Is it Time to Upgrade Your Electronics?
By Lenny Rudow
If your boat’s electronics are more than a couple-few years old, there’s a good chance they’ve already become obsolete. Tech marches forward so fast in this day and age that a three-year-old unit has essentially become ancient in comparison to the new stuff. Truth be told most mariners will keep a system for far longer than three years because we don’t want to pay for all that new gear and we don’t want to have to learn how to re-use everything. Still, upgrading electronics can net some cool benefits. How do you know when it’s really time to bite the bullet, and initiate an upgrade? It’s time to ask:
Integrated Technology
Does your VHF radio have built-in GPS? If not, it’s probably time to upgrade as a simple matter of safety. DSC functionality is automatic (as long as you register and plug in the MMSI number) with a GPS-equipped VHF. Wiring in the chartplotter to the radio has been a big barrier to getting more boats DSC-active for years.
According to the U.S. Coast Guard, only a small percentage of the boats with VHF radios featuring DSC capabilities (law has mandated incorporating it into all new units for decades) actually have it activated. When a DSC-active VHF makes an SOS call the Coast Guard receives its exact latitude and longitude, so as a safety feature, getting it is well worth the cost and time an upgrade requires.
Is there room at your helm for a bigger MFD screen? Larger MFDs cost more than small ones, but gone are the days when large-sized screens were cost-prohibitive. If you have a 10” (25.4 cm) screen and there’s room in the dash for a 16” (40.64 cm) unit, you’re working with a serious handicap because bigger is always better when it comes to the screen size of marine electronics. Take advantage of every square inch of flush space at the helm and get the largest LCD possible. Then, when you split the screen to view things like chartplotters and fishfinders at the same time, you’ll appreciate that bigger screen more than ever.
Do you have AIS? In recent years just about every manufacturer has started incorporating AIS capability into their systems without the need for any add-on gear. While some boaters will consider AIS more important than others, you never know when having the capability will come in handy and in crowded waterways, it can be a huge help to know who’s going where at any given time.
Does your screen fade when you look at it from the sides? In the past few years most manufacturers have switched to IPS (in-plane switching) LCD screens, which can be viewed from virtually any angle with or without polarized sunglasses. An upgrade will end that annoying issue instantly.
Upgrade on the Fly
Does your electronics system have WiFi built in? If not, it’s definitely time to upgrade because unlike some tech, this will actually make your life a lot easier. All electronics built these days need regular updates — the software installed at the factory is often out of date by the time the unit gets sold and taken out of the box — and having integrated WiFi makes updating fast and easy. In many cases all you have to do is get the boat within range of a hotspot, and everything happens automatically from that point on.
Does your electronics package allow you to do everything you want it to? If not, you surely should upgrade. These days there’s virtually no ability beyond reaching, whether you want to read bottom in 10,000’ (3,048 m) of water or spot a canary 10 miles (16.09 km) away with your radar. Which takes us to our final question.
Are you wishing for new electronics, at this very moment? If the answer is “yes,” then… well, you know what to do.