Purchasing a VHF Radio

[mphem]

I discovered that the cord on my Standard Horizon RAM Mic has deteriorated to the point that I need to have new cord installed; however, after contacting Standard Horizon, I found that my VHF is obsolete and that they are no longer able to replace the cord on the RAM Mic. Their best suggestion was to look for one on EBay. This is frustrating and typical for my 2003 Jeanneau 43DS, which had mostly original equipment when I purchased it three years ago. Shortly after purchasing the boat, I replaced my MFD with a Raymarine C140W, added a new radome, ran a new HS backbone and added a Raymarine AIS, all of which are working great. I have about made the decision to just go ahead and replace the old VHF radio with one that is state of the arts.

My questions for the forum are:

I know Raymarine has a line of VHF radios. Can a Raymarine VHF radio be integrated into my current electronic configuration or is the VHF simply a freestanding component and it would make no difference what brand I purchase? If it can be incorporated into my current electronics (the C140W MFD), what would I gain by doing so? Would I see something on my MFD or what? Anyway, I would certainly welcome any comments from the electronic geniuses out there.

[Chuck - Raymarine - Moderator]

Welcome to the Raymarine Forum mphem,

C-Series Widescreen MFDs are designed to meet the NMEA 0183 standard. Accordingly, should a third party or Raymarine VHF radio be interfaced to a set of the MFD's NMEA 0183 input and output leads, then the VHF radio should be able to receive GPS data to utilize in conjunction with DSC position reports and distress calls, while DSC position reports received by the VHF radio may be transmitted to the MFD to permit the MFD to create waypoints using the position data contained within these reports. The C-Series Widescreen MFDs and the latest generation of Raymarine VHF radios feature a SeaTalkng / NMEA 2000 communications interface to permit the MFD, VHF radio(s), other Raymarine products having a SeaTalkng/NMEA 2000 communications interface, and third party products having a NMEA 2000 communications interface to be easily networked to one another.