WHF Antenna for Garmin 0100209700 VHF 215 Marine Radio on DA340

[rlynch03]

I have the Garmin 315 VHF and an additional remote handset (GHS 11 I think). Both are difficult to read.
I also have the Garmin AIS 800 which is a very good AIS transceiver.

This is the same set up I have and all works very well. Except, I need my readers to have a chance with the display on either handheld. Which those handhelds are the same unit I believe. I wish Garmin would recognize this issue and offer an upgraded handheld with large display.

 

[Skybolt]

This is the same set up I have and all works very well. Except, I need my readers to have a chance with the display on either handheld. Which those handhelds are the same unit I believe. I wish Garmin would recognize this issue and offer an upgraded handheld with large display.

I think they did, and why they bought Vesper, it's now called the Cortex ...

 

[rlynch03]

I think they did, and why they bought Vesper, it's now called the Cortex ...

Yeah I did see that.

Anyone have the VESPER VHF series on here with feedback?

 

[Jaybeaux]

Yeah I did see that.

Anyone have the VESPER VHF series on here with feedback?

I bought one in early 2022, before Garmin bought Vesper. There was a little glitch with my Hub as the barometer sensor went out. They were good to work with although the "other side of the world" made things take a bit longer. I also got caught in the Garmin purchase of Vesper, which did cause issues during and after my warranty exchange. In the end, all good.

Now, for the unit itself. I LOVE it. Think of it like an iPhone. Touch screens, tactile rotary dial, bright display, AIS Transceiver, anchor watch/alarm, sensor monitoring, on board and remote monitoring. The only thing that I would do differently is I would get the "cordless" handset. It's profile is a bit fatter as it has to accomodate a battery. One thing you have to get used to is that the handset communicates with the Hub via WiFi. Therefore, my "corded handset" is only getting power through the cord. With a wireless handset, the cradle is wired to 12 volt and the battery charges while sitting in the cradle. I say this as I find the cord sort of gets in the way when holding the handset.

My original Raymarine radio had an external speaker in the gunwhale at the helmsman's right hip. Naturally, I wanted to add a speaker for the Vesper. Because of the way the handset communicates with the hub, there is a perceptable lag or unsynchronization in the audio from the handset and the external speaker. What I have learned to do is to turn down or mute the handset volume and crank up the external speaker volume while underway.

There are two apps that you can put on your phone/tablet. Either Android or iOS. They are "Cortex Onboard" and "Cortex Monitoring". The onboard version connects to the hub's WiFi signal and gives you pretty much the same functionality as the handset, but not VHF communication. The monitoring app is cloud based and lets you drop in and look at some parameters on the boat. There is a free version which collects data twice a day plus any alarms, and then there is a paid version which collects data more frequently and it is $19.95/month, or $159.95/year. The app will monitor air pressure, water depth, water speed, water temp, wind direction, wind speed, and battery voltage. Obviously, the sensors have to be on for the data to get collected. Air pressure and battery voltage are always available. You can also tie in bilge pump monitoring and some security functions (door opening, etc).

I was able to tie the Vesper Cortex to my hailing horn. In addition to broadcasting warnings to kayakers and paddle boarders, it has pre-programmed alert signals. Things like 1 blast (pass to port), 2 blasts (pass to starboard), 3 blasts (operating in reverse). The thing that I really like about this function is that there is a Fog Horn setting. You hit "Play" and it will broadcast the fog signal (5 second blast every minute) automatically. You can even change the frequency (tone) of the blasts.

Being NMEA 2000, it ties in seamlessly to the boats network. I have older Raymarine E120W's. The AIS targets show up, but they are a bit small. In conjuction with the Raymarines, I also use my iPad running Navionics (another Garmin company) while underway. My iPad connects to the boat's network through the Cortex Hub, via the Hub's WiFi. I get Speed, Depth, Waypoint info, Destinaton Info, and AIS targets. I create, edit, and manage all of my routes on the iPad and I don't have to mess with uploading anything to the Raymarines. In a perfect world, I will replace the Raymarines with Garmins. Either 8616's or 1643's. That's a topic for another discussion.

Let me know if I can answer anymore questions. I am going to the boat this morning, so I could get some pictures of the screens on the handset. All in all, I rate it 4.9 stars out of 5. Nothing is perfect!

Jaybeaux

 

[Blueone]

Just curious why such a big difference in price on amazon vs west marine

Because its west marine.....everything is expensive there

 

[rlynch03]

I bought one in early 2022, before Garmin bought Vesper. There was a little glitch with my Hub as the barometer sensor went out. They were good to work with although the "other side of the world" made things take a bit longer. I also got caught in the Garmin purchase of Vesper, which did cause issues during and after my warranty exchange. In the end, all good.

Now, for the unit itself. I LOVE it. Think of it like an iPhone. Touch screens, tactile rotary dial, bright display, AIS Transceiver, anchor watch/alarm, sensor monitoring, on board and remote monitoring. The only thing that I would do differently is I would get the "cordless" handset. It's profile is a bit fatter as it has to accomodate a battery. One thing you have to get used to is that the handset communicates with the Hub via WiFi. Therefore, my "corded handset" is only getting power through the cord. With a wireless handset, the cradle is wired to 12 volt and the battery charges while sitting in the cradle. I say this as I find the cord sort of gets in the way when holding the handset.

My original Raymarine radio had an external speaker in the gunwhale at the helmsman's right hip. Naturally, I wanted to add a speaker for the Vesper. Because of the way the handset communicates with the hub, there is a perceptable lag or unsynchronization in the audio from the handset and the external speaker. What I have learned to do is to turn down or mute the handset volume and crank up the external speaker volume while underway.

There are two apps that you can put on your phone/tablet. Either Android or iOS. They are "Cortex Onboard" and "Cortex Monitoring". The onboard version connects to the hub's WiFi signal and gives you pretty much the same functionality as the handset, but not VHF communication. The monitoring app is cloud based and lets you drop in and look at some parameters on the boat. There is a free version which collects data twice a day plus any alarms, and then there is a paid version which collects data more frequently and it is $19.95/month, or $159.95/year. The app will monitor air pressure, water depth, water speed, water temp, wind direction, wind speed, and battery voltage. Obviously, the sensors have to be on for the data to get collected. Air pressure and battery voltage are always available. You can also tie in bilge pump monitoring and some security functions (door opening, etc).

I was able to tie the Vesper Cortex to my hailing horn. In addition to broadcasting warnings to kayakers and paddle boarders, it has pre-programmed alert signals. Things like 1 blast (pass to port), 2 blasts (pass to starboard), 3 blasts (operating in reverse). The thing that I really like about this function is that there is a Fog Horn setting. You hit "Play" and it will broadcast the fog signal (5 second blast every minute) automatically. You can even change the frequency (tone) of the blasts.

Being NMEA 2000, it ties in seamlessly to the boats network. I have older Raymarine E120W's. The AIS targets show up, but they are a bit small. In conjuction with the Raymarines, I also use my iPad running Navionics (another Garmin company) while underway. My iPad connects to the boat's network through the Cortex Hub, via the Hub's WiFi. I get Speed, Depth, Waypoint info, Destinaton Info, and AIS targets. I create, edit, and manage all of my routes on the iPad and I don't have to mess with uploading anything to the Raymarines. In a perfect world, I will replace the Raymarines with Garmins. Either 8616's or 1643's. That's a topic for another discussion.

Let me know if I can answer anymore questions. I am going to the boat this morning, so I could get some pictures of the screens on the handset. All in all, I rate it 4.9 stars out of 5. Nothing is perfect!

Jaybeaux

That's a great write up, thank you. I really like that unit. I have so much invested in the Garmin 315, extra handset, AIS 800 it would be hard to swap unless i could sell these other units.

You had me at bright display. How is the display font, meaning do you need reader glasses to see it?

 

[rlynch03]

Because its west marine.....everything is expensive there

I find that West Marine is a pretty good value if you use their points program, purchase large items on their sale days and extra points days. I do shop around alot but like having a brick and mortar store (they are getting harder to find these days) to visit in my home town or traveling. They support their sales pretty well and will price match most stores including amazon.

 

[ttmott]

That's a great write up, thank you. I really like that unit. I have so much invested in the Garmin 315, extra handset, AIS 800 it would be hard to swap unless i could sell these other units.

You had me at bright display. How is the display font, meaning do you need reader glasses to see it?

Even if the VHF 315 display could be replicated on the MFD's I'd be good with the system. Actually, originally, I thought the VHF data could be displayed on the Garmin 86xx chartplotters. But, alas, not.

 

[rlynch03]

Even if the VHF 315 display could be replicated on the MFD's I'd be good with the system. Actually, originally, I thought the VHF data could be displayed on the Garmin 86xx chartplotters. But, alas, not.

yes overall I think the Garmin works well. I just cant see it. Lol old eyes. That said the Vesper is pretty cool.

 

[Jaybeaux]

That's a great write up, thank you. I really like that unit. I have so much invested in the Garmin 315, extra handset, AIS 800 it would be hard to swap unless i could sell these other units.

You had me at bright display. How is the display font, meaning do you need reader glasses to see it?

Just got back from the boat. I took a bunch of pics for you:

The first two are from the AIS screen. You can zoom in as tight as you want. You can tap on the boat to get its details. The "menu" button is the three horizontal lines in the top left corner. Tapping that will bring up a directory listing. You have Favorites, Near By, or Recents. Selecting any target will bring up its details.

VHF is the next main functionality. You can have 5 presets via the tabs along the bottom. The rotary dial on the handset allows you to change the channel. Or, just like a phone, you can swipe left or right to change the channel.

The tactile volume control is on the right side which brings up a menu. Use the sliders to adjust the volume. The Hub Volume is the external or remote speaker at the helm station. As mentioned previously, while not underway, I turn the Hub volume all the way down. When underway, I turn the top volume down, and then the Hub volume up...it's louder.

The next shot shows the instrument data available across the NMEA 2000 network. I turned my Raymarines on as well as the Auto-Pilot/Electronics/Auto Pilot just to "make everything hot".

The next is the Hailer and Horn functionality. You just hit the green "play" button. I believe that the sounds repeat on some time basis, but I'm not 100% sure. I do know that the Fog horn will repeat.

Next is the Anchor Watch. You can dial the circle as you want dedending on how much scope you deployed.

This is the Main Menu screen.

The next four shots are pretty much settings, etc. Showing GPS satellites, System Health, WiFi network, and Alarms. On System Health, you can go into AIS "stealth mode" which will no longer broadcast your position. Think about being on a fishing hotspot and you don't want your buddies to know! Ha!

The last group of pics is about navigation. One is a pic of my Raymarine E120W showing AIS targets in my marina. See what I mean by the target icon being "small"? The last three are screen shots from my iPhone, running Navionics, attached to the Cortex WiFi network. The first is picking up depth, and some AIS targets if you look closely. When I activate a route, you get speed, total time, and distance in addtion to depth. The last pic is zoomed in a bit to show you AIS targets.

All said, I really like it. It has scratched the itch to replace the E120Ws with Garmins, thus saving me about $12K. This system, with new antenna, and the networking bits all in was about $2K.

Jaybeaux