Garmin VHF 315 Owner's Manual

VHF 315 SERIES

Owner’s Manual

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

Handset Overview...................................................................... 1

Home Screen.............................................................................. 1

System Status Icons.............................................................. 1

Basic Operation.............................................................. 1

Turning On and Off the Device................................................... 1

Adjusting the Volume.................................................................. 1

Adjusting the Squelch Level....................................................... 1

Selecting the Frequency Band................................................... 2

Selecting a Channel....................................................................2

Transmitting with the Radio........................................................ 2

Scanning and Saving Channels................................................. 2

Scanning All Channels........................................................... 2

Saving a Channel...................................................................2

Removing a Saved Channel.................................................. 2

Scanning Saved Channels.................................................... 2

Monitoring Multiple Channels.................................................2

Selecting a Different Second-Priority Channel........................... 2

Switching to Priority Channels.................................................... 3

Setting the Receiving Sensitivity.................................................3

Switching Between 1 W and 25 W Transmitting Modes............. 3

Bypassing the Low Transmission Power Setting................... 3

Using the Hailer Function........................................................... 3

Foghorn...................................................................................... 3

Sounding the Foghorn Automatically..................................... 3

Sounding the Foghorn Manually............................................ 3

Adjusting the Sound Frequency of the Foghorn.................... 3

Entering Text.............................................................................. 4

NOAA® Weather Broadcasts and Alerts...................... 4

Tuning Weather Broadcasts....................................................... 4

Enabling and Disabling Weather Alerts...................................... 4

Digital Selective Calling................................................. 4

Digital Selective Calling.............................................................. 4

Entering Your MMSI Number......................................................4

Viewing Your MMSI Number...................................................... 4

Distress Calls.............................................................................. 4

Sending an Undesignated Distress Call................................ 4

Sending a Designated Distress Call...................................... 5

Waiting For and Receiving and Acknowledgment for a

Distress Call........................................................................... 5

Stopping Automatic Retransmission of Distress Calls........... 5

Revoking a Distress Call........................................................ 5

Placing Calls............................................................................... 5

Placing Individual Calls.......................................................... 5

Placing Group Calls............................................................... 5

Placing All-Ships Calls........................................................... 5

Individual Call or Group Call Channels.................................. 6

Requesting a Vessel's Position.............................................. 6

Receiving Calls........................................................................... 6

Receiving Distress Calls and Distress Relay Calls................ 6

Receiving All-Ships Urgency and Safety Calls...................... 6

Receiving Individual Routine Calls.........................................6

Receiving Position Requests................................................. 6

Receiving Position Calls........................................................ 6

Receiving Group Calls........................................................... 6

Position Tracking........................................................................ 7

Selecting Vessels and Activating Position Tracking.............. 7

Viewing and Deactivating Vessels on the Position Tracking

List......................................................................................... 7

Deleting a Vessel From the Position Tracking List................ 7

Call Log.......................................................................................7

Viewing the Calls in the Call Log........................................... 7

Placing a Call from a Call Log................................................7

Saving a Vessel or Station to the Directory from the Call

Log......................................................................................... 7

Deleting a Call Log Entry....................................................... 7

Directory..................................................................................... 7

Viewing Saved Vessels and Stations in the Directory........... 7

Adding an Entry to the Directory............................................ 7

Editing an Entry in the Directory............................................ 8

Deleting an Entry from the Directory...................................... 8

Adding a Group...................................................................... 8

Editing a Group...................................................................... 8

Deleting a Group.................................................................... 8

DSC Settings.............................................................................. 8

Manual Position Information.................................................. 8

Changing the Channel to 16 Automatically............................ 8

Sending Automatic Replies.................................................... 8

Automatic Transmitter Identification System.............. 8

Entering Your ATIS Identification Number.................................. 8

Turning On and Off ATIS............................................................ 9

Viewing Your ATIS Identification Number.................................. 9

NMEA 0183 and NMEA 2000®....................................... 9

Additional Functionality with Other Garmin Devices................... 9

Communicating Over NMEA 0183 or NMEA 2000..................... 9

Configuring DSC NMEA Transmissions..................................... 9

System Settings............................................................. 9

Number Settings......................................................................... 9

Units Settings..............................................................................9

Configuring the Time Offset................................................. 10

Selecting the Frequency Band................................................. 10

Changing a Channel Name...................................................... 10

Restoring Factory Settings....................................................... 10

Appendix....................................................................... 10

Alarms and Messages.............................................................. 10

Channel Lists............................................................................ 10

VHF 315 Series Specifications................................................. 10

NMEA....................................................................................... 10

NMEA 0183 IN Sentences Supported................................. 10

NMEA 0183 OUT Sentences Supported............................. 10

NMEA 2000 PGN Information.............................................. 10

Cleaning the Outer Casing....................................................... 11

Index.............................................................................. 12

Table of Contents i

Introduction

WARNING

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

Handset Overview

Item Key Description

PTT Hold to broadcast.

DISTRESS Lift the door and press to send a DSC distress

ENTER On the home screen, rotate to change the

PWR North America:

16/9 International:

16+

HI/LO Press to change the transmission mode and

CLEAR Press to return to the previous menu option.

MENU From the home screen, press to view

DSC Press to view a menu of DSC options.

VOL/SQ Press to switch between volume or squelch.

call with a programmed MMSI number (Entering Your MMSI Number, page 4).

Press the key that corresponds to the onscreen item to select the item.

channel. On the home screen, press to toggle weather

channels (NOAA® Weather Broadcasts and

Alerts, page 4).

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.

power settings.

Press to cancel or mute an incoming DSC call.

configuration options. From a menu, press to return to the 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 9).

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 alert

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 9).

Adjusting the Volume

Set the squelch level to MIN before you adjust the volume

(optional).

Select VOL/SQ twice.

VOLUME appears on the screen.

Turn the dial to increase or decrease the volume.

Home Screen

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.

Select VOL/SQ.

SQUELCH appears on the screen.

Turn the dial counter-clockwise until you hear audio.

Turn the dial clockwise until there is no background noise.

Introduction 1

Selecting the Frequency Band

You can switch between the USA, International, or Canadian frequency bands (Channel Lists, page 10).

NOTE: Not all frequency bands are available on all device models.

Select MENU > CHANNEL > FREQUENCY BAND.

Select a frequency band.

Selecting a Channel

You can select an International, Canadian, or USA channel (Selecting the Frequency Band, page 2).

Turn the dial.

Transmitting with the Radio

Select an appropriate channel.

Verify that the channel is clear.

NOTE: You cannot obstruct the communications of other

people due to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and international guidelines.

Select PTT on the handset.

appears at the top of the screen.

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.

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 8), the radio does not scan or

save channels.

Select SCAN > ALL.

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.

Saving a Channel

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

Select SCAN.

Turn the ENTER dial until you find a channel you want to

save. Select SAV CH.

appears above a saved channel.

Removing a Saved Channel

Select SCAN.

Turn the ENTER dial until you find a saved channel.

NOTE: A saved channel has above it.

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 8), the radio does not scan or

save channels.

Select SCAN > SAVED.

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 8).

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 secondpriority channel (Selecting a Different Second-Priority Channel,

page 2).

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.

Selecting a Different Second-Priority Channel

You can select a channel other than channel 9 as your secondpriority channel.

Select MENU > CHANNEL > 2ND PRIORITY.

Turn the ENTER dial to the preferred channel.

Select OK.

2 Basic Operation

+ 12 hidden pages