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From: ahmet erkan (no email)
Date: Mon Jun 12 2006 - 22:58:16 EDT
>I'm not the author, but here's what I'd do.
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>Jim.
Hi Jim,
Unfortunately the list has shown hardly any interest. Your reply and
hardware suggestions, however are appreciated at least by me.
I received a few off line responses and decided to drop the subject. As they
say, win some lose some. The live aboard group is interested in stuff that
is tried and proven to work. I've been advised to build a prototype, test it
in an actual voyage and report the results. I will do just that in four to
five years.
Here is what I expect to report :
The five minute timer times out every five minutes. (Duh)
The transmitter turns on after the timer times out. (Duh)
The voice chip sends "any station -any station" when the transmitter turns
on. (Duh)
The transmitter switches off when the voice chip finishes. (Duh)
The cycle repeats. (Duh)
Again, this workaround scheme will be useful only if there is someone on the
bridge of the ship monitoring Channel 16, and responding to a call.
What I was hoping to do was something much better. I was hoping to get a
team effort going on the list to refine the automatic system with the burst
mode operation. I was hoping to write to radio manufacturers and tell them
there are hundreds of sailors who are interested and would like to see the
"electronic lookout" function on a basic VHF radio. Here are the set of
requirements we have developed etc etc. (ie: Do the market research for the
manufacturer, and let them decide how to implement, work out the legal
issues and manufacture it.)
The radio manufacturer probably cannot implement a design that broadcasts
voice periodically on Ch 16. (Even if they put a switch for the user to
activate it when at high seas)
I suspect the manufacturers would do all the sensing at the IF stage (ie:
detect and integrate the CW for 1mS etc) where the audio circuits would be
oblivious to the transponder like exchange. basically the whole thing would
work like two VHF radios detecting each other automatically and activating
alarms completely independent of the radio operators or crew.
I am going to send a suggestion to several radio manufacturers anyway and
ask them if they would consider offering a "electronic lookout" function.
All the best,
Ahmet
SV8827
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