News

November 15, 2007 Click here to see article written by Timothy Jenkins that appears in the December 2007 issue of Fresh Water News titled "Introducing SPOT, The Ultimate Outdoor Satellite Messenger."

November 1, 2007 Click here to see article written by Timothy Jenkins that appears in the November 2007 issue of Fresh Water News titled "Automatic Identification System (AIS) for Ships is a Lifesaver for Yachtsman."

June 15th, 2005 USCG changes 12 MHz Weather Fax Frequency The US Coast Guard has once again changed the 12 MHz frequency used for transmitting Weather Fax images from it's Pt. Reyes, California transmitters. The old assigned frequency was12730.0 kHz was changed last year to 12590.5. Now this year the new assigned frequency is 12786.0 kHz. Remember to subtract 1.9 kHz to determine the carrier frequency (the new carrier frequency is 12784.1 kHz). Most marine radios need to be set to USB mode and tuned to the carrier frequency to receive correctly. The US Coast Guard Marine Communications web has been updated. Also on this date the schedule of transmissions has been changed also. Click here to download the World Wide Weather Radiofacsimile Broadcast Schedules, updated on June 15th, 2005. (Update, Schedules document updated again on May 5, 2006).

November 15, 2002 US Coast Guard issues important safety alert. The Coast Guard has learned that certain defective consumer-electronics-grade active VHF/UHF marine television antennas are causing major interference to GPS reception. The interference may be realized as a display of inaccurate position information or a complete loss of GPS receiver acquisition and tracking ability. The interference is not limited to the GPS equipment onboard the vessel with the installed active marine television antenna. There have been reports of interference occurring on other vessels and installations operating up to 2000 feet away from vessels using such antennas. Certain models manufactured by TDP (Tandy Distribution Products) Electronics, Radio Shack Corporation, and Shakespeare Corporation have been identified during investigations of GPS interference. Click here to read the Safety Alert report from the US Coast Guard (updated 12/16/02). To learn more, read an article titled "The Hunt For RFI - Unjamming a Coast Harbor" published in GPS World magazine January 1, 2003.

January 30, 2001 Raytheon Marine Company Purchased by Management Buyout Group. The management of Raytheon Marine Company (RMC) today announced the successful purchase of the recreational marine products division for $108 million. The management buyout team was backed by the European venture capital firm Mercury Private Equity. Led by CEO Rick Kane, former managing director of RMC, the management buyout group is comprised of five additional managers from the leadership team with extensive experience in product development, logistics, manufacturing and finance. The new company will operate as Raymarine Company. See the company website for additional information. www.raymarine.com

May 2, 2000 - The US government has discontinued the intentional degradation of the "civilian quality" GPS (Global Positioning System) signals, a process known as Selective Availability (S/A). Turning off S/A will improve the fix accuracy of GPS receivers that receive the civilian C/A-code signals (Coarse/Acquisition Code). No modifications or software upgrades of any kind are made necessary due to this action by the US government. It is important to note that civilian GPS receivers are only capable of receiving the C/A code, and this policy change by the US government does not make the more accurate P-code (Precise Code - used by military receivers) available to civilian marine receivers. Only the C/A code signals were subjected to Selective Availability. Depending on who you ask, the accuracy civilian GPS units can now achieve with S/A turned off is an error variance up to 30 meters (100+ feet) with a 95% Confidence Factor. This means that 95% of the time your GPS fix will be within a 30 meter radius from your actual position, but the other 5% of the time the GPS could show your position even further out than the 30 meter radius. The 30 meter error variance specification comes from a study conducted by the University of Texas: http://www.colorado.Edu/geography/gcraft/notes/gps/gps_f.html.

The big questions: is DIFFERENTIAL GPS is still necessary for higher accuracy fixes desired by mariners using chart plotting equipment. YES! Does the USCG plan to continue operation of the Differential Beacon stations? YES! GPS fixes that are corrected with the data transmitted from USCG differential beacons are much more accurate than uncorrected GPS fixes. This is because S/A was not the only source of fix errors in the civilian GPS system, but it was the biggest error. Another big influence on GPS accuracy is ionospheric distortion. This influence is irregular and unpredictable from moment to moment. Also affecting GPS accuracy is the fact that a GPS satellite can become "sick" and send erroneous data that can degrade the fix accuracy of a marine GPS unit. These sets usually do not have the capability to do a real-time check on the integrity of the satellites data. The USCG differential beacon stations have special equipment that checks the integrity of the data from all satellites in view and when you receive their correction signals with a differential beacon receiver on your boat you can prevent bad satellite data from degrading your GPS fix. DGPS can now be expected to give fix error variance on the order of 2 to 3 meters.

March 2000 - Rodgers Marine Electronics launches internet web site. The web site is designed to give information about the company, and also important news items, service bulletins, and other information.

Oct 1999 - AT&T makes the final move and officially ceases operations of their High Seas SSB radio service. Stations KMI, WOO and WOM off the air permanently. (See info on Mobile Marine Radio Service WLO... still on the air providing excellent high seas SSB communications service).

This page was last updated on 11/14/2007

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