Standard Horizon has been announced as the winner of the USA-based National Marine Electronics Association 2010 Technology Award at The NMEA International Marine Electronics Conference & Expo held in Seattle. Their new GX2100E (or Matrix, as it is known in the USA), is a combined Class D VHF DSC transceiver with a dual channel AIS receiver.
The Technology Award singles out the best new marine electronics product that advances technology within the marine electronics industry. The judges of the Award considered innovation, benefit to boaters, practicality and value in choosing the GX2100E.
The GX2100E is able to display AIS targets in a radar style format, on the large 1.8” LCD display of the radio. Determination of bearing and range can be made from viewing the screen. Detailed additional data received from the AIS targets that include an MMSI number may also be displayed on the screen. An automatic DSC call can be made to a specific AIS vessel by simply selecting the target and pressing the call button without the need to type in the vessel’s MMSI number.
The AIS target display gives the MMSI, call sign, ship name, bearing (BRG), distance (DST), speed over the ground (SOG) and course over the ground (COG). There is also a Closest Point of Approach (CPA) alarm, if a target vessel strays too near.
Another versatile feature is the ability to ‘poll’ another vessel for its position. This is shown as lat/long on the radio’s screen, or can be sent to a compatible chart plotter display as well. AIS target information can also be sent to the chart plotter via an NMEA connection. Polling is used for vessels that wish to keep abreast of each other’s location, such as a cruising flotilla, or a group of fishing boats. When connected to an external GPS, the GX2100E is capable of storing up to 100 waypoints, which can be selected and navigated to by using a unique compass display. The display will also give all the usual GPS information about speed, course and bearing to a waypoint.
The GX2100E is remarkably compact, and yet provides a generous and easy-to-read display, a substantial rotary channel selection knob and a powerful 30 Watt PA/loud hailer that is pre-programmed with fog signals. There is no need to install a separate VHF antenna for the AIS as the GX2100E’s internal AIS receiver uses the radio’s VHF antenna.
Housed in a die-cast chassis for strength and durability, the GX2100E also features 4.5-Watt audio output, a ClearVoice noise cancelling speaker microphone, Programmable Scan, Priority Scan and Dual Watch. There is also a function for user-changeable channel names, and an optional voice scrambler.
The GX2100E also supports the CMP30 remote access microphone, which provides complete control of the radio, including the waypoint and AIS functions as well as displaying AIS target data on the screen. The CMP30 essentially provides two separate VHF DSC stations aboard, it also doubles as an intercom between the two stations, particularly useful for flybridge motorboats.
Available in black or white, the GX2100E is waterproofed to JIS-7/IPX-7 standards (1 metre submersion for 30 minutes) and carries a full three-year warranty, which includes water damage.
There is also a similar model, the GX2000E available, with all the same features, although rather than having built-in AIS, it is designed to take its data from an external AIS receiver and simply connects to it via an NMEA cable.
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