Hi fellas, I am a ham W1QJ and I am getting into APRS, I understand how it
works. My brother has a boat with a Garmin 2010 GPS unit and an Icom VHF
radio. Both of the manuals talk about DSC, but do not tell you how to hook it
up. I am assuming that it works similar to the amatuer APRS. The lat. long.
data gets fed from the GPS to the VHF radio and then the radio can beacon the
position of the boat. My question is this. Which wires on the Garmin 2010
give out the data that the VHF radio is looking for? The Icom VHF radio is
looking for "NEMA" data input, but when I called Garmin on the phone, they said
that the Garmin has their own data protocal. Is this a problem? If so then
what is the work around? Could anyone here that uses DSC and understands it,
please help me out. I am assuming that it is very much like "connected
packet"?? I may be wrong, but from what I read about it, it sounds like it.
Any help with a better understanding of Marine DSC and help hooking up the
Garmin to the Icom to get my brother going on DSC would be appreciated. You
can e-mail me direct please. Or I can come back here for responses. Many
thanks in advance to anyone who can help me. 73 Louie W1QJ