Maintenance And Troubleshooting - West Marine VHF595 Owner's Manual

MAINTENANCE AND TROUBLESHOOTING

Due to its rugged design, your radio requires very little maintenance. However, it is a precision electronic instrument, so you should
follow a few precautions:
• If the antenna has been damaged, you should not transmit except in the case of an emergency. A defective antenna may cause
damage to your radio.
• You are responsible for continued FCC technical compliance of your radio.
• You should arrange for periodic performance checks with your dealer.
Problem
The radio won't power on.
The radio won't transmit.
Noise comes out of the speaker all the time
I can't hear anything (no volume) from the
speaker.
I can transmit, but no one can hear me.
The display flashes, and I don't know why.
I can't read the display.
The display is too bright at night.
I can't see any words on the display.
I'm not getting any GPS data on my display.
I'm not getting any hazard alerts.
I'm getting all the hazard alerts, not just the
ones for my area.
I can't make Group DSC calls.
Where can I find my radio' s serial number?
The radio won't let me enter my User MMSI.
What do I do?
Check the power connections.
Check the fuse.
Check the master battery switch and branch circuit that connect to the radio.
Make sure you are not in weather or scan mode.
Make sure you are not trying to transmit on a receive-only channel (see the channels and
frequency tables beginning on page 29).
Make sure you are transmitting at the correct power level for this channel (see the channels
and frequency tables beginning on page 29).
Make sure the duration of each transmission is less than 5 minutes.
Adjust the squelch level; it is probably too low.
Adjust the squelch level; it is probably too high.
Check your UIC channel settings (see Setting the UIC channel mode (USA/CAN/INT) on page
4).
The display will flash if the radio is in a watch mode or in scan mode. Try turning off scanning
(page 6), Weather Alert Watch (page 8), or Triple/Dual Watch (see page 10).
Adjust the contrast and backlight brightness level (see page 12).
Adjust the backlight brightness level.
Turn off the radio; hold CALL-MENU button and turn it back on (see page 12).
Reset the radio back to the default brightness level: turn off the radio; hold the CALL-MENU
button and turn it back on.
Make sure your GPS receiver is correctly connected (see Connecting to a GPS receiver, page
24).
Make sure your GPS receiver is working properly.
Make sure that your GPS receiver supports the NMEA parameters described in NMEA
Operation on page 33.
Make sure Weather Alert Watch is turned on.
Check to make sure the FIPS codes in your radio include your current location (see Using
FIPS codes for weather alerts on page 11).
Check to make sure the FIPS codes in your radio were entered correctly (see Using FIPS
codes for weather alerts on page 11).
Sometimes the Weather Alert Watch may catch a hazard alert in the middle of the broadcast
and miss which FIPS codes are affected. For your safety, the radio triggers the alert tone and
switches to the weather channel when this happens.
Make sure the Group MMSI was entered correctly.
Look on the right side of the radio (the side with the microphone cord), behind the mounting
bracket.
Contact customer service.
VHF595 RADIO 1-800-BOATING
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Things to Try