I own a boat and my job is to take people for sailing trips that are fun and adventurous. Usually every weekend I am near sea shore and tourists who like to explore the ocean approach me.The typical marine autopilots system can eliminate the need for constant steering by a captain. Marine autopiloting can help to control the ship rudder or access the control panel or rudder drive and head. Of course, there is only one way to determine which marine autopilots are the best on the market (and there are plenty at that). That would be to sample these systems and find out which ones provide the most effective heading and how the sensor tracks a course in windy conditions.One of the newest developments in autopilot technology is the use of microprocessors. This allows marine autopilots to handle more complex operations such as automatic compensation for asymmetry in steering, counter-rudder and course tracking and of course automatic sea state adaptation.
In previous decades, these devices were only used by very costly commercial ships. Nowadays these sophisticated devices are being marketed to the individual boater.Primarily, the biggest difference in today's Marine VHF market is portability. Whereas 25 years ago, if you wanted to scan the radio channels on your VHF radio, you had to stop what you were doing and go to where your unit was mounted. Today you can have a portable, hand held unit to carry around with you wherever you go on your boat. If you have a boat with a sun deck and you like to catch some sun while drinking a few beverages, a hand held Marine VHF unit is perfect for you. Another point for hand held units, and probably the most important, is that the sound quality does not fall off one bit in most quality units.Can you use your satellite phone anywhere in the world? Not exactly, though potentially satellite TV could do this. The main restriction here is that satellite companies purposely limit their services to one region for better overall service and for legal purposes. For instance, in some countries it would be illegal for you to use marine satellite phones, because that might interfere with their local frequencies, which could result in confusion.
Much like sonar technology, which bounces sound waves off objects below the surface of the water, marine GPS devices use high-frequency low-power radio signals emitted from satellites in orbit around the Earth to determine your position on the water. When these signals hit your GPS receiver, the receiver calculates an x-y coordinate marking your position.Another important item in marine electronics is that of water makers. Water makers allow personnel to "make" their own water, by filtering out the salt content in the usually undrinkable seawater. Remember that seawater, though not always poisonous, is counterproductive. You take in so much salt that you need more liquids to push it out; after a short time you would eventually start to thirst very badly. The only option for extended sea journeys is taking along a water maker system.
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