My Northstar NS100 VHF is a POS!

Cincy Aquaholic said:
Good question, I don't know if that's it or not. I don't seem to see anything changing on the display but admittedly I'm not usually close enough to look carefully because its random and not telling when it will go off. Seems to happen once a day in no particular place on the water. The "alarm" is a high pitch fast ring that lasts maybe 2 seconds or so.
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It does sound like your GPS loss of signal alarm. The radio default is “Loss of GPS Signal” alarm is set to on. You can turn it off

This is from the manual:
GPS alert setting

BUDDY LIST
LOCAL/DIST
USA/INT/CAN
>GPS/DATA

GPS/DATA
MANUAL
>SETTING

SETTING
TIME DISPLY
LL DISPLAY
>GPS ALERT

GPS ALERT
>ON
OFF

The GPS alert is usually set to ON so that if the GPS navigation receiver is disconnected, warning alarm beeps sound.

1. Move the cursor to GPS/DATA and press >ENT.

2. Move the cursor to SETTING and press >ENT.

3. Scroll through the GPS/DATA menu to GPS ALERT and press >ENT again.

4. Press >ENT again to have the GPS alert ON OR move the cursor to OFF and then press <ENT to turn it off.
 
Thanks, Bill. I was going to look at the manual this week but I've always got something else more pressing that I want to deal with.

I'll disable that and see what happens.
 
Cincy Aquaholic said:
Thought I'd revive this thread because I got to sick to death of that damn handset falling off its mounting bracket!!! Drove me crazy.

So velcro was the solution. Didn't fall off once this past weekend. Gotta love the $1.49 improvement.

Ok, quick question. Why does my Northstar "ring" like a telephone sometimes??? It doesn't seem to display anything.

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This is sad...Who ever the he11 put the handheld mount in that spot should be fired...or shot! Mine is also broken and in fact was broken when I bought it new..Ya think that might be bad placement???????:smt013
 
deerock said:
this will sound a little obvious but when my "holder" broke off I used a small piece of industrial
velcro works fine
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On the back of my mike a small piece of the plastic case broke off that attaches to the clip so I may also have to use the velcro fix. Unit not very robust.
 
Bridog said:
Well it wasn't the pins. They were straight. Here is the broken back piece that Northstar doesn't make a replacement for. You have to buy a whole new handheld. Bunch of BS...
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Mine just broke exactly like yours did.
 
Bridog said:
Well it wasn't the pins. They were straight. Here is the broken back piece that Northstar doesn't make a replacement for. You have to buy a whole new handheld. Bunch of BS...
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Same here... mount and back of handset broken. Mine is also mounted in a bad position... first bump started snapping pieces off.

I also had the push-to-talk button come off of the PCB... I was able to solder it back on under a microscope though (surface mount switch).
 
Wish I read this thread before I wasted my time with Northstar today. I have the same broken back problem as detailed here. It was a total waste of time and the Northstar rep seemed to not care. This is a 2008 boat, purchased in 2009 and I have a five year warrenty. I was willing to consider this just an unfortnate occurance and fix this myself. But not after this thread. Obviously this is both poor placement on Sea Ray's part combinded with a faulty design. Now that the produceis unsupported, it's even worse. Obviously Northstar will not listen to me. Maybe they will listen to Sea Ray.

I'm not a vengeful person. But this is about an $800 component on a boat. Not to have parts after such a short time and/or make other accomodations is a problem. Regardless, I will never buy Northstar anything and I urge all to read this thread and not buy Northstar.
 
It's been years since this thread was touched, but it is also an old radio so maybe others still suffering with it will want to see the whole thread. I've a question and an update; in both cases I think it is just time for a new radio.

Has anyone else noticed that transmit doesn't work on certain channels? In the Boston area Sea Tow runs radio check auto-responders on channel 27 (Boston) and sometimes 26 (South Shore). My NS100 doesn't transmit on these channels (I checked with my handheld) although receive is fine. 71/72 apparently also don't work (that explains a lot when I'm in a group). The radio transmits fine on more "ordinary" channels like 16 or 9.

Second, I just installed an ICOM MXA-5000 AIS receiver. Works great, but... this unit has a VHF antenna splitter so I don't need to figure out how to run a second antenna. But there seems to be a delay kicking in connecting the radio to transmit (you can hear a relay click). This causes the NS100 to put out the alarm and the dreaded "Antenna RF problem TX limited to low power" message.

Which makes the radio impossible to use, since it doesn't alarm briefly and stop, it keeps beeping. I'm sure everyone on 16 loves hearing my radio beep.

I was going to post a long note on adding AIS and heading sensor to my C80 classic (both is hard) until I found out this effectively kills my long-range radio. Yes, I have a handheld, but that's not the same.

I'd just add another antenna and move on if not for the first problem; I think my radio is just dead. It behaves the same way without the AIS in the loop, by the way.

Does anyone else have an NS100 with dead channels? This is the type of problem that might not be noticed until it really matters, it is worth checking for safety sake.
 
Just a little update :)

My Northstar VHF is out - and so far replaced with Simrad RS35 - and to my surprise the mike holder clip - is the same as the Northstar :) So if anyone needs Mike holders - the Simrad RS35 or Lowrance Link-8 - mike clip works as a replacement.

But Simrad launched the RS90 - which is an RS35 in "Northstar" format - so hidden box - external speaker - external "handset" with buttons. Specks on the external speaker is not published. But I have pushed Simrad Management for a Northstar "speaker" replacement.

I LOVE my RS35 compared to the old Northstar - reception is much more clear - and it has built in NMEA 2000/0183 AIS receiver. No antenna splitters or anything - just plugin and go. And I got mine on eBay for $250 - which is a steal for what you get. The Simrad model supports wireless handsets (both RS35 and RS90) so you can sit 300' away from the base and use the VHF.

I'll replace my RS35 with a RS90 as soon as they ship. The RS90 seems to be lower cost than the RS35? And if speaker size is not the same I'll 3D print an adaptor for it.
 
Bridog said:
Well it wasn't the pins. They were straight. Here is the broken back piece that Northstar doesn't make a replacement for. You have to buy a whole new handheld. Bunch of BS...
Click to expand...

You could use a velcro fastener where one part is glued to the handset and the other on the helm. My friend had to do this and seems to work fine.
 
Living the Northstar dream. My radio now routinely (but unpredictably) claims there is no antenna and just beeps repeatedly when I key the mike. I have been planning to try replacing the antenna but it sounds unlikely to solve anything based on this thread. What a POS.
 
CMG said:
Kaz911
did you find out if the speaker is box on the 90 is the same size?
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But for a quick fix - get a piece of black starboard and fix the Simrad speaker to that in place of the current speaker.

I'm so happy with my Simrad RS35 - and it is ONLY because I want more helm space I'll be putting in a RS90. I have also considered putting the VHF in the "closet" and then get a $150 HS35 wireless handset to keep at the helm. That links up with the RS35 (and the RS90)

As I got my RS35 for $225 on eBay - stop wasting your time on the old northstar :) there are MILES difference in quality....
 
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