Standard Horizon Intrepid Marine VHF
A more important capability, at least in theory, is the automatic transmission of an ID unique to the radio, mayday distress calls, and GPS-derived location (there's an NMEA recieve bit on the Intrepid's interface connector). Theoretically, the Coast Guard and commercial vessels are phasing out monitoring of Channel 16, the traditional calling frequency, requiring all users to be DSC-capable (which includes paying $95 to the FCC for an ID number and license), but distress calls should become a one-button operation. If this sounds vague and confusing, it's because it is... I have yet to see a consistent and clear explanation of just where we're headed with all this.
The good news is that Standard (now a part of Yaesu) departed from the big-bucks DSC trend that was emerging through the 90's by introducing this radio, which is the first to be FCC type-accepted for the DSC SC-101 standard. It's a decent rig with all the usual Marine VHF features, quick access to weather and Channel 16, basic scanning ability, and the option of adding a "Remote Access Microphone" that allows all functions to be invoked from anywhere on the boat (overkill for the Microship, of course; the radio is mounted right over my left shoulder!).
The rig is well made and robust, with good audio and passable receive standby current. I'll report more on this after I have on-water experience with it, but initial tests suggest that it will be fine. My only complaint so far is that the little red plastic cover for the distress calling button is, incredibly, not hinged or tethered... and is thus guaranteed to get lost (they're already missing from most display units at marine supply stores). I took an old bicycle control cable and fashioned a tether, dangling from the right-hand bracket mount knob.
The Intrepid is powered from the Microship's distribution panel, and drives a Shakespeare 5241R antenna mounted on the bow. Serial NMEA input piggybacks on the data stream from the GPS core without using up a serial crossbar channel, and the VHF audio (output only) is available via the audio crossbar as shown in the Microshipnet drawing. We'll eventually poke around the RAM mic interface to see if we can make the radio fully controllable by host software without too much hackage...
As this collection of files is to become live Microship documentation, I'll add wiring details, comments, and other specifics as they become available.
UPDATE - January 18, 2001: I just discovered that Boat/US is offering a wonderful service for mariners... free MMSI registration via their website. If you are buying a DSC radio for your boat, and I think you should, this is the best way to get the magic registration number that gives you selective calling and distress beaconing capability.
UPDATE - January 26, 2001: We just returned from the Seattle Boat Show, and saw the new marine radios from Icom. Excellent stuff... they have a whole new line of DSC-capable rigs (with hinged covers over the emergency call button, and JIS-7 submersibility rating).
FCC guide to Marine VHF channels
Source for Intrepid, with basic specs