This is the final farewell for Navman 7200 VHF radio.The Navman brand is no longer. In mid-March 2008 Navico, the Navman parent company, stopped marketing the Navman brand name. Many products will still be available worldwide under the Northstar brand.
Navman 7200
This particular radio will now be marketed exclusively as the Northstar Explorer 721.
The 7200 has several enhancements over its lower-priced cousin, the Navman 7100 VHF radio. They include a larger display screen, better receive selectivity specifications, and an integrated barometer and thermometer to measure the outside air pressure and temperature.
Performance
We found transmitter power output to be stable over the full range of temperatures and voltages tested. Transmitter frequency stability was rated good while receive sensitivity was rated excellent. Navman specifies receive selectivity for the 7200 at greater than 70 dB, this is at the upper end of units in this price range. In audio testing the 7200 hit a sound pressure level of 89 dBA.
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Operation
Manual channel selection is made with a rotary knob located just to the right of the display, an improvement over the Navman 7100 pushbutton operation. The rotary knob also serves as the menu enter key. Off/on/volume and squelch are controlled with a pair of smaller knobs located on the left side of the radio face. Dedicated pushbuttons provide quick 16/9 channel selection, weather, favorite 3 channel toggle, scan, and access to the menu. The INFO key on the microphone toggles up a 24-hour barometric history and a receive signal strength bar graph.
Digital Selective Calling
The Navman 7200 has the same DSC capabilities as the Navman 7100. These include the ability to make distress, individual, all ships, group, position request, position send, and geographical calls.
Odds and Ends
The 7200 has all the features found in the 7100 including, Dual Watch, Tri Watch, all channel scan, local/distance receive sensitivity, and menu control of display backlighting.
We gave the Navman’s large display screen a very good rating. It is significantly larger than the screen on the 7100 and has a proportional increase in the size of the letters used in the smallest icons making it a bit easier to read. Onscreen icons are displayed for high/low transmitter power, local/distant receive, transmit/receive, and alpha channels.
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Final Thoughts
The Navman 7200 has integrated features not found on other VHF radios including a barometer and thermometer. On the web it is priced at $199. It carries a 2-year warranty.