Radio Shack, The

After the new radio and antennas there was a bit of Rigging to complete to get the whole system up and running the way I want it. After a few hours work today - I´m met most of my goals...

I´m, pretty busy with work at the moment - so I have been fitting this in when I need a break, time to think, etc...

The plan was to get the VHF, GPS, and Nobeltec on the PC all talking to that when a DSC comes in I´ll get a plot on the Chart - I got 75% of that working ;)

The GPS is just a little hand help Garmin eTrex Vista, and I never bought the power adaptor for it - but no worries I rigged it using a single filament of wire-wrap wite taped in place (the make the contacts flat to prevent this I believe) anyway with that set-up I can now leave it on all the time using an AC power source (currently a variable lab power supply - but I´ll find a 3V wall wort soon)

I then created a custom Cable for the output of the data adaptor (which I did have) and got that into the NEMA input for my new VHF - bingo - Lat/Long on the GPS and a URGENCY DSC came in within 2 hours of that working (vessel Aground in Agamemnon Channel)

Next, I was hoping to use the VHF´s NEMA out as a repeater for the NEMA from the GPS - but unfortunately the VHF only transmits NEMA when there is a DSC Distress Alert - not all the time :( so I´ll eventually need to rig a second serial Port into my PC to get the DSC alerts. For now I just spliced into the NEMA from the GPS and have that going into Nobeltec - just to give it a signal and prove the concept.

So i´m happy for the moment - and ready to watch what happens as sun continues to bring out the boaters... should be an interesting summer.

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