I just made a quick stop at West Marine during my son's guitar lesson
and it appears I was led astray the first time I looked at the new
radios. None of them (according to the story this time) show the Lat
Long on their display so a GPS receiver without a display wouldn't be
a back up except for the distress signal.

The salesman also told me that the USCG is not currently receiving
position information on the channel 70 calls, at least in the
Northeast. Does anyone know the status of the Coast Guard system? I
don't see much point in buying one of these until they are with the
program.

--

Roger Long



"Roger Long" wrote in message
.. .
Now that all new VHF radios have the GPS input, it seems that there
should be a little GPS box the just puts out the NMEA signal with no
other functions. You could then use the output from your main GPS
for something else and have the radio's readout for a position back
up.

Come to think of it, do those little GPS units sold to plug into
laptop computers for street maps speak NMEA?

I have an old aviation Garmin GPS 90 that has the same plug as my
GPSMAP 76. It outputs:

NMEA 0180 and 0182

0183 Version 1.5

Approved sentences:

GPBWC, GPGLL, GPRMB, GPRMC, GPXTE, GPVTE, GPWPL

NMEA 0183 Version 2.0

Approved sentences:

GPGGA, GPGLL, GPGSA, GPGSV, GPRMB, GPRMC, GPRTE, GPWPL

Can anyone tell me if this would work with the DSC radio? Spending
its retirement inputting position to the VHF might be a good use for
this box. I could then take my 76 back to the helm without losing
the DSC connection. Besides, if I want to know the location of the
nearest airport, I'll be all set

--

Roger Long