Marine Electronics

West Marine's site has been carefully developed and tended for years, and it shows, across the board. The BoatU.S. site is also well-polished.

Quantum's odor- and mildew-destroying machines get a fresh evaluation.

Out of 11 models that went on the bench, Icom had three that shined. Standard also did well. Digitial Selective Calling still has a way to go.

Marine radar is of two types: X-band and S-band. The former is the type commonly carried aboard small boats.

For this review, Practical Sailor collected, from the hundreds available, 18 steering compasses. Included are binnacle, bulkhead and bracket models, plus several interesting ones shown only in photos. Except for the bronze Telltale compass shown on page 7, all have 12V lighting and gimbal systems.

Nothing is scarier than seeing water coming into your boat. If you're not aboard to see the spectacle, you'll be safe — but it might be curtains for your boat.

The test report in the March 1, 1997 issue of Practical Sailor called the KVH Datascope “the king of the hand-bearing compasses.” Although expensive,...

Of five packages tested, we also like Coretex Weatherfax 2000, but had problems running the much more expensive Weatherstation 2000 HW and PC HF Facsimile 8.0

One Jensen model rates at the top, another down low. Standard Horizon models MST660 and MST65 sound loud and clear, but are expensive.

Raytheon's Raychart 320 is consistently more accurate than two conventional DGPS units from Raytheon and Garmin — and it's less expensive.