Lowrance vhf dsc marine radio
Submitted by meglodon on Thu, 2014-12-11 17:02
Has any body had any experience with Lowrance vhf dsc 5 marine radios. I'm looking around for a replacement radio and I'm thinking of the lowrance,if any body has had hands on experience with one could they please give me their opinion of them.
sarcasm0
Posts: 1396
Date Joined: 25/06/09
I have one
Works great, Im hoping it will stand the test of time over a gme, but the unit is now a lot more protected than the previous. Wire it up to your gps nmea feed or turn the alarm off ASAP once wired as it is loud and goes off about 15-20 seconds after power up! DSC/MMSI need a Marine Radio VHF licence to register and gain the full benefits. DSC has heaps of benefits, but like all tech its about will you use it. A lot of the features are more targetted to Commercial use, like programming emergency codes - eg 1 - fire, 2 - pirates, 3 - collision and so on which would send a voiceless emergency transmission with your lat/long (once wired in), emergency description etc.
But seriously if im in an incident in the 14' dinghy im hitting emergency 16 - mayday if im lucky enough to be able to get off a transmission. Otherwise it is all PFD, Epirb and grab bag and hope for the best...
Bryan
opsrey
Posts: 1200
Date Joined: 05/10/07
Skipper
skipper goes down with the EPIRB.
Reefmonkey
Posts: 711
Date Joined: 22/09/08
wet boat?
Can't fault the operation of the radio but they hate water (well mine did anyway) would be fine in an inclosed cabin. My console gets a bit of a salt spray and fresh water rinse after a rough day and radio hasn't lasted 2 years, selector has completely seized, eaten through and snapped off. Just have power and half the range of a very stiff squelch. Mine's about to go in the bin and will be looking at an Icom. Can't fault the icom on the work boat, gets treated like crap, plenty of salt without a wash for days, after 5 years still as good as the day we got it.
Dave J.
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
What medel Icom
Can you tell me what model the icom is, radio would be mounted in half cabin but can still get a bit of fresh water spray at wash downs.
Reefmonkey
Posts: 711
Date Joined: 22/09/08
good question haha
to be honest never paid attention to the model, will check it out next time i'm out and get back to you.
Dave J.
thesupervisor
Posts: 1136
Date Joined: 10/06/09
ill second the icom and the
ill second the icom
and the range was amazing also i could still talk to ocean reef sea rescue from my house in koondoola
getting the bottom line final answer from a bunch of blokes that use false names and put smiley faces at the end of paragraphs is not the best place in the world to get the information you seek.