West Marine VHF585 16230534 User manual

VHF585 CLASS ‘D’ MARINE RADIO
MODEL 16230534 (BLACK) / 16230542 (WHITE)
Owner’s Manual

MAKING A DISTRESS CALL
Lift the red cover. Press and hold the DISTRESS button for three seconds. Your radio
transmits your boat’s location every few minutes until you receive a response.
NOTE: If the radio displays Enter User MMSI, cancel the automatic distress call
and make a normal voice distress call.
Making a Voice Distress Call
Speak Slowly — Clearly — Calmly.
For future reference, write your boat’s name & call sign here:
1. Make sure your radio is on.
2. On the microphone, press the 16/9-TRI button to switch to Channel 16 (156.8
MHz). (If the corner of the display does not show 16, press the 16/9-TRI button
again until it does.)
3. Press the PUSH TO TALK button on the microphone and say: MAYDAY –
MAYDAY – MAYDAY.”
4. Say “THIS IS {name or call sign of your boat}.”
5. Say “MAYDAY {name or call sign of your boat}.”

6. Tell where you are: (what navigational aids or landmarks are near, or read the latitude
and longitude from your GPS).
7. State the nature of your distress, e.g. are you sinking, medical emergency, man
overboard, on fire, adrift, etc.
8. Give number of persons aboard and conditions of any injured persons.
9. Estimate present seaworthiness of your ship (e.g. how immediate is the danger due
to flooding or fire or proximity to shore).
10. Briefly describe your ship (length, type, color, hull).
11. Say: “I WILL BE LISTENING ON CHANNEL 16.”
12. End message by saying “THIS IS {name or call sign of your boat}, OVER.”
13. Release the PUSH TO TALK button and listen.
If you do not get an answer after 30 seconds, repeat your call, beginning at step 3,
above.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Making a Voice
Distress Call Inside Front Cover
Introduction 1
Features 1
Explanation of Terms 1
Getting Started 2
What’s included 1
Parts of the Radio 3
Parts of the Microphone 5
Turning on the Radio 5
Setting the UIC Channel Mode
(USA/CAN/INT) 5
How It Works 6
Normal mode operation 7
Scan mode 10
Weather mode 12
Using Your Radio 14
Using Your Radio 14
Making a voice MAYDAY call 15
Setting the volume 15
Setting the squelch level 15
Changing the channel 15
Making a transmission 16
Boosting the transmission power 16
Choosing Triple Watch or Dual Watch 17
Using FIPS codes for weather alerts 17
Changing display and sound options 19
Setting the GPS position manually 19
Using Digital Selective Calling (DSC)
Features 20
What is DSC? 20
Advanced DSC features 21
What is an MMSI number? 21
Entering MMSI numbers 22
Using the Directory 24
Making DSC Calls 25
Making an automatic distress call 28
Receiving a DSC call 29
Test Calls 31
Position Request and Reply 33
Putting the radio into standby 35
Disabling automatic channel switching 36
Renaming Channels 36
Installing the Hardware 38
Mounting the radio 38
Connecting the radio 39
Connecting the Accessory Cable 40
Connecting to a GPS receiver 41
Connecting to a Chartplotter 42
Connecting to an External Speaker 43
Maintenance and Troubleshooting 44
Engine Noise Suppression 45
Specications 47
Radio Specifications 47
Reference Tables 49
Channel descriptions and what
they mean 49
US Marine Channels and Frequencies 50
Canadian Marine Channels and Frequencies 52
International Marine Channels and
Frequencies 54
Weather Channels and Frequencies
(US, CAN, and INT) 56
Emergency Alert System (SAME) Information 56
NMEA Operation 60
NMEA Output 61
Regulations and Safety Warnings 62
Three Year Limited Warranty 64
Notes 67

INTRODUCTION
Features
• 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.
• Large,dotmatrixdisplay
• AdvancedDSCClassDfunctions,includingTestCalling
• Channelselectbuttonsonthemicrophone
• Memory scan mode Lets you save channels to memory and monitor them in quick
succession.
• 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.
• AllmarineVHFchannelsfortheU.S.,Canada,andinternationalwaters
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather channel watch
Sounds a warning tone when a hazard alert is issued for your area.
Explanation of Terms
Term What it Means
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
NMEA National Marine Electronics Association. The organization that governs standards
for electronic equipment used on boats. NMEA 0183 is the standard for serial
data communication used by GPS.
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Term What it Means
MMSI
Maritime Mobile Service Identity number. A unique, nine-digit number that
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.
GETTING STARTED
What’s Included
Mounting Bracket and Knobs Mounting Hanger and
Mounting Hardware Mounting Hardware
DC Power Cable GPS Accessory Cable
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Parts of the Radio
Button Press to... Press and hold to...
ENT-1W/25W Choose an option on a menu
or to display the GPS data. Change the transmit power (see page 16).
Channel Up Move up one channel at a
time. Move quickly up the channels.
Channel Down Move down one channet at a
time. Move quickly down the channels.
16/9-TRI
1st press: Go to Channel 16.
2nd press: Go to Channel 9.
3rd press: Go back to the
original channel.
Go into Triple Watch or Dual Watch mode
(see page 17).
CLR-SCAN Go to previous menu or cursor
position in menu mode.
Start scanning the channels saved in
memory.
WX-MEM Listen to the current weather
conditions in your area.
Save a channel into memory or remove a
channel from memory.
CALL-MENU Display the call menu. Display the normal menu.
DISTRESS Select the nature of your
distress for a distress call.
Transmit a distress call.
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Connector/Cable Connects to... For details, see ...
Antenna connector
External VHF antenna with a male PL259
(SO238) connector and 50 Ω impedance.
Minimum 4 ft, 3dB rated antenna for
sailboats, 8 ft, 6 dB rated for power boats.
Connecting the radio (see
page 39).
Power cable pigtail
Nominal 13.8 VDC power supply with
negative ground (10.5 VDC to 16.0 VDC)
(Red wire +, black wire -).
Connecting the radio (see
page 39).
Accessory cable
pigtail GPS receiver, GPS chartplotter. Connecting accessories (see page 40)
Parts of the Microphone
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Button Press to... Press and hold to...
( + ) Move up one channel at a time. Move quickly up the channels.
( - ) Move down one channel at a time. Move quickly down the
channels.
16/9-TRI
1st press: Go to Channel 16.
2nd press: Go to Channel 9.
3rd press: Go back to the original channel.
Go into Triple Watch or Dual
Watch mode (see page 17).
PUSH TO TALK Cancel scanning and stay on a channel. Talk on a channel.
Turning on the Radio
Turn the VOLUME-PWR knob clockwise to turn on the radio. As it powers on, the radio
displays the user MMSI number; if there is no MMSI set, the radio displays MMSI not
entered.
When it powers on, the radio selects the last channel used.
Setting the UIC Channel Mode (USA/CAN/INT)
The radio comes preset to use the UIC channels assigned for the United States. If you
are operating in an area that uses Canadian or international UIC channels, you will need
to change the channel mode.
1. Press and hold CALL-MENU to display the normal menu, and choose the Setup
sub-menu.
2. Select USA/CAN/INT. The screen displays the UIC channel setup.
3. Choose the channel mode you want to use: US (USA Mode), Canadian (Canada
Mode), or international (Intl Mode).
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4. Press ENT-1W/25W. The radio activates the new channel mode and exits the menu.
HOW IT WORKS
Your radio has three basic modes of operation:
Mode What It Does Use It When To Turn it on./off...
Normal
Monitors a single
marine radio channel
and lets you talk on
that channel.
You want to talk to
another station on a
specific channel.
(default mode)
Scan
Monitors all the
channels you save
into memory.
You have a small group
of channels you use
most often and want to
check them for traffic.
Press and hold the
CLR-SCAN button.
Weather
Monitors the selected
NOAA weather
channel.
You want to hear the
current and forecasted
weather in your area.
Press the WX-MEM
button.
In addition to the three basic operation modes, your radio also provides three different
“watch” modes which you can activate during any of the three basic modes. In these
watch modes, the radio briefly checks for activity on a specific channel then returns to
its previous mode.
Watch Mode What It Does Use It When To Turn it on./off...
Weather Alert
Checks for alerts on
the last weather
channel you used
every seven seconds.
You want to be made
aware of severe
weather conditions in
your area.
Select WX-ALERT Mode
in Setup submenu, and
then choose ON or OFF.
Triple
Checks for activity on
channels 16 and 9
every two seconds.
You want to monitor a
channel yet maintain
a watch on channels
16 and 9.
Press and hold 16/9-TRI
for two seconds.
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