It is identical! SiTex markets the NASA brand electronics here in the U.S.
There is a comment about this in this month's Practical Sailor (just
released in digital format on the internet).

Binoculars, unlike electronics, don't drop in price since large scale
manufacturing practices don't carry over to optics as readily as they do in
electronics. The Fujinon stabilized binos are a magnificent bit of
glassware, combined with neat gyro stabilization. Much better for marine use
than the Canon or even the Nikon.
regards,
Harvey

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Braschi" <pb@paulbraschi.com>
To: <baba-l@ballreich.net>
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 12:45 PM
Subject: RE: [Baba-L] AIS plotting

> Just got my Defender catalog . . . literally 5 minutes ago and it fell
> open
> to a Si-tex AIS radar . . $519 . . looks identical to the NASA but who
> knows . . .
>
> btw does anyone know why the price of stabilized binoculars doesn't seem
> be
> dropping . . . Paul
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-baba-l@ballreich.net [mailto:owner-baba-l@ballreich.net] On
> Behalf Of Richard B. Emerson
> Sent: Monday, February 26, 2007 2:19 PM
> To: baba-l@ballreich.net
> Subject: Re: [Baba-L] AIS plotting
>
> Alan Sugarman wrote:
>> Is is possible to attach an AIS receiver to the Raymarine C-80 -
>>
>> What is required to accomplish this?
> Money. [grin]
>
> Raymarine makes an AIS receiver that, according the write-up, will do a
> number of things that are attractive. But at $1200 MSRP, ouch. IIRC,
> Defender is selling the unit at around $975.
>>
>> May I use a splitter in the cable coming from my mast top antenna?
> It's included in the Raymarine unit.
>
> http://www.raymarine.com/raymarine/SubmittedFiles/2007_brochures/AIS250_Broc
> hure_LR.pdf
>
> Having said that, I'm finding the DIY path somewhat challenging
> (although, so far, not obviously insurmountable).
>
> Following up in the Milltech Marine link, it seems their SR161 receiver
> is a good deal for a "casual" user. It will apparently listen to one of
> the two AIS channels (87B and 88B), picking whichever channel has a
> better signal (as opposed to using both channels all the time, as the
> SR162 does, at a little more than 2x the SR161 cost). However, it
> outputs its messages at 38400 baud (AIS standard) while most GPS' and
> NMEA devices run at 4800 or 9600. And here's where life gets ugly. I
> contacted NoLand Engineering about their multiplexer, which basically
> takes input for a number of different NMEA streams and sequences their
> transmissions into a readable stream (that is, just combining the wiring
> will not work). At this point NoLand doesn't have a "mux" that will
> accept the AIS 38400 baud stream along the other streams at 4800 or 9600
> baud. Yet - look for one "in a few months".
>
> All is not lost at this point. If you're lucky enough to have a
> computer with a lot of separate USB ports, you may be able to let the
> computer do the "muxing" (multiplexing) for you. That is, the program
> (e.g., Coastal Explorer) takes on the job of accepting data in the
> correct order. At least that's the theory. I'm looking into what's
> needed to convert that to practice and will report back what I find out.
>
> To summarize the above: for DIY AIS, you need a receiver, you need a
> serial port (or serial to USB converter), and you need a program to
> display the data (e.g., Coastal Explorer). To integrate this with GPS,
> a second serial port (serial to USB converter) is needed for that data.
> Add in data from wind, speed, depth instruments, and there must be some
> way to multiplex the GPS data stream, instrument data stream, and the
> AIS data stream.
>
> VHF splitters... The problem is the VHF antenna is used to receive
> signals and transmit signals. The VHF radio will disconnect the
> receiver when the transmitter's keyed. But, unless protected, the AIS
> (also VHF) receiver will see a 25 watt "shout" on its input - not a good
> thing. Additionally, it's not enough to just wire two antenna leads in
> parallel or even in series (impedance issues show up). The antenna,
> transmitter, and receiver(s) need to see a connection that looks "right"
> to them. There are, of course, many ways to do this but a passive (not
> using power to run amplifiers, etc - the least complicated and least
> expensive solution.) splitter will create some loss in the antenna line,
> reducing signal strength coming in and going out. For peak efficiency,
> then, two antennas are the way to go. If, however, adding a second VHF
> antenna is out of the question for some reason, a splitter will be a
> satisfactory solution.
>
> Cheers,
> Rick Emerson
> ¡
>
>
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Received on Mon Feb 26 13:23:28 2007