I have an OLD Motorola MODAR VHF radio and and OLD Unimetrics hailer on my 36' SF. I purchased a new VHF radio / Hailer from west marine and was going to install it last night.
Once I started looking around I noticed that the hailer was not connected to power which is why it did not power up, So I powered it up and t worked fine.
The VHF radio is a monster / dinosaur but it works fine. This unit was the first VHF to not have crystals in it so it may have some sentimental value.
The question is should I keep the vintage electronics or replace with newer equipment?
I boat on a lake / river system so there is not much concern about the distress features of DSC.
... that's one way to look at it. Also, if the appropriate, modern channels are functioning properly, (09, 16 22A, 68, 72, etc...) and you're on that dinky little river with great ceel-phone reception, I say stay STOCK, as it were... a li'l vintage is a good thing
I wouldn't spend the dough on electronics unless you require them for a specific purpose. You can rack up tens of thousands of dollars and never use them for their designed purpose. In a river system or chain of lakes are you ever going to NEED radar or a chart plotter? Even on the great lakes I rarely see the need for much more than a depth sounder. I know many will disagree, but if you do your boating in familiar territory and have some knowledge of how to use a chart and a compass, you can safely get from point A to point B.(Sometimes you can even get by on one motor HA,HA)
It is kinda cool to see vintage electronics, especially if it is still functional. A big plus of course is no need to drill any new holes.
With the new wireless tech available, I would opt for a cell phone with gps and maybe a good fishfinder if you are so inclined. Think of the boat units saved to spend on wax, varnish and new chrome!
Just wanted to offer my perspective. And conrats on the purchase of your SF. Very cool boat.
Well that's why I didn't get any response when I was calling "FANDANGO, FANDANGO, this is TRADITION calling..............., come in".
Didn't have the radio hooked up? Well you did have one (upper helm?) as I eventually heard "This is FANDANGO" coming in faintly out there on that dinky little river that has a shoreline MUCH longer than Lake Erie. Lake Cumberland, alone, has about 300 miles more than lake Erie, lol. (725 versus 1255). Old Hickory has 440 miles of shoreline alone !
In any case, I have an old Ray Jeff 30-W hailer, and most new hailers on the market can't match it. It's a listening device, electronic horn, and hailer all in one. It works great, and it looks pretty vintage/cool. There's no need to have the latest plastic device from Japan or China sitting on your dash if the old stuff works. The less holes the better, too !
A word about that hailer........on occasion when I'm on the boat doing some work, perhaps there are no other people in the marina or just a few. I spot someone I know over on the other dock, and I'll admit to having said on the hailer "Ernie Jones, please call your parole officer" at a full 30-W. It gets a pretty predictable response, the person stops dead in his tracks, LOOKS in fair amazement over toward TRADITION, and then there is the inevitable single finger salute, ha ha. Ernie is a good sport, by the way!
I had a couple problems with radios on my voyage up to Nashville. 1. The MODAR motorola would not change channels off of #16. That is a bit weird since it only has 5 buttons to push. Since I am highly technical I did what I thought would be the thing to do... REBOOT it... Well it never worked, but channel 16 would. Its working fine now.
The other problem is my 'backup' handheld somehow got switched over to the "locked" position and we could not get it to transmit.. So we fiddled with it for a while finally rebooted it.....
I noticed that a true hailer with horn and listen are insanely expensive. These features are nice to have and the unimetrics is LOUD. The only thing wrong with the hailer was that it was not connected to any power...
It was pretty cool with I finally made radio contact with you guys
December 20 2008, 6:31 PM
I was motoring down the foggy Cumberland, beautiful but overcast day, rather cool, just having a ball out on the water by myself. I made a few calls every now and then, no answer. Finally I heard "This is FANDANGO", and that was worth the entire trip. Talk about ships passing in the dark, only it was a RENDEZVOUS in the making!
Hope all is well with you, yours, and the boat up there at Gallatin. I'm at Cedar Creek Yacht Club at this very moment, grilling some burgers! (Broadband)
We went out on a cruise today, Piddled around on the boat some, tired out the new TV and antennas.
We cruised out from Gallatin Marina up to Mile Marler 242 and turned around. We cleaned out the carbs pretty good by running the RPMs up to about 3500 for a bit. There was a bass boat out there that decided to be gungho and NOT slow down for the wake. I think he jumped about 5 feet out of the water, it was interesting.
I have the spare wheels on and the are 22"x22 and are REALLY too small. My other wheels (22"x26) are back from getting a makeover and are looking good. Maybe I will get these installed in a few weeks.
You can really tell the difference in the props, I may see if they can repitch the spares to 27s or so...
I wish we knew you were up this way, would would have said to come eat some burgers, we could have delivered.
Here are some pics from today. (It was mostly cloud and ~41 degrees today)
Today I noticed a ring of ice around the lake in the shallows along the highway as I came back in to work. I've been working on week ends a bit to catch up and stay with the pace of our project, as I do from time to time when needed. Yesterday eve I drove out to Cedar Creek where we have a lake house, we grilled burgers there, had a great evening on the water, didn't see any boats. This morning I'm back in Nashville at the office.
One thing about the wake you mentioned...........and this could have some serious repercussions or concussions! When I'm chugging down the river curling a huge wake and I see a bass boat coming my way at 60-mph, I will back down and walk to the aft deck......when the guy gets close enough to see me I'll give him the SLOW DOWN signal and point back to the huge wake. They always wave a thank you back to me for doing it, becuase a Commander can curl a HUGE wake at certain throttle settings, and yours will curl a bigger one than mine due to the deeper hull configuration.
What is fun, is to see people trying to pass me on the river when I'm motoring steadily along making a monster wake. Runabouts gingerly approach the wake, look in disbelief, and then tippy toe into it thinking they'll make it through, Ha, pretty interesting. then there's the guys who want to just charge full speed ahead, and that gets interesting too. As you may recall, when I crossed your wake during the photo shoot I was a full throttle and didn't anticipate any problem as I was in a 38, your wake was down as well becuase of the speed, but a Commander really doesn't fear a wake from just about anything . You can be held legally liable for damage your wake does to other boats and docks, however, and even if you are on the right side of the law if some idiot decides to jump your wake in an irresponsible manner, they could still (sadly) press you on the results even if they are the responsible person who did the damage by trying to jump it too fast.
A few years ago I was a victim of a fraud setup automotive issue with one of the local trash carriers (individual), it was not a pretty sight, ended up being thrown out of court, but it cost me time and defense, and eventually the police and the DA just threw the other guy out.
(Beautiful wife and child, by the way !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
