Archive for December, 2009
Proper way to send a Distress Signal
We know that the probability of a boater actually being in a situation where he actually has to send out a distress signal over his marine VHF radio is small.
Proper use of Channel 16
When using your VHF Marine Radio, channel 16 is considered the international calling and distress station.
Is a license required for a VHF marine radio?
Legally, a VHF radio is only required to be on board if your boat is over sixty-five and 1/2 feet long.
Subwoofers to the rescue!
A Marine Subwoofer speaker is the fourth type of speaker we talked about last week just before Christmas.
Merry Christmas!!
Well, it’s Christmas Day once again! Where I live, everything is white, although I must say that we normally have quite a bit more snow by this time than we have this year. A 6 inch base of snow is really quite essential to keep the frost from going so deep as to freeze the septic system up – not nice when that happens!!
It is my wish to all of you that you will have a blessed Christmas season and a wonderful New Year. Hopefully you will get a chance to step away from the busy-ness of the season – if only for a moment – to reflect on the past year and where you hope to be this time next year. Think about giving. I am reminded of something my college professor said one day. He said the whole world could be a very different and better place if only each of us would learn to leave the word ‘I’ out of our conversations. He then challenged us to try it for only 1 day. It really wasn’t as easy as you might think it would be, but it makes a person realize just how self centered we can become in our everyday world. Try it – it really was fun!
I realize that we didn’t’ talk marine speakers, marine radios, or CB Radios today, but I wanted to take break from that today – Christmas Day – to wish you and yours a very blessed Christmas.
Are you on Santa’s “good” list?
Speaker 3 for the week that we are discussing is a waterproof (or marine) component speaker. These are actually more than one marine speaker rolled into one. Yes, these speakers actually separate the frequencies electronically so that each of the separate components within the speaker is required to produce its own quota of frequencies. Although this definitely improves your sound quality, they typically are larger and require more room for installation.
A couple of years ago, I got a gift from my daughter for Christmas that was a pillow with a picture of Santa on it. The picture depicted Santa checking over his list and the caption said “Yep – you were nice! …..oh what a minute – that wasn’t you!” I got a chuckle out of it and it still gets put out on the chair every Christmas season. Well, let’s hope that this year you can be found on the ‘nice’ list!! Haha!!
If you’re going to do it, do it right…
Coaxial speakers are the subject for today. Although these speakers are only the second in the grouping of 4 we are talking about this week, this type of marine speaker could be considered the middle of the road. Its performance is not quite as good as that of a component speaker, but is better than that of the dual cone speaker that we talked about yesterday. Let’s define coaxial for starters. This simply means that one speaker is wrapped around with another speaker. Located right in the middle of these speakers you will find the tweeter which produces all the high frequency sounds. Surrounding the tweeter, you will have the larger, more prominent woofer which is very capable of handling the lower and mid range frequencies. It would be pretty hard to go wrong if you chose this type of marine speaker for your installation. Anytime you choose marine speakers above a standard speaker when installing a sound system into a piece of equipment that will be exposed to water, you made a good choice!
Marine Speaker classification…how good are yours?
You will find your marine speakers categorized into 4 main categories: dual cone speakers, coaxial speakers, component speakers, and sub-woofers. Let’s talk about a dual cone marine speaker today. Just what are they? They have (guess what?) 2 cones as indicated by the name – one large cone and one small cone. They do, however, have only one driver or sound output source. You’ll get all your mid range and low frequencies from the larger cone and that leaves that smaller cone to process your higher frequencies. This kind of marine speaker will work well under most circumstances, but comes up a bit short if a person is looking for something that will give him/her a broad spectrum of sound frequencies. Why then are they so popular?? Simple answer is price. These speakers are the most inexpensive and they do the job.
Making an Emergency Call
Having a radio for emergencies won’t help much if you don’t know how to properly use it. The following instructions should be followed when making an emergency radio call from a boat:
Turn your VHF radio to channel 16, and turn the volume up and the squelch down until the static goes away. Make sure to speak clearly and repeat, “mayday” several times followed by your boat’s name.
Next you should say “mayday” again, say you boat’s name and the GPS position or bearing from a known object, what your problem is, and what type of assistance you need. You should also make clear how many people are on board the boat, and what condition they are in. It’s best to keep an emergency message under one minute.
What do you mean…waterproof??
When you’re in the out on the water, you can expect that sometime, somewhere, you will get wet! Sound profound? There are a lot of boats out there without the proper equipment on board to withstand the elements that a person naturally runs into. When you get wet, your equipment will get wet and if you don’t have the proper equipment, your equipment will be ruined or will fail to work when you need it the most. Waterproof marine audio components are invaluable out on the blue. Although the term “waterproof” is directly relevant to the length of time your equipment is exposed to the water, or the depth to which it is subjected to, it is still a great way to go – especially when talking speakers! Waterproof speakers (or marine speakers) are a very inexpensive way to go when installing your speaker system on board.