These are big times in the small world of global satellite communications for medium size boats! Yesterday Inmarsat demoed Fleet Broadband 150 hardware and service in Miami (my people were there, and even called me via FB150, full report soon) and today Iridium issued a press release boasting about the extensive sea trials its OpenPort system has endured, and how it's now shipping (actual FB150 hardware, like KVH's TracPhone FB150, won't ship until sometime "this summer"). Meanwhile, yours truly was using the new Iridium 9555 handset to text himself (above) and call his patient spouse from Camden Harbor...
Lucky me, I have an amazingly bright and progressive plumber who is also a seriously addicted boater, and sometimes we barter our respective skills. Which is how I found myself tuning up and updating his old GPSMap 276C last week. I was amazed to discover that Garmin's latest update for it was just released on March 19; it's a minor update, to be sure, but this unit has been around since 2004 (when I gave it a prize). And so I planned an entry complimenting Garmin on its perfectionistic persistence...but that was before I saw the just-released 5.0 software for the networkable 4- and 5000 series. Wow...
There are numerous cable labelling devices and styles, as folks have commented about in the Gizmo schematics entry and the systems forensics saltwater pathogens entry (;-). I even have a low-end, but decent Dymo LetraTag Plus whose tape labels can be made work okay on cables. But last week I noticed, and bought, this newish Dymo Rhino 101, which can be used with self laminating cable labels. I like it; it's simple, light, and fast, and no batteries are required.
I plan to thoroughly check out the sample Lowrance HDS-10 I recently received, and will probably write about it a lot too. It marks not only a major MFD refresh for Lowrance, but also, I'm told, the first MFD series based on NOS, the Navico Operating System. In other words, the underlying software was created not only by Lowrance developers but others in Navico's now global R&D department, and some form of it will likely show up in future products from Navico's other brands, like Simrad and Northstar. I'm going to save the sexy stuff for next week, when I try the unit on the water; today I'm going to mostly discuss some geeky but important data networking aspects of the machine...
This graph is a thermal sensor manufacturer's dream -- and was, in fact, created by the marketing department at FLIR -- but, hey, that's us way over to the right. I'd love to see the price of thermal cameras go so low, and unit volume so high, that "most cars/boats/ships" have them. Like GPS, once you understand how well the technology works, you want to have it aboard. I remember well the Magellan Nav 1000 (below), which seemed totally magic 20 years ago, but was actually quite crude and cost over $1,000...
I have no idea why Bob Congdon, former U.S. Sales Manager for B&G, is now working for Euro Marine Trading, the U.S. distributor for NKE...and I question the ravings at Sailing Anarchy on the subject. But I do know this: In Miami, when Bob talked about how well NKE's about-to-debut Regatta Processor would compare to B&G's offerings, there was a distinct glint in his eye. Well, above is the Regatta showing off at Strictly Sail Pacific last month and here is the pitch...
Here's a Gizmo plumbing detail that turned me on from day one: A hot/cold shower head plus salt- and freshwater outlets (with quick disconnects, yet) all clustered neatly under the fly bridge ladder, with hose storage. They're even labeled well! But, when I first fired up the freshwater hose to rinse off the cleaning work I'd started with salt -- the resources are limited where I'm tied up -- I got a funny feeling and took a taste...
Thanks to Sandy Daugherty over on the Forums, I now know that JRC has introduced a VHF radio series that can easily make direct DSC calls to AIS targets. They are most definitely big ship radios (see diagram below), and they do AIS calling in a way I hadn't anticipated, but still...
