LooseChange said..
If you have a VHF antenna already mounted on your mast then just connect it to the device thereby greatly extending the range. You probably also already own a USB puck GPS so all you would need to buy would be the receiver saving a bit of money. It even has NMEA 0183 output via RS-422. Seems like a top bit of kit.
What I thought was a good advantage with that unit is that it obviates using a splitter on your VHF antenna.
I am not a great fan of integrated systems ie. having plotter, sounder, log, wind instruments, AIS, auto pilot and radar networked together whereby if one of the inputs goes down the whole network may be compromised.
For $170 as an add in to a PC with a charting program it seems to be great value. I will always have a stand alone sounder/fish finder and a hand held back up GPS. I have a Garmin GPS Map dv 75 plotter/sounder and I will have a Simrad tiller pilot which I may or may not network with the Garmin.
Then of course I have the Lenovo 9" tablet with Navionics so there is plenty of redundancy with nav electronics.
Not that I believe it is really necessary but having AIS on board seems to be the flavour of the month these days and at $170 this unit puts it the financial reach of everybody.
Electronics and software just keeps getting better and better and cheaper and cheaper. You only have to look at what science is going into drones today.
So loaded up with all this technology I will just have to make sure I do not have to tow a two tonne barge around loaded up with batteries to keep it all going.
