T&T: Electronics wish list

[Scott E. Bulger]

I don't know if any marine electronics representatives or employees frequent
this list (I think one or two Rosepoint guys listen in), but I have a few
features I think would be really cool, and I'd pay money for.


VHF Radio

a.  The ability to have a user selectable capability to have the volume
return to a medium setting if left on No amplitude on CH 16 for some length
of time.  In other words, If I turn the radio volume down and forget, it
would be nice if 10 or 15 minutes later it would pipe back up again

b.  The ability to have a 30 second running buffer of recorded audio.  This
would enable you to rewind the USCG marine assistance request for location
of distress.  Often times I'm traveling in waters where I'm not familiar
with the local landmarks.  I'd like to be able to replay the announcement
and look at charts.  Pause, Save, Repeat, and delete functions for this
buffer would be nice as well.

c.  Return to CH 16.  A user selectable feature to cause an unused radio to
return to 16.

Depth Recording  (this may be patentable)

With all the boats plying the waters of the ICW, Imagine if a software
developer wrote the following code:

Each boat equipped with version x.y.z of a software product would turn on a
recording feature as they start down the ICW (or inside passage).  At
specified intervals the date, time and current depth of the water would be
recorded along with the gps derived lat/lon.  Obviously each boat would need
to either have its depth soundings be accurate, or a normalization process
would be applied in the following steps.  Upon arrival at destination the
track (or accumulation of individual tracks) would be uploaded to the host
server site.  The data would be normalized for tides and other factors if
possible, then applied to a visualization scheme.  Tracks would be weighted
for reliability (minimum variations along route) and then a color coding
scheme designed to represent not only the reported depths of all uploaded
tracks, but the reliability or confidence in the depth readings.  Imagine a
replacement for the magenta line that perhaps used shades of color to
represent depth, violet in the deepest segment, fading to yellow or whatever
color was most appropriate, with a fading or bolding effect to represent
confidence?  The goal would be to come up with a replacement for the magenta
line based on real world, as close to current time observations.  

Some may say the normalization process would be difficult, but think about
1,000 boats heading south, well, if just 10% had the feature turned on, it
would be a very interesting data presentation to look at.  

Anyway, just food for thought


Scott E. Bulger, ALANUI, Nordhavn 40II, Seattle WA