MAATS Innovations, the winners are...
There were 15 entries in the “Aftermarket Electronics, Electrical Equipment, Instrumentation, Navigation Equipment including Software” category of this year’s MAATS Innovation Awards, and not a dud in the bunch! Which is why it’s particularly noteworthy that we seven judges gave the award to Lowrance’s Broadband Sounder and an Honorable Mention to Lowrance’s LVR-880 VHF/FM radio. I’ll be writing more about both these products as I should have samples installed on Gizmo in a week or so. The photo above is from a pre-production 880 that I tried in the lab for a month or so; the NMEA 2000 DSC features weren’t yet ready for prime time, but I was quite impressed with how well it could bring in FM radio while also scanning one, two, or all VHF frequencies, muting the FM whenever squelch was broken. Congratulations, Lowrance!
And there were other winners with electronics in them. Delta T Systems won the “Interior Parts” category with a DryBoat dehumidifier that uses “thermotronic” ceramic technology that just might revolutionize all aspects of boat air management. In the “Safety” category, Aqualuma won with a cleverly engineered jet ski LED “brake light” that might help those dudes to avoid running into each other, and ACR got Honorable Mention for the iPro EPIRB discussed yesterday. Some nifty non-electronic boat gear won awards too—like the Wrino boat hook—as you can read about in the Awards press release. And, finally, the caption for today’s vision of Vegas: bemused and be-crocked judge finds solace in HIS presence…
Having spent the last few summers working as a skipper down in the Caribbean I encourage everyone to AVOID DSC radio's like the plague, unless you personally have had a chance to test them out.
For those of us used to monitoring channel 16 or keeping a working channel and 16 in a scan loop, modern DSC radios have a ring / distress feature which means that a couple of times a day you will be listening to a very loud and annoying ringing or alarm sound. Position request / Distress - no position data are the types of things you'll see on the screen.
After running down below a few times, or having the crew yelling about the "alarm" a few times, the very very quick result is that the radio is turned totally off.
I doubt ANYONE with a dsc radio keeps them on overnight in a place like the Caribbean, and even during the day they go off.
I carry a personal handheld as well, which is thankfully DSC and alarm free. On a stormy night in a crowded anchorage I can sleep with it, and find I wake nicely if there is chatter, but easily go back to sleep if its not urgent without waking the whole boat. When sailing in a flotilla I can likewise leave our working channel open at night. If something comes up I was instantly available. This general watchstanding type principal really saves lives. In the flotilla especially, you will be called once or twice over the course of a week. Small fire, lost dinghy etc.
When someone is going a long way in a small dinghy it is trivial to leave a non-DSC radio on. Otherwise the folks back on the boat turn it off as soon as it alarms for the first time.
The EPIRB community has developed an excellent and reliable product. The DSC community seems to have truly crippled theirs.
It takes about 2-3 alarms before people turn these radios off. I worry that crews used to ignoring the DSC alarms, may not report something like a bilge water alarm.
I had the experience of an autopilot losing heading in rough seas and reverting to standby. The crew asked me how to turn off the alarm rather than getting the boat pointed in the correct direction.
The company chartering the boats also simply suggested turning the radios off.
I'm curious if others have had alarm heavy DSC experiences. Are the alarms required in the radio's? Does anyone make a radio where the alarms can be disabled?
I know calling out the "safety" experts can sometimes be hard, but sometimes we need to point out when the emperor has no clothes.