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PMY Electronics Editor:
Based out of the U.K., Tim has a lifetime of experience running and writing about boats. For more than ten years, he served as the technical editor of Motor Boat and Yachting—the UK’s leading powerboat magazine. Since leaving that position in 1997, he has penned articles for various boating publications, including Power & Motoryacht’s sister magazine, SAIL Magazine. Read more here...
Controlling Power
By Tim Bartlett | Posted May 2010 | Add a CommentTwenty-first-century technology has changed the way your electronics communicate.It’s more than ten years now, since we learned to spell “millennium,” stocked up on canned food, and braced ourselves for the computerized apocalypse that was supposed to happen as we rolled over into the 21st Cen-tury—but never did. Yet while Y2K never lived up to its
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Garmin 6000 and 7000 MFDs
By Tim Bartlett | Posted April 2010 | Add a CommentThere are new models at the top of the Garmin series, as well, in the form of two new ranges of large-format multifunction displays known as the GPSMAP 6000 and GPSMAP 7000 series. Like the 4000 and 5000 series, they offer a choice between touchscreen control (in the 7000 series at right) and more conventional soft-key and cursor operation in the 6000s.
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Garmin 700 series
By Tim Bartlett | Posted April 2010 | Add a CommentA recent addition to Garmin’s range is a series of touchscreen plotters whose size and price slot them neatly into the significant gap between five-inch GPSMap 600 series, whose prices start at about $1,000, and the 8.4-inch GPSMap 5008, which has a list price of $2,899.At $1,499.99, the GPSMAP 740 (right) is pre-loaded with navigation-quality charts for
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Stay Safe WITH AIS
By Tim Bartlett | Posted April 2010 | Add a CommentWhy a collision-avoidance system is must-have technology.Vesper Marine’s AIS Watchmate RX displays data from its built-in receiver on a simple, radar-like display or as a prioritized list. ($700; www.vesper marine.com) Every year, the U.S. Coast Guard publishes its Recreational Boating Statistics—70-odd pages of
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Ultrascan PC90
By Tim Bartlett | Posted March 2010 | Add a CommentOne of the drawbacks of forward-looking sonar has always been that sound travels much more slowly through water than radar waves travel through air. At a sluggish 5,000 feet per second, it takes half a second for a sonar “ping” to travel out and back to an object a quarter of a mile away. So for a scanning sonar to build up even a crude picture of what's ahead can easily take several seconds.
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Jotron AIS SART
By Tim Bartlett | Posted March 2010 | Add a CommentJotron's Automatic Identification System (AIS) SART is a search-and-rescue beacon based on AIS technology; it transmits a dedicated identity code and GPS position to produce a distinctive red cross icon on the bridge display of every AIS-equipped ship within range, marking the position of a liferaft or a vessel in distress.Jotron was instrumental in carrying
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Follow the Birds
By Tim Bartlett | Posted March 2010 | Add a CommentWhat's the secret to piscatorial success? Simple. Just follow the birds!Terns and pelicans don't go fishing for fun. They do it because of their need to survive. And because they do it almost all day, every day, it stands to reason that they get pretty darn good at it.Okay, I've never heard of a bird tackling a marlin or tuna—they're
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Sea-Me Dual Band
By Tim Bartlett | Posted January 2010 | Add a CommentSea-Me, the popular RTE (Radar Target Enhancer) or “active radar reflector” has been dramatically improved. The new Sea-Me Dual Band does exactly what its name suggests: it responds to both of the frequencies that are used by ships’ radars. Until now, commercially available RTEs responded only to X-band radar transmissions. This meant
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ACR EMERGENCY BEACONS
By Tim Bartlett | Posted January 2010 | Add a CommentACR Electronics has introduced what it describes as the newest generation of Personal Locator Beacons (PLBs) in the shape of the AquaLink PLB. Although less than six inches long and thus truly pocket-size, the newly approved AquaLink features an integral 66-channel GPS. Once the unit is triggered, the lat and lon provided by its GPS should guide rescuers to
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When To Go Manual
By Tim Bartlett | Posted January 2010 | Add a CommentMost of the time fishfinders work great on auto mode. But not always.Fishfinders don’t just find fish; they also find the places fish are likely to be, like reefs, wrecks, and drop-offs where baitfish and predators gather. But sometimes they need a little help to do their job.Fishfinders produce short pulses of high-frequency sound that
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