West Marine VHF580 manual Introduction, Features, Manual overview, Conventions, Term Meaning

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather channel watch - Sounds a warning tone when a hazard alert is issued for your area.

Transmitter Power Level Select - Lets you boost the transmitter power from 1 watt to 25 watts for added transmission distance.

Battery level display and tone - Sounds an alert tone if the battery voltage goes too high or too low.

Triple Watch Operation - Checks the Coast Guard Distress/Hailing channels 16 and 9 in the background.

Memory scan mode - Lets you save channels to memory and monitor them in quick succession.

Introduction

Features

xx Submersible Design - Complies with JIS8 water-resistant standards, which means the radio can be submerged in 1.5 meter of water for 30 minutes without damage.

xx Large, dot matrix display

xx Advanced DSC Class D functions, including Test Calling

xx Channel select buttons on the microphone xx

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xx All marine VHF channels for the U.S., Canada, and international waters xx

Manual overview

Conventions

This manual uses several different type styles to help you distinguish between different parts of the radio:

xx	BOLD SMALL CAPITALS indicates an actual button or knob on the radio or microphone.
xx	Upper and Lower Case bold indicates a connector or label on the radio.
xx	Italics indicate text on the display, such as menu options, prompts, and confirmation
	messages.
Term		Meaning
DSC		Digital Selective Calling. A VHF radio standard for communicating among
		boats and sending automated distress calls.
FIPS		Federal Information Processing Standard. A set of location codes roughly
		equivalent to your county codes.
WX		Weather Radio
GPS		Global Positioning System
		National Marine Electronics Association. The organization that governs
NMEA		standards for electronic equipment used on boats. NMEA 0183 is the
		standard for serial data communication used by GPS.
		Maritime Mobile Service Identity number. A unique, nine-digit number that
MMSI		identifies you and your boat when making DSC calls. It is also used by the
		Coast Guard if you send an automated distress call.
Station		Any DSC radio, whether it’s operated on a boat, at a marina, or by a shore
		station.

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