Hi Chuck Holly from West marine. And I'm here in a very noisy West brain university booth we're talking to Jason Kennedy from standard horizon Jason. You were telling me. This is a brand-new product for you in an includes a VHF. And a GPS correct it's the first VHF radio fixed mount. That have we incorporated a GPS into so. What kind of boater. What what advantage does. That give you over a normal VHF well the. One thing about digital selective calling all the radios have DSC but not. All the boaters have connected their DSC. Or entered their mmsi number sometimes it's a challenge to wire up a GPS chart water. And a VHF radio so what we wanted to do is bring the VHF radio in the chart plotter together basically by incorporating the GPS into our VHF radio. Now does this requires an external antenna. Whereas the GPS capable of receiving through the boat the GPS is actually built into the front panel of the VHF radio. It will take an external. If required but on 99% of the boats. Idon't to say that well but about 99 was on a boat. Even flush-mounted it will receive GPS reason tenet have got so much. More sensitive in the last. Few years so it's made. It very easy for us to put in. That receiver, so we talked to the Coast Guard about search-and-rescue.

One of the things they tell. Us inevitably is that people have radios people have GPS is but the two aren't talking to. Another so this is a great step forward. This product you enter in your MMS. Inumber which you can get for free from boat. Us enter them the information. And you're off and running so as soon as. You turn on the radio. It computes a fix okay. And then I have to do to make a DSC call is. What just lift up the DSC distress button sends out your latitude longitude every vessel in the area including Coast Guard. You can go in some of the individual calling features of DSC is not just a stress. Most consumers or boaters think. That DSC is distressed but there are other features like individual call group call so. Ihave five or six vessels in my fleet. Ican call every vessel at the same time. Ican do individual position requests. Or position sends so. Ican actually send my data to Chuck.

You out there wouldn't know. Iwas but Chuck would know exactly. You know one of the challenges. That I've seen with using the other DSC functions is. That it's really hard to make the radio do. That's because they have small displays. That don't have any information. This has a nice large display. We fit a large display. And a very compact size here so you'll see. It swivels through the bracket the only raid on the market. That does that but. You go into the unit. We have our individual DSC call list so. Ican do individual call group call. Ican do an all ships call the other day. Iwas on the water I saw a container ship for a container floating in the water so. Ijust made an all ships call. Ididn't want to do a distress but. Iwanted every vessel out there to know.

This container was floating out there so. Idid an all ships call. Igave them my latitude longitude so. Igot about three or four replies saying thank. They might not have seen. That container floating out there so digital selective calling got off to a little bit of a slow start in the United States but it's a wonderful technology. It boy I'll tell us been from the Coast Guard we'd be saying how important. It is to their search. And rescue operations. Whether you're using it for search-and-rescue. Or you're just trying to alert people to a container. What a great feature. This new radio what model is. It that's the G X 1700 Explorer GPS ok the G X 1700 Explorer GPS VHF is available from west bring calm. And of course at any of our 300 stores.

Hi Chuck Holly from West marine today we're looking at the standard horizon GX 1600 VHF radio. It goes under the name of the Explorer. And it's a really nice brand-new model. That meets the new DSC Class D requirements what's DSC Class D well it's a way for radios to communicate digitally. And the FCC changed the rules so. That virtually all existing fixed mount VHF radios went off the market. And to replace their existing line of radios standard horizon did a beautiful job of integrating some neat features into. This radio the first thing you notice is. It has a big dot matrix liquid crystal display so. This makes it extremely easy to see. What channel you're on to see your speed. And course and to see your latitude. And longitude now your speed. And course and latitude longitude are. Provided by an external GPS receiver but. This allows you to send emergency messages using the DSC function. You flip up this little pad here push distress. You can send what amounts to a Mayday emergency message to other vessels in the area.

That have a DSC equipped radio there's. Some other features too. That make this nice. It uses a clear voice noise cancelling microphone. You hold it fairly closes to your mouth but. It gets rid of engine noise. And wind noise so that your voice is heard clearly. It also has some convenient buttons on the microphone so. You can control three. Or four functions without having to reach the radio the other feature. We really like is it has a very short chassis so. If you're installing this into a console. You don't want a big old radio sticking in. And getting in the way of other items inside the console. This radio protrudes only about. That much inside so it's extremely easy to install in a flush mount location. You can install it on a bracket like.

It here so with these features. You think this would be. Several hundred dollars the Explorer radio from standard horizon is priced well under $200. And like all standard horizon products available at West Marine.