Upgrade to AIS transmit capability

[Mastercraft]

I have a Garmin VHF200 radio and a Garmin AIS300 receiver. Is a Garmin AIS800 truly plug and play by replacing 300 with 800? Is antenna performance optimal by only doing plug and play? Is AIS800 location optimum if located where AIS300 is?

My goal is hi power (5W) and have antenna splitter for using VHF radio antenna. No wi-fi or Bluetooth wanted.

Is Garmin 800 the best choice when compared to vesper cortex or EM-TrakB953? If Vesper is the best choice, which model? Garmin 800 and EM-TramB953 are $800 each .

I have 2017 R29.

 

[Submariner]

I have a Garmin VHF200 radio and a Garmin AIS300 receiver. Is a Garmin AIS800 truly plug and play by replacing 300 with 800? Is antenna performance optimal by only doing plug and play? Is AIS800 location optimum if located where AIS300 is?

My goal is hi power (5W) and have antenna splitter for using VHF radio antenna. No wi-fi or Bluetooth wanted.

Is Garmin 800 the best choice when compared to vesper cortex or EM-TrakB953? If Vesper is the best choice, which model? Garmin 800 and EM-TramB953 are $800 each .

I have 2017 R29.

The Garmin 800 is easy to install. I've installed several on other boats. The Em-Trak is also a decent unit and would be easy to install. The Cortex is a much larger unit to install, as it's physically larger than both the Garmin 800 and Em-Trak.

The Garmin 800 is plug and play when upgrading from the Garmin 300 and will most likely fit in the same spot the Garmin 300 is located. Lemondrop started with a Garmin 300 and upgraded to the Garmin 800 on her R27-OB.

 

[RobMcClain]

I installed the em-trak B953 on my C30. The available mounting space is limited on the C30 so I chose this unit because of its small size, and the good feedback I’d received. Very happy with it and with the ease of instal. I also installed a toggle switch to silence the unit when the boat is docked. All very easy to do.

 

[croakz]

I have a Vesper Cortex, and while I initially had issues with it, having to hard reboot it, etc., it's been solid since a software update several months ago. I don't have the VHF handset, but I'm considering it now with the recent stability.

One thing I really like about it is the Wi-Fi capabilities. I can easily get AIS to apps on my iPad, and recently I found out it spits out a ton of NMEA2K info for other apps like a data recorder.