ELECTRONICS
different manufacturers to exchange information. There
are two such standards, NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000,
and neither includes color-coding for the wires. Hayden
has promised the Coast Guard that the NMEA will
revisit the issue, and he says the NMEA has had a draft
proposal for standardization of wiring on hold.
“We’ve all pulled our hair out trying to get the industry
to use standard color coding,” Hayden says. “I’ve never
understood the mentality compared to the computer
industry, where all the components are standardized.”
If color coordinating wires has opposition, imagine
the reaction to a proposal that VHF radios have a GPS
inside of them. Interviews with several people in the
marine electronics industry, all of them makers of GPS
products and VHF radios, revealed general hostility
to the idea of combining the two, particularly in fixed-
mount applications.
Some handheld radios are already available with built-in GPS, but they are used differently than fixed-mount
units, according to Scott Iverson, product manager for
Standard Horizon, a big radio maker. Handhelds are
customarily used outdoors with an unobstructed view of
GPS satellites. Iverson says a combo unit would probably
work fine from the open dash of a center-console boat,
but not so well mounted inside a vessel, whose structure
could degrade GPS reception and thus require an
external GPS antenna. Either solution would add to the
price of the radio.
People who sell radios don’t want to create a fix for
DSC if it also means creating a disincentive to buy radios
altogether. Who can blame them? The boating public has
already begun to lean away from VHF as their primary
means of communicating on the water as evidenced by
the increasing number of cell phone calls seeking help
from the Coast Guard.
Which brings me to a heretical question that I asked
the Coast Guard since the Edsel piece.
THE MOBILE PHONE FACTOR
No thoughtful person can argue that a mobile phone
is a better device than a VHF radio for summoning the
Coast Guard to an emergency. In presenting my heretical
notion to the Coasties, I stipulated to the superiority of
VHF as a tool, but suggested a reality check.
Mobile phones have become such a large part of
everyday life, including recreational boating. On any
given day there are probably more mobile phones on
the water than there are VHF radios. Evidence suggests
the percentage of search-and-rescue calls from cellular
devices will continue to trend upward. At the same
time, cellular coverage of nearshore and inshore areas
has improved significantly over the past few years,
which happens to be where the vast majority of rescues
are undertaken.
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