| Highest Rated Fishfinders | ||
|---|---|---|
 | Humminbird Helix 5 CHIRP G2 | 4.8/5 |
 | Lowrance HDS 7 Gen3 | 4.7/5 |
 | Garmin Striker 7sv | 4.6/5 |
 | Garmin echoMAP CHIRP 73sv | 4.6/5 |
 | Raymarine Dragonfly 7 PRO | 4.4/5 |
The Cobra F45-D is the no-frills entry level marine VHF radio, officially designated the MR F45-D, that can handle all your VHF communication needs for under $100. This Cobra marine radio set ships with the radio, a front panel mounted detachable microphone, GPS interface cable, microphone mount, owner’s manual, plastic
I cruise the west coast of Florida and purchased the Raymarine SmartPilot X-5 Wheel autopilot about a year ago. Having had an electronic background I decided to install the unit myself. I installed all the Raymarine Smart Pilot X-5 autopilot components myself on my Watkins 27-foot sailboat. Installation was easier
Choosing a marine battery that will be right for your boat can be a tough undertaking today due to the numerous types and wide variety of design duties of batteries on the marine market. Two basic types of marine battery perform two distinctly different jobs. A starting battery is built
I have been using the Raymarine Smartpilot ST6001 (hydraulic) auto pilot for about five years now. It is installed on a Stamas 29 Tarpon open fisherman. I primarily fish around Key Largo, FL. The Stamas has a single diesel inboard engine and a partial tunnel drive which is great for
I have the Raymarine S1000 autopilot installed this on my 23-foot pontoon boat. When it is working properly, this autopilot is nice to have aboard. Unfortunately, when it fails to work right I find it can be a major pain in the neck. In my estimation the unit works right
I bought a Magellan Triton 2000 as a refurbished unit for 300 dollars. Unfortunately, it did not work correctly and by the time I discovered it had a serious problem, it was out of the warranty period. I called Magellan support to find out where I could send it for
The Celestron Oceana is a rather compact marine binocular that stands about six inches high when resting on the objective lens caps. Features noted in this binocular review include individual eye focus, objective lens caps secured to the center hinge, and a slide rule style distance calculator printed on the
We find the Magellan 5000 with its vintage mid-90’s handheld GPS technology which includes a with full keyboard for manually entering waypoints to be far superior than anything found on the GPS handheld market today. All mariners need paper charts for reliability, however cruisers like me are not into supporting
The Bushnell Stableview, an economical marine-grade image stabilized binocular, tested here features a magnification factor of 10x coupled with 35 mm objective lenses. The objective lenses and all the gadgetry needed to operate the stabilization are contained in a box shaped case that tapers toward the front. The rear panel
My Lowrance LCX-104C has survived about six years on a 23-foot center console Dorado with only one repair. I have over the years found many good attributes to the LCX-104C. Although it did die on me once about two years ago, going totally blank and losing all of my stored
The Bushnell Marine model 137501 is a relatively inexpensive mid-size 7×50 marine binocular. They feature individual eye focus with a diopter scale on each eyepiece. The scale is located on the bottom of the eyepieces in our preferred location for easy setting when in use. Index and scale marks are
I had high hopes for my Lowrance HDS chartplotter fishfinder. Unfortunately, Lowrance and Navionics seem intent on marketing products that are simply not ready for use. I live in Alaska and fish the south central area, Kenai Peninsula, Cook Inlet, North Gulf Coast, and Prince William Sound. I’ll start with
The Brunton MNS is one of the larger units listed on our handheld marine GPS review page. Its big?nearly three inch on the diagonal?display screen is located toward the bottom of the front panel with a leveling bubble in the extreme lower right corner. Nine pushbuttons are located above the
Here’s our How-To on making a watertight boat wiring connection that will provide years of trouble-free service aboard your boat. Boat wiring problems can play a big role in whether your boating experience is pleasureable or not. Nine out of ten times a bad connection will prove to be the
Editor’s Note – A west coast commercial operator doing water sampling work provides an in-depth review of a Humminbird chartplotter. We bought the Humminbird 788ci for one of our work vessels. I would not recommend this Humminbird combo unit. We have Lowrance gear installed on our other vessels and I
Boat electronics have become part of the basic equipment on a vessel. Today, a boat without a marine radio and GPS seems as rudimentary as a household without a computer. Every mariner should also consider a VHF radio to be as vital as any single piece of marine electronics, even
I regularly use hot-melt glue to seal bundled wire cables, this stiffens the cable and makes if waterproof. I also use this methodology to seal antenna or any other coax connectors for radios. This should work well on a marine VHF radio antenna connector. Just melt some hot-melt glue on
I’ve had my Garmin Nuvi 360 for almost 2 years. I don’t use it while boating but since it is so portable thought I would comment anyway. I reviewed a number of GPS product specifications before I purchased. The one feature I knew I wanted was bluetooth capability in the
A black box sounder is a generic name for a marine electronics device that contains the electronic guts of a fish finder in a self-contained ‘black box’, most of the time the box is not actually black. They came into being in the early 1980’s when personal computers were first
Editor’s Note – This post was provided to us from D. Bell from Fort Myers, FL The Garmin GPSMAP 76 is a great handheld unit for boating. I kayak twice a week and carry this unit because it meets my navigational needs. It runs for over 12 hours on a