even does not need to have eletronic charts/ploter, because the simulated radar screen is praticaly what we need to make it a very usefull device. Other thing is that it could have a NMEA out port to send the decoded AIVDM message to other equipment like the "NASA BalckBox Engine", and this pratically would double the value of the equipament, Why no other company offer this too until now?

Another question is: why the big radio manufactures (Icom, Standard Horizon, JRC etc) does not have yet launched an AIS transceiver (a class B AIS) inbed in theirs marine VHF/DSC radios? I think this would be very ease and simple as all the VHF radios already have chanels 87/88 and almost all have NMEA IN/OUT. And including a cheap gps chip like a SIRF woul not increase too much the final price. I would buy one if it exist just now.

Posted by: Pascal at March 30, 2006 9:12 PM | Reply

John:
..a software hack to get a DSC radio to tx / rx AIS? I don't think so! 1200 bps v. 9600? Fsk v. GMSK, need I go on?

Pascal:
I couldn't agree more, come on you manufacturers, get on with it! I'm sure one of the semiconductor companies that are already doing DSC and AIS modem chips would be only too happy to design something along those lines.

Posted by: del (uk) at March 30, 2006 9:57 PM | Reply

Give me a suitable platform with software access to a radio, GPS, maps, screen, buttons, and I'll make it happen. I'm a software guy. My tool is a hammer all problems look like a nail. :) (Can't say I haven't done this sort of thing before though.)

Perhaps you, Pascal, and I should form a company to build one of these?

Posted by: John Williams at March 31, 2006 8:17 PM | Reply

Does anyone know why Uniden stopped making the Mystic?

Posted by: Bill at August 21, 2007 6:03 PM | Reply

Bill, I don't have any inside knowledge but surmise that Uniden just figured it had much bigger (consumer electronics) fish to fry. I've heard that marine VHF has always been a tough business, and it's only getting harder as every m.e. brand feels it ought to have a VHF to fill out a complete helm. Uniden hasn't shown much marine interest for a while.

Posted by: Ben at August 21, 2007 9:47 PM | Reply

I've been looking for a great VHF (alkaline capapble, waterproof) and a GPS hybrid would be handy. Need to purchase several. I haven't found a color GPS screen, and Garmin has discontinued their line of VHF products. Any updates or advice, Captains?

Posted by: Natalie at October 3, 2007 3:23 PM | Reply

Isn't it hard to believe, that this 2004 radio still provides more features than the most recent DSC/GPS handhelds? Still a perfect package for small boats with small batteries - at least together with a masthead antenna.

It does not only provide single waypoint navigation but routes and outputs NMEA 0183 waypoint/ XTE information for e.g. supporting a tiller-pilot. It even allows waypoints and routes to be uploaded from a PC. 

8 years later adding the two fixed frequency receivers for AIS can't be to difficult.

Even using the most of the time idle transmitter for AIS position reports every 30 sec should be only a matter of SW.
The easyAIS transponder has been certified with an embedded antenna splitter - the AIS is "blind" and can't seek for free AIS slots during voice transmissions (which can be up to 5 min long) and therefore can't always send reports every 30 sec.

Well, the Garmin Rhino would be a good starting point ... 

Olaf

Posted by: Olaf at March 27, 2012 5:29 PM | Reply

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