DSC invaluable in VHF marine radios
June 2009
Digital selective calling (DSC) features on VHF marine radios have been around for almost a decade. This feature lets you call other radios with the press of a button, using the called radio’s Maritime Mobile Service Identification number (MMSI) like a telephone number.
New radar takes worry out of being close
May 2009
Jokes about small-boat radars have historically run rampant: “Did you know you can either run radar on your bass/bay boat OR have children later in life?” and “I like having radar on my 18-foot boat. On cold days it keeps my head warm!” are two of my favorites, but they go on and on.
Water surface temp gauge leads to fish
April 2009
Fishing improves as spring shoves winter out of the way, and many of us spend more time on the water enjoying it. Newspaper and Internet fishing reports let us know when the fishing gets hot, but they are sometimes a bit light on telling us where.
Your owner’s manual is your friend
March 2009
If there is anything worse than a complicated sounder or chart plotter, it’s an owner’s manual that doesn’t give you the traction to climb the unit’s learning curve.
Parallel, serial battery wiring basics
February 2009
If you look at the top of a plain old flooded-cell, 12-volt marine battery, you see two widely separated metal posts and plastic caps lined up to cover six holes. The six holes let you replace water lost from each of the battery’s six cells during normal discharging and recharging.
Betting your life on a paperweight?
January 2009
If you have an emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) for your boat and it’s old, you need to take a quick look at it. EPIRB’s that operate on 121.5 mHz or 243 mHz will become paperweights after February 1, 2009. The search and rescue satellite aided tracking (SARSAT) satellites will not process those frequencies after that date.
Pontoon pinging is a little different
December 2008
A friend showed me his new pontoon boat, and I was impressed until I saw how a sonar transducer was mounted on the back of a pontoon. I remarked that it probably wouldn’t work above idle speed, and he confirmed that as soon as he throttled up above fast idle the fish finder lost its reading.
Sonar operation is really pretty basic
November 2008
Fish finders change their appearance and add new features each year, but the principles of sonar haven’t changed since World War II. A simple sonar system consists of a control head with a display and controls, a transducer and a power source.
Take trip to battery fountain of youth
October 2008
About 20 years ago, a company called PulseTech Products Corporation developed a way to cancel a process that prematurely “ages” lead-acid batteries, rendering most of them useless long before their components actually wear out. That process is called sulfation, and you have read about it in this column before.
Not all batteries are created equal
September 2008
Many fishermen and boaters call any sealed, maintenance-free marine battery a gel battery, and that isn’t correct. We discovered in the charging column the differences between types become more than just semantics if you destroy a battery by using the wrong charger on it.
GPS: Quest for the bullseye
August 2008
GPS units navigate by satellites that circle the earth twice a day at an altitude of almost 11,000 miles, yet the system can take you back to within a boat length of a location you saved in memory. Thinking about that makes my head hurt, so like most other fishermen, I prefer to just take the system for granted.
Side-imaging opens new worlds
July 2008
The basic principles of sonar are tied to the laws of physics and can’t change much, but Humminbird’s Side Imaging feature proves that sonar’s application to sportfishing is still evolving.
Dying batteries give warning signs
June 2008
When you fire up your computer and get a warning message reading, “Hard Drive Failure Imminent,” you pretty well know what is about to happen. I called the local geek squad and was told that new smart drives perform a self diagnostic when a computer boots up and let you know if something is wrong. It was time to replace the hard drive.
Ask Captain Paul
Marine Electronics 
