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Author Articles
PAS-Thru Box
By Ben Ellison | Posted January 2008 | Add a CommentPAS-Thru BoxLife's hard; your friends are all enjoying NMEA 2000 install benefits with their new gear, and you're still struggling with an unruly mess of NMEA 0183 data connections. I know your pain, and a PAS-Thru Box can at least soothe it. The $150 model shown here can beautifully organize, connect, and protect 16 cable pairs,
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Black Box Wideband Receivers
By Ben Ellison | Posted December 2007 | Add a CommentThe seven-inch Alden AE-3300 alongside the Icom R2500 with its second, non-PC control head.Wideband is not broadband. If you boat far from civilization, you'll still find even a moderately fast Internet connection elusive (see KVH FleetBroadband
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KVH FleetBroadband
By Ben Ellison | Posted December 2007 | Add a CommentKVH FleetBroadbandThe good news is that the advent of Inmarsat's FleetBroadband in November means that a yacht cruising almost anywhere from the U.S. West Coast eastward to Australia can get a decent Internet connection ("up to" 284 kbps) and make clear phone calls with a stabilized antenna dome just a foot high—even at the
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Glomex Polaris
By Ben Ellison | Posted December 2007 | Add a CommentGlomex PolarisSatellite TV and radio are great on a boat, since they're able to deliver clear and familiar channels most everywhere you cruise. But what about unfamiliar content? Glomex's amplified and directional antenna might be just
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ClearPoint Weather
By Ben Ellison | Posted December 2007 | Add a CommentClearPoint WeatherClearPoint is an ambitious new weather service that attempts to go global with features similar to those that have made XM and Sirius Weather so popular under their North American
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Maptech Touch Screen Navigator
By Ben Ellison | Posted December 2007 | Add a CommentMaptech Touch Screen NavigatorNext month I'll profile the exciting new Raymarine G-Series and Furuno NavNet 3D systems, both of which are actually powerful PCs, though dedicated almost entirely to navigation. Maptech pioneered this concept, along with the touch-screen nav interface, way back in 2001, first with the Sea Ray
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NMEA 2000 Marries Ethernet
By Ben Ellison | Posted November 2007 | Add a CommentAs if we weren't confused enough! Maretron and Furuno have both introduced important new products that marry the NMEA 2000 marine-data protocol with the speed and universality of Ethernet, but most of us will need to expand our
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Tacktick Wireless Instruments
By Ben Ellison | Posted November 2007 | Add a CommentTacktick Wireless Instruments Micronet Power Boat Wind TransmitterThe direction and speed of the wind are not only important pieces of information when maneuvering in close quarters, they're also a tip-off to weather changes. Tacktick makes it easy to get precise wind information—and most any other numerical
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AmbientNAV Alpha
By Ben Ellison | Posted November 2007 | Add a CommentAmbientNAV AlphaWest Coast-based AmbientNav has introduced a new monitor line named Alpha, as in "alpha dog." This leader-of-the-pack boast is based on high-end specs like 170-degree viewing angles and 700:1 contrast ratios, not to mention an awesome rack of inputs. These monitors even have satellite-ready, HD-compatible TV
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Lowrance LVR-880 VHF/FM Radio
By Ben Ellison | Posted November 2007 | Add a CommentLowrance LVR-880 VHF/FM RadioIn a world with so many VHF choices, two features on the Lowrance LVR-880 are especially noteworthy. One, it can receive stereo FM stations, even cut in with DSC calls, purportedly a first for a fixed VHF. Two, it uses NMEA 2000 to input GPS information and output DSC call data. This is especially
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