Garmin VHF 315 Owner’s Manual

VHF 315 SERIES

Owner’s Manual

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www.garmin.com for current updates and supplemental information concerning the use of this product.

Garmin® and the Garmin logo are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries, registered in the USA and other countries. GHS™ is a trademark of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries. These trademarks may not be used without the express permission of Garmin.

NMEA® and NMEA 2000® are registered trademarks of the National Marine Electronics Association. NOAA® is a registered service mark of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. BoatU.S.® is a registered trademark of the Boat Owners Association of the United States. Sea Tow® is a registered trademark of Sea Tow Services International, Inc. United States Power Squadrons® is a registered trademark of the United States Power Squadrons. Other trademarks and trade names are those of their respective owners.

Introduction..................................... 1

Handset Overview................................... 2

Home Screen...........................................3

System Status Icons........................... 4

Basic Operation................................4

Turning On and Off the Device............... 4

Adjusting the Volume............................. 4

Adjusting the Squelch Level................... 5

Selecting the Frequency Band............... 5

Selecting a Channel................................ 5

Transmitting with the Radio................... 5

Scanning and Saving Channels..............5

Scanning All Channels........................ 5

Saving a Channel................................ 6

Removing a Saved Channel................ 6

Scanning Saved Channels.................. 6

Monitoring Multiple Channels............ 6

Selecting a Different Second-Priority

Channel....................................................7

Switching to Priority Channels............... 7

Setting the Receiving Sensitivity............ 7

Switching Between 1 W and 25 W

Transmitting Modes............................... 7

Bypassing the Low Transmission

Power Setting...................................... 8

Using the Hailer Function....................... 8

Foghorn................................................... 8

Sounding the Foghorn

Automatically...................................... 8

Sounding the Foghorn Manually........ 8

Adjusting the Sound Frequency of the

Foghorn............................................... 9

Entering Text........................................... 9

NOAA® Weather Broadcasts and

Alerts............................................... 9

Tuning Weather Broadcasts.................. 9

Enabling and Disabling Weather

Alerts....................................................... 9

Digital Selective Calling..................10

Digital Selective Calling........................ 10

Entering Your MMSI Number............... 10

Viewing Your MMSI Number................ 10

Distress Calls........................................ 10

Sending an Undesignated Distress

Call..................................................... 11

Sending a Designated Distress

Call..................................................... 11

Waiting For and Receiving and Acknowledgment for a Distress

Call..................................................... 11

Stopping Automatic Retransmission

of Distress Calls................................ 12

Revoking a Distress Call................... 12

Placing Calls......................................... 12

Placing Individual Calls.................... 12

Placing Group Calls.......................... 13

Placing All-Ships Calls...................... 13

Individual Call or Group Call

Channels............................................ 13

Requesting a Vessel's Position........ 13

Receiving Calls......................................14

Receiving Distress Calls and Distress

Relay Calls......................................... 14

Receiving All-Ships Urgency and

Safety Calls....................................... 14

Receiving Individual Routine Calls... 14

Receiving Position Requests............15

Receiving Position Calls................... 15

Receiving Group Calls.......................15

Position Tracking.................................. 15

Selecting Vessels and Activating

Position Tracking.............................. 15

Viewing and Deactivating Vessels on

the Position Tracking List................ 16

Deleting a Vessel From the Position

Tracking List......................................16

Call Log..................................................17

Viewing the Calls in the Call Log......17

Placing a Call from a Call Log.......... 17

Saving a Vessel or Station to the

Directory from the Call Log.............. 18

Deleting a Call Log Entry.................. 18

Directory................................................ 18

Viewing Saved Vessels and Stations

in the Directory.................................. 18

Adding an Entry to the Directory...... 18

Editing an Entry in the Directory....... 18

Deleting an Entry from the

Directory............................................ 18

Adding a Group................................. 18

Table of Contents i

Editing a Group..................................19

Deleting a Group............................... 19

DSC Settings......................................... 19

Manual Position Information........... 19

Changing the Channel to 16

Automatically.................................... 19

Sending Automatic Replies.............. 19

Automatic Transmitter Identification

System...........................................20

Entering Your ATIS Identification

Number..................................................20

Turning On and Off ATIS...................... 20

Viewing Your ATIS Identification

Number..................................................20

NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000®....... 21

Additional Functionality with Other

Garmin Devices..................................... 21

Communicating Over NMEA 0183 or

NMEA 2000........................................... 21

Configuring DSC NMEA

Transmissions...................................... 21

System Settings............................. 22

Number Settings................................... 22

Units Settings........................................ 22

Configuring the Time Offset.............22

Selecting the Frequency Band............. 22

Changing a Channel Name.................. 23

Restoring Factory Settings...................23

Appendix........................................23

Alarms and Messages..........................23

Channel Lists........................................ 23

Channel Prefixes............................... 23

VHF 315 Series Specifications............ 24

NMEA.....................................................24

NMEA 0183 IN Sentences

Supported.......................................... 24

NMEA 0183 OUT Sentences

Supported.......................................... 24

NMEA 2000 PGN Information.......... 25

Cleaning the Outer Casing................... 25

Index..............................................26

ii Table of Contents

Introduction

WARNING

See the Important Safety and Product Information guide in the product box for product warnings and other important information.

Introduction 1

Handset Overview

Item Key Description

PTT Hold to broadcast.

DISTRESS

ENTER

PWR North America:

16/9 International: 16+

HI/LO Press to change the transmission mode and power settings.

CLEAR

Lift the door and press to send a DSC distress call with a programmed MMSI number (Entering Your MMSI Number, page 10).

Press the key that corresponds to the on-screen item to select the item.

On the home screen, rotate to change the channel. On the home screen, press to toggle weather channels (NOAA® Weather Broadcasts

and Alerts, page 9).

Rotate to change the volume or squelch level after pressing the VOL/SQ key. Rotate to highlight an item in a list. Press to select an item.

Hold to turn the radio on and off. Press to toggle between preset channels.

Press to return to the previous menu option. Press to cancel or mute an incoming DSC call.

From the home screen, press to view configuration options. From a menu, press to return to the home screen.

DSC Press to view a menu of DSC options.

VOL/SQ Press to switch between volume or squelch.

2 Introduction

Home Screen

Radio system status, settings, and alerts

International, Canadian, or USA frequency band

Latitude

Longitude

Time

Speed over ground (SOG) or course over ground (COG)

Soft-key functions change depending on your current activity

Working channel

The latitude, longitude, and time appear when the radio has a GPS signal acquired. You can enter data manually when the radio does not have a GPS signal.

The SOG and COG appear when the radio has a GPS signal acquired, and the option is enabled in the menu (Number Settings, page 22).

Introduction 3

System Status Icons

Icon Status

Receiving an incoming signal

Transmitting

Transmitting at 25 W

Transmitting at 1 W

Saved channel

Local receiver mode, often used in areas with radio frequency interference (harbors)

ATIS enabled

Position tracking enabled

Auto channel changing disabled

Incoming or missed DSC call

Weather alerts enabled

GPS signal acquired

Basic Operation

Turning On and Off the Device

Hold PWR. TIP: You can set the device to turn on automatically (System Settings, page 22).

Adjusting the Volume

1 Set the squelch level to MIN before you adjust the volume (optional). 2 Select VOL/SQ twice.

VOLUME appears on the screen.

3 Turn the dial to increase or decrease the volume.

4 Basic Operation

Adjusting the Squelch Level

You can adjust the sensitivity level of the squelch to filter out background noise. When you increase the squelch level, you hear fewer weak background signals when you are receiving.

1 Select VOL/SQ.

SQUELCH appears on the screen.

2 Turn the dial counter-clockwise until you hear audio. 3 Turn the dial clockwise until there is no background noise.

Selecting the Frequency Band

You can switch between the USA, International, or Canadian frequency bands (Channel Lists, page 23).

NOTE: Not all frequency bands are available on all device models. 1 Select MENU > CHANNEL > FREQUENCY BAND. 2 Select a frequency band.

Selecting a Channel

You can select an International, Canadian, or USA channel (Selecting the Frequency Band, page 5).

Turn the dial.

Transmitting with the Radio

1 Select an appropriate channel. 2 Verify that the channel is clear.

NOTE: You cannot obstruct the communications of other people due to Federal Communications

Commission (FCC) and international guidelines.

3 Select PTT on the handset.

appears at the top of the screen.

4 Speak into the handset.

NOTE: Five minutes is the maximum time allowed for transmission. After five minutes of transmitting, PTT

is disabled until you release PTT.

5 Release PTT.

Scanning and Saving Channels

Scanning All Channels

When you scan channels, the radio searches for channels that are broadcasting. When a channel is broadcasting, the radio pauses on that channel until the broadcast stops. After four seconds of inactivity on a channel, the radio resumes scanning.

NOTE: When you turn on ATIS (Automatic Transmitter Identification System, page 20), the radio does not scan or save channels.

1 Select SCAN > ALL. 2 Select an option:

• To exclude the currently active channel from subsequent passes and resume scanning, select SKIP.

• To scan channel 16 each time another channel is scanned, select +CH16. For example, the radio scans channel 21, channel 16, channel 22, channel 16, and so on. +CH16 appears on the device screen.

• To scan channel 16 in its usual order, select -CH16. For example, the radio scans channel 14, channel 15, channel 16, channel 17, and so on.

• To end the scan, select EXIT. The radio stops scanning and tunes to the last used, active channel.

Basic Operation 5

Saving a Channel

You can save any channel except the weather (WX) channels. You can save an unlimited number of channels.

1 Select SCAN. 2 Turn the ENTER dial until you find a channel you want to save. 3 Select SAV CH.

appears above a saved channel.

Removing a Saved Channel

1 Select SCAN. 2 Turn the ENTER dial until you find a saved channel.

NOTE: A saved channel has above it.

3 Select SAV CH.

Scanning Saved Channels

You can scan only the channels you have saved. When a saved channel is broadcasting, the radio pauses on that channel until the broadcast stops. After four seconds of inactivity on a channel, the radio resumes scanning.

NOTE: When you turn on ATIS (Automatic Transmitter Identification System, page 20), the radio does not scan or save channels.

1 Select SCAN > SAVED. 2 Select an option:

• To exclude the currently active channel from subsequent passes and resume scanning, select SKIP.

• To scan channel 16 each time another saved channel is scanned, select +CH16. For example, the radio scans saved channel 21, channel 16, saved channel 25, channel 16, and so on. +CH16 appears on the device screen.

• To stop scanning channel 16, select -CH16. For example, the radio scans saved channel 21, saved channel 25, and so on.

• To end the scan, select EXIT. The radio stops scanning and tunes to the last used active channel.

Monitoring Multiple Channels

Before you can monitor multiple channels, you must turn off ATIS (Automatic Transmitter Identification System,

page 20).

You can monitor priority channels and the currently selected channel for broadcasting activity. Channel 16 is the first-priority channel on your radio. Channel 9 is the default second-priority channel. You can program a different channel as your second-priority channel (Selecting a Different Second-Priority Channel, page 7).

Select WATCH.

Monitoring Two Channels

You can monitor your current channel and channel 16 at the same time.

Select WATCH > DUAL. DUAL WATCH and the channels you are monitoring appear on the screen. For example, DUAL WATCH CH:,

and 16 + 9.

Monitoring Three Channels

You can monitor your current channel, channel 16, and your second-priority channel at the same time.

Select WATCH > TRI. TRI WATCH, your current channel, channel 16, and your second-priority channel appear on the screen. For

example, TRI WATCH CH:, and 75 + 16 + 9.

6 Basic Operation

+ 22 hidden pages

Garmin VHF 315 Owner’s Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Table of Contents

Introduction

Handset Overview

Home Screen

System Status Icons

Basic Operation

Turning On and Off the Device

Adjusting the Volume

Adjusting the Squelch Level

Selecting the Frequency Band

Selecting a Channel

Transmitting with the Radio

Scanning and Saving Channels

Scanning All Channels

Saving a Channel

Removing a Saved Channel

Scanning Saved Channels

Monitoring Multiple Channels

Monitoring Two Channels

Monitoring Three Channels