Radio Direction Finders????

[Glenn W]

Resorting to chasing radio fish are ya?
Google it, there are a host of retailers.
FYI:
http://www.rdfproducts.com/an001_apl_01.pdf

[Wolakrab]

A buddy has one, and he rarely if ever uses it in the 7 years he's owned the boat. With DSC on the more recent VHF radios, they will eventually be obsolete.

[Deep C]

Resorting to chasing radio fish are ya?
Google it, there are a host of retailers.
FYI:
http://www.rdfproducts.com/an001_apl_01.pdf

Yes Glenn
You got it... If the fish are in my neighborhood I can find em by myself. Its when I get into unfamiliar water I gotta use whatever I have at my disposal. We use GPS, sounders, sat temp, chlorophyl analysis, fancy rigs, etc. Why not? I know full well others use it to find me when I'm on the fish. My turn to return the favor.

Heck, its no different than looking at birds, rips, pushing bait to let us know where they are. When the fish disappear from known spots and it turns into a crap shoot as to where they did go any tool at our disposal should be used.

[neilinov]

I think a cool tournament would be an entire low tech tournament. Once you pass the C bouy all electonics shut off. No night before or real time sat temp charts, side and front scan sonar, radar, vhf, sounders, gps, rdf, water temp guages, loran, or any other high tech equipment. You get a compass and a watch. That's it just head out catch fish, come back and hang em.

[captcl]

Cool idea Neilinlov add trolling only!

[Deep C]

If it was here though you'ld have to use blindfolds too... We still use "ranges" to work em here...

[Lucky Penny]

I tried them all when I was in the Towboat buisness. I had a several Polaris`s a couple of Apelco`s. I think the only ones still available are the Si-Tex,around $600. and the Simrad,around $1600. / If you can afford it , the Simrad is worth the extra cost.

[NEWENGLANDCHARTERS]

Are you looking to find boaters or to be found.

These guys had an RDF at the New Orleans Workboat show in Nov.

It looked pretty rugged. http://www.seamarshall-us.com/index.html


however if your looking to be found? I would use a EPIRB and SART. like this company had at the New Orleans show. http://www.samyungenc.com/eng/index.asp

Every Boat should carry one.


I you ping a SART with your RADAR it lights up a path right to the vessel with the SART.



If your looking for Lat & Long info just for fishing purposes you can get that with a Class A VHF DSC Radio like ythis.


It hooks into your GPS and will dicreatly send your vessels info to your buddiys without every other boat knowing where you are.


However: For the Ultimate in Vessel Identification with Lat/Long, Speed, Course, Vessel ID and lots of other info. This Transponder Model SI-30 (Works like a Friend or Foe and can be picked up by the military) is the way to go. It is reguired on many vessels over 65 ft.

[fishskipper]

I ran a tournament boat a few years ago that had a RDF and as I remember only gave the direction the signal came from. My question is do the newer ones also give the distance or position of the signal? .... If they don't .. I can't see the reason for one.

[Deep C]

The reason for one is two fold. First reason we ran into a couple weeks ago. We saw a flare. Started heading that way. Dark night loads of current. Almost forty minutes before we heard a weak handheld signal from them. RDF could have let me know if I was still on track toward them. Radar didn't pick em up until about a mile.
Second reason is fishing. When a fleet gets way spread out just a general direction is a lot of help. If the easy to over run or not run enough. direction will go a long way in etting you know.
Say youre in the Baltimore canyon for example. You start hearing releases from somewhere other than where youre at. The RDF will let you know if you're hearing stuff in the Wilmington or in the Poormans...