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Hailer Horns
Have
you ever driven in a car on the motorway, when the fog was so bad you
could hardly see ahead? Wouldn't you wish there was some way to warn
oncoming traffic? Keeping in mind how difficult it is to drive in the
fog or in poor visibility, what of at sea? Because if you have ever
been caught in a fog at sea, you know all too well how dangerous and
scary it can get to navigate into a harbor without a hailer horn.
Navigating a boat in poor visibility without hailer horns mounted on
your boat to get another boats attention is risky and stressful. Hailer
horns can help to decrease the chances of running into another boat
unexpectedly in poor visibility, by alerting others with a loud and
audible sound.
Other
navigators will be able to hear the sound and either gauge
approximately just how far or close you are to them or listen to your
instructions. The dangers associated with fogs at sea are not only at
open sea but at port entrances as well. Think of a busy port like the port of Shanghai;
can you imagine navigating an 80 foot yacht through there at a
visibility of only 100 meters? Yes, neither can we, but freighters and
cargo ships several thousand tons heavy and the length of a football
pitch do it daily with the use of technology and trusted simple
equipment such as hailer horns; a collision with ships that large would
be disastrous.
One
thing to remember is that you can not use a hailer horn on its own when
navigating a boat or ship. That's why, these days most hailer horns
will come with VHF radio calling capability to not only warn your
surrounding environment of your presences but give you the ability to
communicate directly with other navigators and stations. One such
Hailer horn is the Raymarine RAY 430 with Horn. It
has 30 watts of power and is designed to be very easy to install and
operate, so any other boat or ship near you will definitely hear the
alerts you send on it. It has eight foghorn signals to ensure your
message is delivered clearly and accurately to other neighboring boats,
even in the harshest of weather. The RAY 430 Loud hailer goes one step
further and amplifies messages and signals from other surrounding ships
so that you can hear them. The additional two way onboard
communications with optional intercom speakers was a very neat touch by
Raymarine, which I'm sure many people will appreciate.
If
you want more information on hailer horns or frequency radios in
general point your browser to www.SailRadios.com for more useful
articles for radio engineers and news managers.
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