Overview

The first electronics on passenger and merchant ships were radio transmitters and receivers for routine communications and calling for help in distress situations fire, collision, sinking, or the presence of seriously ill or injured persons on board. Then came radio direction finders as navigational aids. But after World War II commercial versions of military radar and loran were added, permitting accurate navigation at night and in inclement weather, significantly improving safety at sea. Fishing vessels took advantage of commercial depth sounders and spin-offs from sonar called fishfinders to increase the efficiency of fishing and the size of their catches. They were also able to make safer passages to and from the fishing grounds, guided by the information gained from radar and loran.

But it took the development of solid-state circuitry and ICs to reduce the weight, size, and cost of all of this marine electronics equipment, making it affordable and available to smaller commercial ships and private boat owners. The miniaturization of shipboard electronics that formerly required large and heavy cabinets and consumed significant amounts of power, to small cases and even handheld units led to explosive expansion in the commercial and consumer marine electronics industry.

The first miniaturized transistorized equipment was UHF and VHF transceivers. These were followed by solid-state depth finders, radars, loran receivers, and radio direction finders. Further reductions in power requirements led to raster-scanned video displays, fishfinders, chart plotters, and handheld battery-powered Loran C and Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers.

Among the latest marine electronic...