[PUP] Electronics Equiptment, needs etc.

[Ron Rogers]

I'll take Bob Austin's lifetime of experience over anecdotal data anytime.

On reliability, you have to work hard to produce a bad GPS. My Deluo 
miniature hockey puck with Sony Siirf chipset is amazing. It agrees with an 
old Garmin and two Furuno GPS units (37 and 32.) In the beginning, everybody 
used the Navy Research Laboratory/Rockwell chipset and the only thing 
different was the control and display software.

Similarly, radar has progressed from numerous components on a circuit board 
to VLSI chips (Very Large Scale Integration) Like GPS, commercial interests 
and governments depend upon this technology so development and reliability 
is not just driven by the pleasure boat market. It is the other way round - 
we benefit from their driving and paying for development. We mostly pay for 
marketing. {;*))

Ironically, highly complex ship's radars probably have more problems than 
our less complex radars. Some of theirs are consoles which you stand to 
operate and require more frequent calibration.

Where Hannu may have a point is on the quality of the installation and setup 
on some boats. I once saw a Palmer Johnson electronics installation on a PAE 
Mason 54 sailboat. In addition to the instruments fitting into a welded 
aluminum framework enclosed in metal screening, there were numerous computer 
fans. The average sailboat underway in the Summer and/or the Tropics may not 
have air-conditioning on and the instruments are behind a wooden panel in 
the navigators station - problematical. Also, note that Bob mentioned his 
method of supplying power to his instruments - very important. As safety 
chair of a sailing club, I had two technicians survey the VHF installations 
on 43 boats. Almost all had inadequate electrical power being delivered to 
their radios. Over half had defective or poorly installed antennas. Only one 
VHF was defective in its final and it was ancient.

I noticed on the Diesel Duck Forum (ducktalk) that there were three Seahorse 
customers concerned with the temperature of their electronics in the 
pilothouse. Two were in the building stage and one's boat was just being 
started. They were concerned that pilothouse temperatures would exceed the 
specifications of their planned instruments.

So, outside of solid state electronics and CRT infant mortality, the real 
concerns are installation and setup. As far as what one "needs," as a 
singlehander, I use radar as a daytime crutch and nighttime necessity. 
Although all of us can navigate the ICW with a pair of binoculars and a 
compass, a chartplotter really lowers the stress level.

So it is not what you can do without, rather it is what will make your 
journey safer and more relaxing.

Ron Rogers
1985 Willard 40FBS
AIRBORNE
Lying Washington, NC