Tag: NMEA 0183

Know Before You Go With These Free Weather Apps For IOS and Android Devices

We’ve all been there, heading to the boat for a day of fun only to realize the weather turned and it’s no longer safe to head out on the water. Or we have spent a weekend out, get ready to head back to the dock and get surprised by a storm on our way in. Luckily these days we have access to many different forecasting and live data tools to make checking the weather an easy task.

Tides Near Me is a great app to see when the next low tide, high tide or what the current tide is right where you are.

Android version of tides near me can be downloaded here.

Iphone and IOS version of tides near me can be found here.

NOAA Buoy Data app lets you see real time buoy data from and NOAA buoy that is actively reporting data to NOAA. This app also includes all the data sent by the buoy including wave height and water temperature.

Android Play store version of NOAA Buoy data can be found here.

Apple App Store version of NOAA Buoy data can be found here.

Windy is a great app for forecasts, wave height and forecasted wave height. It is used by professionals, fishermen, governments and other people who want accurate real time information. I love this app and use it almost everyday.

Android version of Windy can be downloaded here.

Apple App Store version of Windy can be found here.

MyRadar NOAA weather app is one of the best no frills radar apps out today. It does just what is it supposed to and that is show you your local radar.

Android version of MyRadar can be downloaded here.

Apple App Store version of MyRadar can be found here.

qtVlm is a navigation software designed for sailing boats. It is also a free weather grib viewer that accepts all kinds of gribs. It can read and display maps in various formats, such as Vector charts (S57), Raster Charts (kaps, geotiff, etc) and mbtiles charts. This is a serious app for serious users and it’s only available on android devices. It is a weather app, a navigation app and is able to parse NMEA data on devices fitted to GPS or Chartplotters.

Android version of qtVlm can be downloaded here.

There are many free weather apps and maybe you use one that isn’t listed here and that’s great! These are some that I use and trust. There is one marine specifict app that I left out, I use it but the reviews are terrible. If you use it you will know what I am talking about and if you don’t use it the reviews may scare you away however I would say give it a try and see if you like it. I personally haven’t had problems with it like others have had.

Don’t forget about the free weather broadcast you can receive on your marine VHF radio or on your weather radio. The over the air broadcast contains real time information and alerts concerning the listening area. Boating on the Chesapeake bay I usually listen to the marine forecast on the radio and use an app to double check conditions before leaving the dock.

Remember your weather app might not work once you leave populated areas and no longer have a reliable internet connection. The NOAA radio is a true lifesaver.

DSC Marine VHF Radios

You may be in the market for a new marine VHF radio or just bought a new boat with a new VHF radio on it. There are a lot of options today in the marine VHF radio market. One of those options that is standard on all new fix mount VHF radios and many handheld radios is DSC or Digital Selective Calling.

Marine VHF Radio With DSC

What is DSC?

Digital Selective Calling allows you to make ship to ship calls, find a fellow boater’s position, make a distress call with the push of a button and report your own position. DSC is coupled with GPS either through a stand alone GPS receiver, your chart plotter or a GPS receiver in the VHF radio. The GPS connection is a two wire connection using  NMEA 0183 protocol. Generally if you have a NMEA 0183 capable chartplotter or stand alone GPS receiver you can hook your VHF radio to it and be able to send your coordinates to other ships or the coast guard in the event of an emergency. If you don’t have a chartplotter or a standalone GPS receiver don’t worry there are DSC capable marine VHF radios with a built in GPS receiver.

Chartplotter With NMEA Capability

A DSC radio is a good investment for several reasons. You can call all the people you normally boat with by putting in their MMSI number and “ringing” their DSC capable radio. This lowers the amount of unnecessary traffic on marine channel 16. DSC transmits data on channel 70 and in a congested area using DSC rather than voice to call friend or to find a friends position is much better than tying up the airwaves and potentially transmitting over a distress call. With DSC and a chartplotter you can see where your friends are on the chartplotter and you can see any vessels in distress near you. In the event of a mayday or distress condition on your boat you can just push the red button on the radio and instantly transmit your boats position, details on the type of boat, name of boat, your name and contact info to the coast guard and any commercial ships near you. Greatly speeding up the time it takes to get help also because DSC is digital not voice you may have a greater transmitting range compared to making a voice mayday call on VHF channel 16.

If you have a new or new to you DSC radio in addition to wiring it to a GPS receiver you will need to enter your MMSI number into. A word of caution! Some radios will only allow the MMSI number to be entered once or twice. If you are buying a used radio make sure it can accept your MMSI number and if you are buying a new radio make sure you enter the number correctly. The MMSI number you register links your radio to your information. It contains your boat name, boat type and brand, size of the boat, color of the boat, your phone number, emergency contact information and your address.

Obtaining a MMSI number is easy. If you only plan on boating in US waters and are registering a private vessel you can visit one of the following three websites:

US Power Squadron MMSI 

Boat-US MMSI

SeaTow MMSI

If you are planning on boating outside of US waters you will need to file directly with the FCC to obtain your MMSI number. The forms can be found here: Form 159 and Form 605

If you are outside of the US visit this site in order to find the proper place to register for a MMSI number.

Connecting your DSC radio to GPS in such an important thing, it is literally a simple life saving step you can take to insure quick and proper notification to the authorities in the event of an emergency.