Of course you can read this weblog to learn all about marine equipment that might save your life someday, but now there's also a new three-part video series called "Taking the Search Out of Search & Rescue."
"Endorsed by the U.S. Coast Guard"These three videos - "Rescue 21," "Using Your DSC Radio" and "The GMDSS System" - cover other safety equipment as well, including EPIRBs, SARTS and Inmarsat satellite communications."
Some advice on how to choose, install and upgrade you boating electronics, from sonar units to marine batteries. The article focuses on anglers, but some of this advice is relevant to all boaters.
"The most frequent upgrade for fishermen is a new sonar unit. Like computer companies, every year makers of sonar fish-finding equipment introduce more colorful and feature-filled units. To make them work properly the position of the unit's transducer which sends out and receives a sonar signal to mark fish, the structure and the lake bottom below the boat must be exact."
Boating World's Chris Caswell has written a short how-to on installing a GPS Chartplotter. He uses Magellan�s FX324 Map GPS Color Plotter as an example.
"Today, however, navigational accuracy with a GPS/chartplotter combo is available at everyman prices. Even better, these are very easy to install and set up. With the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), GPS accuracy has been greatly enhanced, and the chartplotter shows you the position of your boat on an electronic chart, complete with depths, buoys and all the details of a paper chart. A GPS/chartplotter combination makes for worry-free navigation in all types of weather."
Some real-life lessons on boat electronics to be found in the latest Ocean Navigator marine electronics eNewsletter by Chris Parker, sailing from Bermuda to Puerto Rico.
"There�s often a deeper lesson, and here it is: Your vessel has many complex and vital systems, mechanical, electrical and otherwise. Most of these systems were designed and manufactured to be used. The majority of system failures result from LACK of use, not overuse. My recommendation is that you resolve to test all major systems on a regular schedule (say monthly) and always prior to an offshore trip, during spring commissioning and fall decommissioning."
In order to help you power all these great devices that are being presented on this weblog, Ocean Navigator has released a newsletter discussing the necessity of inverters and how to install them.
"Inverters have become a desirable piece of equipment to provide AC electricity (alternating current, just like household service) onboard. This is done by taking direct current from your batteries, changing the type of current (current is measured in amps) and increasing the voltage from 12 or 24 volts to 120 volts. Notice that the voltage in most applications is a 10-to-1 exchange � from 12 to 120. This is very helpful in realizing quickly that for the same power output, divide the watts output from an inverter by 12 to get the number of amps from your batteries. This can be staggering when you use a large AC appliance like a hair drier at 1,200 watts and that takes 100 amps DC from the batteries."
A quite funny quote from a Netstumbler forum thread shows very well that the combination of Wi-Fi and boating is still in the early adopter stage, and that 'wardriving' has its equivalent at sea....
"WARBOATING!!!! It was actually sort of tough to set this up (see photo below). The boat has a double door that snaps open, so I used the double doors to hold tight the NiteIze case flap. The case flap has a metal insert in the back and this is very strong. It held the Jornada, PC card adapter, Orinoco Gold card, yagi antenna, and wires in place for our entire four hour ocean voyage. I set the 8dbi yagi to point towards the shore. When we neared any boats I'd turn the yagi around if need be. (Or is this warshipping? Is that praying?) We received several pings from shore locations, but when we were passed by a police boat we also got a ping! Seems the sonar ping sound is perfect for being on a boat. I checked just now to see if we did indeed get a ping off the boat, it is WEP enabled for Seal Beach police. Good going guys! You're secure! (Warcopping?)"
Tom Isitt, in his editorial piece for the Motor Boat & Yachting May issue, confesses that he always reads the manual of the gadgets he buys. Lot's of people do not, and that's probable not very smart.
"But I know plenty of people who don't. Whether it's because they're too idle or too disinterested, they just can't bring themselves to do it. Or maybe I do it because I'm a total saddo.When I buy a new gizmo (and believe me, I buy lots) I have to read the manual. To my mind, there's no point in having some clever gizmo if you don't know what it will do, and don't know how to get it to do the things you want it to do. My mobile, my iPod, my GPS, my PDA, my multi-function digital chronograph, the five boxes that sit beneath my TV. I've read the manuals. I actually like reading the manuals. Even the manuals that make no sense, like the one for my KTM that was written by an Austrian with a very warped grasp of English."
I know a lot of the high-end electronics that are being presented here require power. Lot's of it. So every time I come across an article or how-to-guide helping you to make sure this power is available, I will post it here. BoatFix.com explains battery system wiring hookups. Next to that, there is also a Google Groups discussion on 'wiring questions.'
"Below you will find information on marine battery system wiring hookups. We do not claim to be experts in all fields. Nor can we promise to be correct on all issues. Nor can we address the content of these pages. But, I hope you will find this page useful. We want to thank the technical service department of Guest Corp., for their technical assistance with this page. We recommend that if you are not fluent with electrical systems, you get assistance from a trained individual."
Tony Gutierrez pointed me at APRS, an Automatic Packet/Position Reporting System. ARPS is a real-time tactical digital communicatons protocol for exchanging information between a large number of stations covering a large (local) area. As a multi-user data network, it is quite different from conventional packet radio. There are many APRS applications, and I will get back to that later. First, here's what Tony uses it for:
"I dont believe I can afford satellite internet, but I was psyched to find that I could use my amateur radio licence to broadcast my position to a web page map, and to recieve and send email while at sea. The position broadcasts are tracked by a site called findu.com which allows you to use your own web page to access numerous scripts that create a map of your boat's position for your web page visitors."
Of course you can read this weblog to learn all about marine equipment that might save your life someday, but now there's also a new three-part video series called "Taking the Search Out of Search & Rescue."
Some 
Boating World's Chris Caswell has written a short how-to on 
Some real-life lessons on boat electronics to be found in the latest Ocean Navigator marine electronics 
In order to help you power all these great devices that are being presented on this weblog, Ocean Navigator has released a 
A quite funny 
Tom Isitt, in his editorial 
I know a lot of the high-end electronics that are being presented here require power. Lot's of it. So every time I come across an article or how-to-guide helping you to make sure this power is available, I will post it here. BoatFix.com 
Tony Gutierrez pointed me at