Product Reviews
A Coast-Guard approved Night Visual Distress Signal
...with a VHF radio or an EPIRB, could be very useful in guiding rescue crews once they’ve arrived at the general location. The light projected from the top of the lens can then be aimed at potential rescuers. Having a nighttime distress signal that can flash a universally recognized distress signal for hours can have a distinct advantage over relying...
Product Reviews
A USCG-approved substitute for pyrotechnic flares
...two C-cell alkaline batteries; the SOS Distress Light took three. The ResQFlare has a rubber O-ring to provide a waterproof seal between the top and bottom, and while it has a rating of IP67—waterproof for 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter—it floats with the lens above the water. The SOS Distress Light required a soft, detachable foam ring...
Small Boats Annual 2012
Part of common sense is good preparation
...flare gun with three flares and a flashlight with a strobe can signal your position to a rescuer, especially in darkness. In daylight, an orange flag (shown folded at left) may be most practical. Visual Distress Signals. The Coast Guard requires small unpowered boats to carry distress signals that are visible at night. Most small-craft skippers carry three flares to...
Product Reviews
Standard Horizon's HX890
...receive a DSC distress alert and be directed by a directional compass to the aid of a boater in distress. As a GPS unit, the HX890 can be used for navigation. It can store up to 250 waypoints and multiple routes. It can be used to navigate to a GPS position received from another DSC radio. A man-overboard (MOB) function...
News and Curiosities
...urges paddlecraft owners to properly secure and label their vessels. Coast Guard crews treat every unmanned-adrift vessel as a search and rescue case and immediately launch a search for potential mariners in distress. “Every unmanned-adrift vessel is treated as a potential distress situation, which takes up valuable time, resources and manpower,” said Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Brook Serbu of the...
Product Reviews
...VHF radios, handheld or aerial flares, mirrors, flags, horns, smoke, and dyes. They all have their advantages and shortcomings; in an emergency you’ll want the tool best suited to the job at hand. Greatland Laser’s Rescue Flares are effective visual distress signals. While pyrotechnic flares can be seen from any direction, they are short-lived and dangerous to handle. A laser...
Adventures
Soloing along a Texan barrier island
...dark green saltgrass. Etched into the campground’s crusty, sun-cracked surface were tracks from wide, knobby tires and some large cloven-hoofed animal, perhaps a large deer or a feral hog. I didn’t relish the possibility of hogs rooting through my camp overnight. I tried using my phone to figure out the difference between their tracks, but there was no signal. After...
From The Editor
...fairly stable, even in whitecaps, and I’m mostly out of the water and my hands are free to tend to tend to distress calls and signals. The lash tab on the left side of the back has a small PFD light that I can turn on my reaching back and twisting the top. I carry my smart phone in a...
Product Reviews
Signal horns for small boats
...cartridges. For vessels under 12 meters, Coast Guard regulations regarding air horns are vague—“A vessel of less than 12 meters in length…shall be provided with some other means of making an efficient sound signal”—but common sense dictates that a warning blast should be heard a couple of hundred feet away, and ideally further. A friend and I got out on...
Product Reviews
Hearing protection with radio and Bluetooth
...Bluetooth, YouTube music videos playing on my smartphone have obvious and excellent stereo sound. The WorkTunes can be up to 25′ away from the Bluetooth signal source; beyond that, the signal breaks up. That’s enough to give me free range in my shop. If a phone call comes in on my smartphone while I have the Bluetooth connection on, I’ll...
Technique
DIY projects to make yourself heard
...open space.” And the effect isn’t restricted by the direction of the megaphone. I’ve noticed that rowing coaches using non-electronic megaphones are very easy to hear even when their megaphones aren’t aimed at me. The most familiar acoustic megaphones have conical shapes (properly called frustums, as they are cones with their pointed peaks lopped off). Bullhorns and electronic megaphones flare...
Product Reviews
A portable power station
...ports for 12-volt power, one for charging the Explorer 160 with the included AC adapter or an optional solar panel, the other to supply power to electronic devices using the included cigarette-lighter socket and cord. The built-in flashlight is useful on a boat or around camp. It can flash a programmed-in SOS signal in an emergency. There are three USB...
Product Reviews
A depth finder for small boats
...doubles as a 20-lumen LED flashlight with easily changed clear, red, blue, and green lenses. The LED can flash SOS, a nice nod to safety, but it is not a substitute for Coast Guard–approved distress-signaling devices. The H22FX has a fish indicator feature to help locate fish, and it did display the fish symbol when fish were present. While that’s...
Product Reviews
Compact power for dinghies
...quickly slowed and came to a stop. I checked the videos and compared the sound of the motor at the start and at the 60-minute mark. There was a slight drop in pitch, just a major third on a musical scale. The motor has an electronic power regulation system that keeps the power output quite steady throughout the discharge cycle...
Product Reviews
Government charts, private printers
...I’ve also kept my father’s charts of our local waters on Puget Sound, and every chart I used going up the Inside Passage. While my fondness for old charts may be somewhat sentimental, I still find paper charts useful even though there are some very sophisticated electronic alternatives. If I were traveling the Inside Passage or the Intracoastal Waterway again,...
News and Curiosities
...used on paper NOAA nautical charts and for displaying NOAA electronic navigational chart (NOAA ENC®) data on Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). The document also shows paper chart symbols used by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and symbols specified by the International Hydrographic Organization.” NOAA Office of Coast Survey Chart No. 1 as a booklet. Image courtesy of NOAA....
Small Boats Annual 2012
...use the distance and approximate speed to predict an arrival time. Practice these skills in good weather so that you have confidence when you need it. A GPS chart plotter is a magnificent invention, but like any other electronic device it can still fail at the least opportune moment, whether by dead batteries, submersion, and being dropped overboard. Therefore, you...
Product Reviews
from Hyndsight Vision Systems
...The monitor and camera have robust housings with a nicely textured finish that provides a good grip even when wet. The mounts are well designed and easily adapt to fit different boats. The monitor screen is simple with few icons: mirrored or normal viewing, signal strength, battery levels of monitor and camera (once paired), and a screen brightness level that’s...
Technique
An elevated accessory antenna can increase a handheld radio's range
...second limit is set by the way we use VHFs. In simple terms, your signal radiates out in a plane perpendicular to the antenna. If you angle your VHF, that signal plane tilts too, and may be over some recipients or fall short of others. It may be degraded further if your recipient’s plane is not aligned with yours. So,...
Adventures
980 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois
...the Ohio and barge traffic was light, so light that I always had lock chambers to myself. At the entrance to some of the locks there were pull chains that small boats could use to signal the lock keepers of their arrival. However, most had been disabled. Thus, if a lock keeper didn’t happen to catch a glimpse of me,...
From The Editor
A chance encounter leads to an exciting sail
...from my third great-grandfather Charles Cunningham and his brother, Andrew. It was the private signal flown from the highest points on their fleet of ships, barks, and brigs carrying goods across the Atlantic. In the days before radio, the signals were the first things to rise above the horizon to let merchants know whose vessel would soon be in the...
Adventures
A summertime singlehanded cruise
...turned out, I found enough signal to get a call out every day. As the river flows into and through Little Dalles, the current becomes fast and often unpredictable. With no GPS or detailed chart, I had no idea this narrow gorge existed. For me, discovering the river as I go is a large part of the fun. With the...
Adventures
A race that wasn't
...up with RiverSlayer. Wally chose Los Humungos. During the pre-race meeting, WaterTribe Chief, Steve Isaac, went over the protocols. The EC requires more safety gear than any other organization I’ve raced with. For electronics alone, Tribers have to have a GPS, EPIRB, SPOT satellite messenger, cell phone, and VHF radio. Stacey Roberts Over 100 kayaks, canoes, and sailboats lined up...
Adventures
Trailing the fleet, keeping up with the leaks
...off signaling the Le Mans start of the roughly 700-mile-long second leg of the race to Alaska. We were going to be slower on the water than almost all of the other teams, and there was no sense in fighting it, so we walked rather than ran to our boat. As underdogs, racing for a participation award seemed as much...
Adventures
Exploring the wild beauty of British Columbia
...interior, which is where we were headed. The boat was as tidy as we could make it. The boat tent, made of slippery white Tyvek (the CommercialWrap version), was rolled up against the midsection of the port rail while clothes, electronics, food, and kitchen gear were stowed in watertight plastic bins under the seats or stowed loose inside the two...