- Joined
- Oct 1, 2007
- Messages
- 7,331
- Location
- Texas
- Vessel Name
- Floatsome & Jetsome
- Vessel Make
- Meridian 411
My boat came with only 1 VHF radio and no AIS. I do want to add AIS and I wanted to have wifi out of the AIS. That narrows it down to Vesper(and one other company I don't remember). The Vesper unit is $800 and once you get all of the "kit", it pushes $1100. I have just found out about this new "Cortex" model. Not cheap but I need a new VHF anyway. It retails for a whopping $1849. ANd it does have some pretty neat whiz bang stuff to boot. My only reservation would be if it does well as an actual VHF microphone. I can't tell you how many times I bang my mic around...but it is a lot. It also has a splitter to share the only VHF antenna I have making it easier to install....yes I realize I am giving up redundancy on that one if I were to exercise that option versus a separate antenna.
My first question is anyone out there using one of these things?
Second question....do you see the value for my application? I think I would be close to spending that amount if I bought everything separately...AIS...VHF...Antennas and all of the other accoutrements for installation and I would be missing some of the functionality this thing provides. Extra handsets can be added for another $599!!! A lot of money but they can be hardwired or they can be carried around the boat wirelessly(they have their own power source) over the wifi. Not a bad feature.
https://www2.vespermarine.com/cortex/vhf
My first question is anyone out there using one of these things?
Second question....do you see the value for my application? I think I would be close to spending that amount if I bought everything separately...AIS...VHF...Antennas and all of the other accoutrements for installation and I would be missing some of the functionality this thing provides. Extra handsets can be added for another $599!!! A lot of money but they can be hardwired or they can be carried around the boat wirelessly(they have their own power source) over the wifi. Not a bad feature.
https://www2.vespermarine.com/cortex/vhf