Keith is right.
What kind of dope did you speak with at Garmin?
If you couldn't switch to NMEA the plotter would not work with the majority
of autopilots and that would be a big no-no. In one of the menus there
should be a System setup option to chose data output configuration.
I would have thought the manual for the radio would show how to input the
GPS data since this is supposed to be a big selling item for these units.

"Gudguyham" wrote in message
...
Hi fellas, I am a ham W1QJ and I am getting into APRS, I understand how it
works. My brother has a boat with a Garmin 2010 GPS unit and an Icom VHF
radio. Both of the manuals talk about DSC, but do not tell you how to
hook it
up. I am assuming that it works similar to the amatuer APRS. The lat.
long.
data gets fed from the GPS to the VHF radio and then the radio can beacon
the
position of the boat. My question is this. Which wires on the Garmin
2010
give out the data that the VHF radio is looking for? The Icom VHF radio
is
looking for "NEMA" data input, but when I called Garmin on the phone, they
said
that the Garmin has their own data protocal. Is this a problem? If so
then
what is the work around? Could anyone here that uses DSC and understands
it,
please help me out. I am assuming that it is very much like "connected
packet"?? I may be wrong, but from what I read about it, it sounds like
it.
Any help with a better understanding of Marine DSC and help hooking up the
Garmin to the Icom to get my brother going on DSC would be appreciated.
You
can e-mail me direct please. Or I can come back here for responses. Many
thanks in advance to anyone who can help me. 73 Louie W1QJ