New radios, and what the manual doesn't say
A B&G VHF with AIS, two wireless handsets, and a few things worth knowing before you rely on them.
New electronics are going in, starting with a B&G V60-B VHF radio with a built-in Class B AIS transceiver, so other boats can see us and we can see them. Two H60 wireless handsets let us talk from the cockpit or below.
A Navico NSPL-500 splitter lets the VHF and AIS share one antenna, and it also feeds the new Fusion stereo. One antenna, three jobs.
Things I learned
The wireless handsets aren’t separate radios. They’re Wi-Fi remotes for the base station. Every transmission comes from the V60-B itself. If the base loses power, the handsets go quiet, so they don’t belong in a ditch bag or a life raft. That needs its own handheld VHF.
AIS details are meant to be entered once. The boat’s ID number, dimensions, and call sign are locked in on purpose and survive a factory reset. Take your time and get them right. The dimensions are entered in meters, not feet.
What’s next
The B&G Zeus³S 12 chartplotter is mounted but not wired yet. It’s waiting on the NMEA 2000 network, the data backbone that lets all the instruments talk to each other. A B&G HALO 20+ radar is coming too.