MMSI numbers - Baltimore Area?

[SeaHarley]

Anybody in the Baltimore area want to exchange MMSI - DSC radio numbers?

Since I've put in my SH Quest radio, I've had the DSC feature but none of my friends have it.
I've tried to get them to update their radios with DSC but get nothing but stories.
I think it's a great idea and would like to start utilizing it and be able to "call" friends and get more familiar with using it.

I think for me, you'd have to be and boat in the general area of Baltimore. And we could start seeing if your location shows up on my GPS and my location shows up on yours.

If you are interested, I think we could PM each other and keep the numbers private between us.
No offense, but we could also pass them out or decide not to pass them out if you think there would be reason not to.

What do you think?

Lee

 

[Walz]

Lee:

Sounds like a good way to see how this all works. I too have the SH Quest radio but it is sitting at the house waiting to replace the 10 year old original VHF. Keep telling myself that I'll do the install when it's not so hot, but that day never seems to come. Another reason for procrastination is getting access to the GPS cable which is currently hooked to the radar. I think I figured out how to connect the Garmin GPS to talk to both the radar and VHF. But working behind the dash on a 290 seems to be a challenge! If I ever get the radio installed I'll get back to you.

Bruce

 

[skibum]

Feel free to give mine a shot. I'll be out there sometime after 6pm tonight, and again for the weekend.

I only have 1 way comm between the VHF and the GPS. I'll get a call, but no location display on the GPS. The manuals say that I should be able to send my position on an outbound call.

Michael

 

[SeaHarley]

Bruce, Sounds good. Shoot me a PM when you get it installed and get your number.

Michael, I was out last nght as well in front of Miami Beach, but didn't get this till today. You need to PM me with your number.

Thanks,
Lee

 

[skibum]

I added my MMSI# to my sig. I meant to do that right after I got it, but I forgot.

We'll be out again tonight and most likely all weekend starting sometime Friday evening. Try it a couple of times. You know how it is... On the boat, off the boat...

What's your number, Lee?

Michael

 

[SeaHarley]

Michael, I sent you a PM

 

[Walz]

I'll look for you guys Saturday. Taking some friends out and will be going to River Watch for lunch.

Bruce

 

[SeaHarley]

Bruce,
I sent you a PM.
Lee

 

[SeaHarley]

Well "skibum" and I were able to make our first DSC contact last night.
I pushed the button to call him just for the heck of it ---- and low and behold ---- he answered it.
Pretty neet!

We are working on the GPS showing the location. But we both have to refer back to our manuals. he, he, he, he.
LOL

 

[skibum]

Good mornin' guys.

It worked very well. Nice chatting with you, Lee.

We were on the hook by Hart Miller watching the kids swim just before sunset. I'm standing on the deck, when all of a sudden the radio (which was tuned to 16 with the volume very low) started blaring this extremely loud and obnoxious stacatto tone. I damn near jumped overboard when it went off. After verifying that we weren't sinking, I noticed an "Ir" indication on the radio. This meant that I was receiving an "individual" DSC call. I sent one of the kids below to retrieve the manuals, since Lee beat me to the punch and called before I looked up the procedures for answering or making calls. Before Kevin found the manual, I recalled reading that I should just key the mic briefly to make the radio switch to the working channel and respond to the calling radio so that it knew the call was answered and would know to switch to the working channel. I keyed the mic and released it without saying anything. The radio switched to 68, and I heard Lee calling a few seconds later.

I actually thought it was Randy calling at first because I didn't connect "SeaHarley" as a user on CSR with his boat name, "Dawn Rae" in my head. :smt021

There's a kinda funny story about this. Now that I am absolutely certain that Lee isn't who I thought he might be, I feel safe to talk about it. About a week before Lee started this thread, a thirty something Sundancer named "Sea Harley" damn near ran between my boat and my anchor in about 4.5' of water. The "captain" was the only person we saw on the boat. About 20 feet away from hitting my rode, he chops the throttle and comes to a dead stop. The whole time, I am sitting there in the port lounger with the admiral, watching him approach, telling her, "Look at this a$$!%^&, he's gonna run over our anchor.", "hold on... we're gonna get yanked around pretty hard when he snags it". I really thought that it was going to happen. I had already verified that the kids were in a safe location in the water to observe the impending disaster without getting involved. I took hold of the grip above the seat back with one hand, and the admiral with the other (almost goofed, and tried to save my beer instead) in preparation for the collision. At this point, I see a tall, thin guy with fairly long dark hair (I got him beat :grin sporting a "Hey! How ya doin'? My buddy, my pal..." kind of grin on his face as he waved at us. I half heartedly waved back while murmuring "Ahole" loud enough for the admiral to hear. So... He sits there floating for a minute, and procedes to walk back towards the stern. I couldn't see what he was doing, but he apparently wasn't at all concerned about maintaining any kind of seperation between his boat any of the others around him. His boat starts drifting towards us. Fortunately, the wind shifted a little and we were pivoting away from him faster than he was approaching. Five minutes later, he's 15 foot away from the next boat over's swim platform and about 10 feet past where my anchor is, between us. He finally fires up his engines, and procedes to come around our bow to our port side. As he goes by, he's grinning from ear to ear and nodding at us. Looked like he wanted to ask, "Aren't you glad to be out here boating with me? Want to be friends?". I just forced a smile, waved, and watch him tear off into the Bay. I kept thinking, "I hope he's not a CSR member, I really don't want to get to know this guy any better.". Then, a week later, I see Lee's post. I'll apologize now for thinking that you might have been him, Lee...:smt043

Back to the DSC stuff. I will be on the boat this afternoon. At some point I will fix the wiring on the the NMEA connection to the GPS and initiate a call to Lee. I only had the wires twisted together for testing purposes. They must have come apart. When I get it right, I'll solder them.

I am not sure if my Navman 5500 and Raymarine 215 combo will do the display the other boat's position on an inbound call trick. I do not think the Navman takes input from the VHF like that. I think the radio does send and receive position information over the NMEA connection. The manual for the VHF says that it will transmit position information on a "distress" DSC call, but it makes no mention if it does so on an individual DSC call. If it does, then Lee should get my position on his GPS.

I may need to talk to Jim about a new GPS.

In general, even without getting the other boat's position, DSC calling works great. You get notice that someone is calling you specifically, even if your radio is tuned too low to hear. Just like having your phone ring. :thumbsup:

My radio will only store 10 numbers, so I might have to talk to Jim about a new radio as well...

Jim, how about coming up with a couple of "DSC packages"? Pairs of GPSs and VHFs that are known to work properly with each other. You could offer 3 or 4 different combinations at different price levels. Oh, and build a $2000 package just for Gary. I heard a rumor that he wouldn't pay less than that for anything.

Michael

 

[SeaHarley]

It wasn't me....... Michael.
It wasn't me.

LOL

 

[CSR_Admin]

Pretty much any of the current units are fine for DSC/GPS. For a budget set up I would recommend a Garmin 500 series GPS and a Standard Horizon Quest-X radio.

 

[Nehalennia]

Pretty much any of the current units are fine for DSC/GPS. For a budget set up I would recommend a Garmin 500 series GPS and a Standard Horizon Quest-X radio.

That set up works great for me. I was very impressed to see our Friends Show up as an Icon on the 545s when we did a "position request" on the Standard Horizon Quest-GX1500S, which then allowed us to "navigate" to the them. Very slick