WIRELESS VHF AND AIS VESPER CORTEX
Most of us have both VHF radios and AIS on our boats. These work well, but the real jewel of DSC (digital selective calling) and its game-changing role in collision avoidance is largely under-used, simply because the interface is too clunky.
That’s where the new Vesper Cortex comes in.
It is a DSC VHF radio and Class B SOTDMA AIS transceiver with integrated no-loss splitter, putting it on a par with the latest AIS units from other brands.
The real difference with this system, however, is that there is no bulky base station. Its black box is wired in to power, NMEA 2000 network and VHF antenna, and houses heading, battery and barometric sensors, as well as 4G mobile capability. The touchscreen handset is IPX7 waterproof (1m, 30 minutes) with toughened gorilla glass and a protective bumper. The screen is sunlight visible and can be used with wet or gloved hands, although there are manual buttons and a paddlewheel for scrolling. The handset has three main displays – VHF radio, AIS plotter and anchor watch. In its most basic function, it looks like a familiar VHF radio – the channel is displayed in large digits, and buttons for favourite channels, dual watch and 16, the latter being duplicated by a physical Ch16 button.
In AIS mode, contacts are colour coded green, yellow and red – with an alarm – for collision risk. Click on a vessel to display all the relevant data, and a second click will directly call that vessel on DSC. A collision avoidance function lets you test any course alterations before making them.
You can also set an anchor watch with a number of parameters. This can be viewed on a smartphone app via Wifi on board, or via mobile phone signal when ashore – as well as monitor all of the data on your NMEA network. The free app gives you an update every 12 hours, with real-time updates for £20 per month. You can also add further sensors and alarms, such as bilge alarm, and Vesper promises that the platform is designed to have much more functionality added on as demand develops, but this is a powerful tool, quite aside from its function as a VHF and AIS.