I’ve got to say that this VHF, also seen yesterday, is pretty darn impressive, especially for the money (under $150 from some sources). Of course I love the Rewind feature, and, unlike the handheld 425, it does work on the weather channels. But more important, really, it sounds good and scans well, and that’s compared to two pricier units I have down in the “lab”, a Uniden 625c and an Icom M504. I must say I like the bigger knobs on both those units, plus the separate squelch, but the F80 is more compact. Still it has a large display, seen above and bigger here. Note the somewhat odd Lat/Long display (and, yes, I was feeding it an odd location from the laptop), but I think that high precision means that the set has taken care of the M.821 gotcha (though I haven’t yet tested it’s ability to plot a DSC call). Note too the two soft keys, used here for fast favorite channel selection, but also useful when you move through the well thought out menu system. I don’t think any other VHF, aside from the high end Ray218, uses soft keys. I find the screen almost as readable as the Icom, but the Uniden remains my favorite, even though its screen is the smallest of the bunch (color counts!). And how about that basement lab, bigger here? Yes, friends, the test Garmin 545s may have gone missing for a couple of weeks—glitches happen—but now it’s joined by a 430s, and a GXM 31 antenna. More on those tomorrow.
Well, Mr. Guntis Ositis did get me back to testing the Cobra F80, which is a good thing, but otherwise the man has got me riled. You may have seen the comments section of an old Rescue 21 entry where we got into it, and further investigation reveals that Ositis has been spreading his so-far unverified, but dire, concerns about DSC VHF radios well beyond Panbo. This letter in the March Latitude 38 is pretty much the gentle version:
DSC SIGNALS INTERRUPT RADIO TRANSMISSIONS In my opinion, your new DSC marine radio may be a can of worms. In many DSC radios, the DSC signals will interrupt voice operation of the radio. These signals can't be heard, but if there are a lot of them, they can make the DSC radio unusable for voice communications. In cases of critical construction or ship docking, captains should not activate the DSC function of their radios.
SetSail recently put up another useful survey of what their far flung group of cruising correspondents is doing for communications. This time the theme is “Skype & WiFi”, which is no surprise, especially after my visit to the B.V.I. I regularly saw people Skyping away at the Bitter End’s pub, and many a cruiser’s first question after tieing up his or her dink was regarding the state of the resort’s free WiFi. At SetSail I was particularly intrigued with the post of Joe Boyle, who’s now in Europe with his family aboard a 51’ cat. Joe’s having pretty good luck using a Broadband Express PCMCIA card (above) along with an 8dB antenna he hauls aloft with a topping lift. He reports better coverage than boats with the WaveRV, but now he’s planning to install a 1 watt amp and 11dB antenna (purchased from I know not where). He’s also figured out how to run a Linksys modem on 12v to spread the Internet connection to all three of the boat’s computers (and a few friends in the anchorage).
Having crossed paths with some circumnavigating Panbo readers in a foreign port, I had to get aboard, and what a pleasure it was to meet Iris Schepelmann and Graeme Arnall and tour their steel catamaran Pelagic. This is not your go-fast multihull, but rather one designed to survive a collision with a container (so far untested!), and to carry everything the couple need to live afloat. In the starboard bow, for instance, there’s a several-hundred-book library/office and in the port one a workshop, both behind crash bulkheads and collapsible steel water tanks. You can see the boat’s details on Iris and Graeme’s Web site, though it’s not up-to-date on their travels, which now include the Red Sea, the Med, an excursion up to Norway and Scotland, and now a leisurely downhill tour of the Caribbean chain.
So let’s talk about issues with the last photo contest. My hope was that someone would figure out that the coral patches, steep drop off, and north facing channel had to be in the Turks and Caicos Islands, specifically the entrance to Turtle Cove, Provo. Then you could refine the boat’s location to 21d 47.806’N, 072d 12.453’W (I can’t get this software to insert the degree symbol so I’m using “d”). Then you’d use some navigation software or machine to create a relative waypoint at 039d True and 3,377 nautical miles (off the contest screen), which—ta-ta—would turn out to be Clare Island, Ireland. You can do this on a Raymarine E-Series but I’m not sure where else. That’s because the E is doing its calculations in great circle geometry, which means that the bearing is going to change as you travel along the course.
6:30am at the Bitter End Yacht Club, British Virgin Islands: the picture, of course, misses salient details—like the gulls rapping as they work over some leftover conch fritters, or the gentle breeze wafting through my tiki. A lot of us have made this little corner of the vast resort into part time offices as this is where the WiFi signals are the strongest (and there’s a waitress). Unfortunately the BEYC’s own free WiFi has not been connecting to the Internet for a couple of days now. I asked about it at the front desk yesterday and a nice lady there gave me a sympathetic (perhaps pitying?) look and lilted: “Da Internet?…oh, sometimes dat works, and sometimes dat don’t.”
