I have had it. With all my problems with electronic stuff, I will
never give up my paper charts (I never did fortunately) and will
continue plotting by hand and using my hand held compass for near
shore nav. I am spending far more time repairing electronic stuff
than I am using it.

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 18:57:27 -0800 (PST), wrote
in :

I have had it. With all my problems with electronic stuff, I will
never give up my paper charts (I never did fortunately) and will
continue plotting by hand and using my hand held compass for near
shore nav. I am spending far more time repairing electronic stuff
than I am using it.

Consider getting better gear. My gear doesn't fail, including a
handheld mapping GPS that's now several years old. I've largely
abandoned paper charts, with a sigh of relief. I've been on boats where
all the paper charts got wet and ruined.
--
Best regards,
John Navas, publisher of Navas' Sailing & Racing in
the San Francisco Bay Area http://sail.navas.us/

wrote in message
...
I have had it. With all my problems with electronic stuff, I will
never give up my paper charts (I never did fortunately) and will
continue plotting by hand and using my hand held compass for near
shore nav. I am spending far more time repairing electronic stuff
than I am using it.

Then you either bought crap to begin with, or haven't taken care of it.
That or your just trolling for attention.

In article
,
wrote:

I have had it. With all my problems with electronic stuff, I will
never give up my paper charts (I never did fortunately) and will
continue plotting by hand and using my hand held compass for near
shore nav. I am spending far more time repairing electronic stuff
than I am using it.

I wonder just WHAT electronic equipment your complaining about?
Please list Makes & Models.... and what makes you think you are
experienced enough to do ANY internal Repairs to said equipment.
Having spent 40+ years in the Marine Electronics Maintainance
Biz, I can state that Good Marine Electronic Techs are few and far
between. On the West Coast of the US, and the North Pacific, you can
count the Excellent Outfits one two hands, and there are fewer of them
now, then there were 10 years ago. The reason is, that with modern
Electronic Design and Parts, there is much less service required, per
operating Hour. So with less Service being required, fewer outfits are
needed to do the service, and much of the equipment is not designed to
be non-Serviceable, and a throw-away, when it dies. The classic example
is Marine Radar. 1st Generation Radars like the WWII SO's had a
operational MTBF of about 20 hours. 2nd Generation Radars like the
Raytheon 1200, 1500, 1700, the Decca 202's, 303's, 404's, and the Kelvin
Hughes 21's and the like, extended that out to, Maybe, 200 hours. Then
came the 3rd Generation Hybrid Radars like the Decca 101's, 050's, the
Furuno KRA Series, and the like, that had MTBF's in the 1000 operational
Hours. NOW, with 4th Generation Radars which have only ONE Tube, the
Magnetron, we have Marine Radars that run, basically for the life of the
Maggie, unmaintained, and with a Maggie Replacement, essentially for the
life of the Electrolytic Capacitors. (10K+ Hours) Try finding a Good
Marine Radar Tech, these days, that has experience with 2nd and 3rd
Generation Radars, and can actually troubleshoot, and repair one. You
can Look for a VERY LONG time. Most of us are getting to OLD to climb
the masts anymore, have gone on to do other things, or DIED.

--
Bruce in alaska
add path after fast to reply

On Nov 12, 2:39 pm, Bruce in alaska wrote:
In article
,

wrote:
I have had it. With all my problems with electronic stuff, I will
never give up my paper charts (I never did fortunately) and will
continue plotting by hand and using my hand held compass for near
shore nav. I am spending far more time repairing electronic stuff
than I am using it.

I wonder just WHAT electronic equipment your complaining about?
Please list Makes & Models.... and what makes you think you are
experienced enough to do ANY internal Repairs to said equipment.
Having spent 40+ years in the Marine Electronics Maintainance
Biz, I can state that Good Marine Electronic Techs are few and far
between. On the West Coast of the US, and the North Pacific, you can
count the Excellent Outfits one two hands, and there are fewer of them
now, then there were 10 years ago. The reason is, that with modern
Electronic Design and Parts, there is much less service required, per
operating Hour. So with less Service being required, fewer outfits are
needed to do the service, and much of the equipment is not designed to
be non-Serviceable, and a throw-away, when it dies. The classic example
is Marine Radar. 1st Generation Radars like the WWII SO's had a
operational MTBF of about 20 hours. 2nd Generation Radars like the
Raytheon 1200, 1500, 1700, the Decca 202's, 303's, 404's, and the Kelvin
Hughes 21's and the like, extended that out to, Maybe, 200 hours. Then
came the 3rd Generation Hybrid Radars like the Decca 101's, 050's, the
Furuno KRA Series, and the like, that had MTBF's in the 1000 operational
Hours. NOW, with 4th Generation Radars which have only ONE Tube, the
Magnetron, we have Marine Radars that run, basically for the life of the
Maggie, unmaintained, and with a Maggie Replacement, essentially for the
life of the Electrolytic Capacitors. (10K+ Hours) Try finding a Good
Marine Radar Tech, these days, that has experience with 2nd and 3rd
Generation Radars, and can actually troubleshoot, and repair one. You
can Look for a VERY LONG time. Most of us are getting to OLD to climb
the masts anymore, have gone on to do other things, or DIED.

--
Bruce in alaska
add path after fast to reply

OK Bruce, I have 3 dead VHF radios in front of me. Make that 4. 2
Uniden Atlantis 250 handheld VHF units failed because their volume
control/on-off switch broke off. A cheaper West Marine hand held VHF
model VHF 55 bought to replace the Unidens, It fails to charge and
West says they are replacing it. Raymarine Ray48 VHF, will not
transmit even though I have put on a known good emergency antenna.
Here is my Garmin GPS76 whose "page" button fell off. I repaired it
with a dab of 3m5200 but now it wont take anything except the
expensive camera batteries and goes thru them really fast.
Here are my Fujinon 7X50 binocs with built in compass. Compass no
longer operates even with new batteries. Eye cups fall off because
the tiny screws backed out.
Navman Fishfinder/depthsounder knotlog whose impeller fell off so it
does not read speed.

OTOH, my 28 yr old Silva hand compass that I used for years for
coastal nav still works very well (no electronics) as do my dividers.
My old spring in a tube knotstik with towed drag thingy still works
well enough that I used it to go from St Pete, FL to Carabelle, FL
using DR last year cuz I didnt trust the gps to work.

On to NNN (not necessarily nautical) electronics. My ASUS ee computer
that I loved suddenly died just after I had thrown away the
packaging. A new HP laptop I bought for my daughter suddenly went
berserk so went to Office Depot and raised holy hell till they replace
it with a Toshiba that is now going bad. 3 dead digital cameras.

Dont even get me started on Cell Phones and digital watches, I'd be
better off with tin cans, string and a sundial. Yes, I do own a
slide rule and I know how to use it.

On Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:04:29 -0800, John Navas
wrote:

Consider getting better gear.

I think most think about an upgrade all the time. The exception being
those who can easily afford the good stuff, and already have it.

My gear doesn't fail,

You obviously are not superstitious, or you wouldn't attract trouble
by saying that.
including a
handheld mapping GPS that's now several years old.

That might not be bad. There is a GPS in the Navigator that only knows
from street addresses. It simple will not tell you the lat and long.
Its not _quite_ useless.

I've largely
abandoned paper charts, with a sigh of relief. I've been on boats where
all the paper charts got wet and ruined.

I am considering some coastal cruising. Down the river from Iowa, ICW
and so on. So how much per hour do paper charts cost at 30 MPH?
I have a 22 foot boat, and paper looks like major pain. If you have a
big chart table that's one thing.

Casady

On Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:35:16 -0800 (PST), Frogwatch
wrote:

Dont even get me started on Cell Phones and digital watches, I'd be
better off with tin cans, string and a sundial. Yes, I do own a
slide rule and I know how to use it.

I have a dozen slide rules including those that do graphic solutions
of the wind triangle, and those that help aim artillery shells. My
watch ticks. They still make them. Rolex, for example.

Casady

My watch ticks. They still make them. Rolex, for example.

Not quite a ticking action.