MA-500TR Class B AIS Transponder CLEAN THE TRANSCEIVER AND MICROPHONE Icom, Icom Inc. and the Icom logo are registered trademarks of Icom Incor- THOROUGHLY WITH FRESH WATER after exposure to porated (Japan) in Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, Russia and/or other countries.
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY NOTE If your vessel requires assistance, contact other vessels and A WARNING STICKER is supplied with the transceiver. the Coast Guard by sending a Distress call on Channel 16. To comply with FCC regulations, this sticker must be affi xed in such a location as to be readily seen from the operating con- USING CHANNEL 16 trols of the radio as in the diagram below.
RADIO OPERATOR WARNING Icom requires the radio operator to meet the FAILURE TO OBSERVE THESE LIMITS MAY ALLOW FCC requirements for radio frequency expo- THOSE WITHIN THE MPE RADIUS TO EXPERIENCE RF sure. An omnidirectional antenna with gain not RADIATION ABSORPTION WHICH EXCEEDS THE FCC greater than 9 dBi must be mounted a minimum MAXIMUM PERMISSIBLE EXPOSURE (MPE) LIMIT.
TABLE OF CONTENTS ■ DSC address ID ..............16 FOREWORD .................. i ■ Position and Time programming ......... 18 IMPORTANT ................... i ■ Position and Time display ........... 19 EXPLICIT DEFINITIONS ..............i ■ GPS information display ............. 19 IN CASE OF EMERGENCY ............ii ■...
CAUTION: Changes or modifications to this device, not * Equivalent to IPX8 expressly approved by Icom Inc., could void your authority to operate this device under FCC regulations. KEEP the transceiver and microphone at least 1 m (3.3 ft) away from the vessel’s magnetic navigation compass.
You may require a current radio station license before using the transceiver. It is unlawful to operate a ship station which NOTE: Even though the IC-M604A is capable of opera- is not licensed, but required to be. tion on VHF marine channels 3, 21, 23, 61, 64, 81, 82...
PANEL DESCRIPTION ■ Panel description t POWER KEY [POWER] (p. 9) Speaker Function display (p. 4) ➥ Push to turn power ON. ➥ Hold down for 1 second to turn power OFF. iM604 VHF MARINE y CHANNEL 16/CALL CHANNEL KEY [16•9] ➥...
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PANEL DESCRIPTION !0 TRANSMIT POWER KEY [H/L] ➥ Number input: ‘2’ ➥ Push to toggle the output power high or low. (p. 9) ➥ Comment input: ‘2,’ ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C’ ‘a,’ ‘b’ or ‘c’ ➥ After pushing [O], push to turn the Tri-watch •...
PANEL DESCRIPTION ■ Function display ■ Panel description (Continued) ➥ Number input: ‘7’ ➥ Comment input: ‘7,’ ‘P,’ ‘R,’ ‘S,’ ‘p,’ ‘r’ or ‘s’ q w e r t ➥ After pushing [O], push to turn the Hailer func- tion ON or OFF. (p. 44) $75;...
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PANEL DESCRIPTION y CALL CHANNEL ICON (pp. 7, 10) !3 POSITION INDICATOR ➥ Shows the current position data when a GPS receiver Appears when the Call channel is selected. is connected, or the time data is manually programmed. u LOW BATTERY ICON •...
PANEL DESCRIPTION ■ Speaker microphone Microphone Speaker q PTT SWITCH [PTT] Hold down to transmit; release to receive. (p. 9) w CHANNEL UP/DOWN KEYS [Y]/[Z] ➥ Push either key to change the operating channels, Set mode settings, etc. (pp. 7–9, 47) ➥...
BASIC OPERATION ■ Channel selection D Channel 9 (Call channel) D Channel 16 Each regular channel group has a separate leisure-use Call Channel 16 is the distress and safety channel. It is used for channel. The Call channel is monitored during Tri-watch. The establishing initial contact with a station and for emergency Call channels can be programmed, and are used to store communications.
D Weather channels ■ Channel selection (Continued) D USA, International and Canadian channels The IC-M604A has 10 weather channels. These are used for monitoring broadcasts from NOAA (National Oceanographic The IC-M604A is pre-programmed with 59 U.S.A., 59 inter- and Atmospheric Administration.) national and 63 Canadian channels.
BASIC OPERATION ■ Receiving and transmitting Simplex channels, 3, 21, 23, 61, 64, 81, 82 and 83 CAN- CAUTION: Transmitting without an antenna will damage NOT be lawfully used by the general public in U.S.A. waters. the transceiver. q Push [POWER] to turn power ON. IMPORTANT: To maximize the readability of your transmit- w Set the audio and squelch levels.
BASIC OPERATION ■ Call channel programming ■ Microphone lock function The Call channel is used to select Channel 9 (default), how- The Microphone lock function electrically locks [Y]/[Z] and ever, you can program the Call channel with your most often- [HI/LO] keys on the supplied microphone.
76% 2.'#574'AA 2.'#574'AA The IC-M604A uses a new technology to clear water away from e Push the appropriate key the speaker grill: AquaQuake. AquaQuake helps clear water several times to select the desired character. away from the speaker housing (water that might otherwise •...
BASIC OPERATION ■ Optional Voice scrambler operation D Activating the scrambler function D Programming scrambler codes The optional Voice scrambler provides private communica- There are 32 codes (1 to 32) or 128 codes (0 to 127)* se- tions. In order to receive or send scrambled transmissions lectable for programming when an optional scrambler unit is you must fi...
DUALWATCH/TRI-WATCH ■ Description ■ Operation q Select the desired channel. Dualwatch monitors Channel 16 while you are receiving w Push [O], then push [1• on another channel; Tri-watch monitors Channel 16 and the ] to start Dualwatch or DUAL Call channel while receiving another channel. Dualwatch [2•...
SCAN OPERATION ■ Scan types Set the TAG channels (scanned channel) before scanning. Scanning is an effi cient way to locate signals quickly over a Clear the TAG channels which inconveniently stop scanning, wide frequency range. The transceiver has Priority scan and such as those for digital communication use.
SCAN OPERATION ■ Setting TAG channels ■ Starting a scan For more efficient scanning, add the desired channels as First, set the Priority or Normal scan type, and the scan TAG channels, or clear the TAG of unwanted channels. resume timer in the Set mode. (p. 47) Channels that are not tagged will be skipped while scanning.
DSC OPERATION ■ MMSI code programming ■ DSC address ID The 9 digit MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity: DSC self A total of 100 DSC address IDs can be entered, and a name ID) code can be programmed at power ON. of up to 10 characters assigned to the ID.
DSC OPERATION ■ Position and Time programming A Distress call should include the ship’s position and time &5% &5% /GPW /GPW data. If no GPS is connected, your position and UTC (Uni- +PRWV +PRWV 2QUKVKQP 2QUKVKQP .CVKVWFG .CVKVWFG versal Time Coordinated) time should be manually input. AAAAAAA0 AAAAAAA0 0WNN...
)25 )25 +PHQ +PHQ Hold down for 1 second A GPS receiver appropriate for the IC-M604A is not supplied ' ' ,#0 ,#0 from Icom. A GPS receiver in NMEA0183 ver. 2.0 or 3.01...
DSC OPERATION ■ Distress call e After transmitting the call, the transceiver waits for an ac- A Distress call should be transmitted if, in the opinion of the knowledgment call. Master, the ship or a person is in distress and requires im- •...
DSC OPERATION D Regular call r After receiving the acknowledgment, reply using the mi- crophone. The nature of the Distress call should be included in the Dis- tress call. q Enter “ ” in the DSC menu. 4GEGKXGF 4GEGKXGF ❮ ❯...
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DSC OPERATION D Regular call (Continued) t Hold down [DISTRESS] for 5 seconds to transmit the e The position information appears. Edit your position Distress call. • While holding down [DISTRESS], the key backlight blinks. (latitude and longitude) data by pushing the keypad keys. •...
DSC OPERATION ■ Transmitting DSC Calls u After receiving the acknowledgment, reply using the mi- crophone. To ensure the DSC function operated correctly, please make sure you set the squelch correctly. (p. 9) 4GEGKXGF 4GEGKXGF D Transmitting an Individual Call &KUVTGUU#%- &KUVTGUU#%- 1UCMC...
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DSC OPERATION ■ Transmitting DSC Calls (Continued) y When the acknowledgement ‘Able to comply’ is re- e Rotate [SELECTOR] to select a desired intership chan- ceived, the channel specified in step e is selected nel, or “ ,” then push [ENT]. and beeps automatically sound.
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DSC OPERATION D Transmitting an Individual Acknowledgement e Rotate [SELECTOR] to select “ ” or When an Individual Call is received, you can transmit an ac- “ ,” then push [ENT]. knowledgement (‘Able to comply’ or ‘Unable to comply’) by •...
DSC OPERATION ■ Transmitting DSC Calls (Continued) &5% &5% /GPW /GPW D Transmitting a Group Call 5GNGEV 5GNGEV +PVGTUJKR +PVGTUJKR %* The Group Call function allows you to transmit a DSC signal to only a specifi c group. q Enter “ ”...
DSC OPERATION D Transmitting an All Ships Call e Rotate [SELECTOR] to select a desired traffi c channnel, Large ships use Channel 70 as their ‘listening channel.’ When you want to announce a message to all ships within range, then push [ENT]. use the ‘All Ships Call’...
DSC OPERATION ■ Transmitting DSC Calls (Continued) D Transmitting a Position Request Call r After the Position Request Call has been transmitted, the Transmit a Position Request Call when you want to know a following message is displayed. specifi c ship’s current position. 2QUKVKQP 2QUKVKQP 4GSWGUV 4GSWGUV...
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DSC OPERATION D Transmitting a Position Report Call e The position information appears. Edit your position data Transmit a Position Report Call when you want to announce your own position to a specifi c ship and receive an answer back. (latitude and longitude) by pushing the keypad keys.
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DSC OPERATION ■ Transmitting DSC Calls (Continued) D Transmitting a Polling Request Call e Push [ENT] to transmit the Polling Request Call. Transmit a Polling Request Call when you want to know if a r After the call has been transmitted, the following message specifi...
DSC OPERATION D Transmitting a Position Reply Call D Transmitting a Position Report Reply Call Transmit a Position Reply Call when a Position Request Call Transmit a Position Report Reply Call when a Position Re- is received. port Call is received. q Enter “...
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DSC OPERATION ■ Transmitting DSC Calls (Continued) D Test call e After step w, “ ” appears. Testing on the exclusive DSC distress and safety calling channels should be avoided as much as possible by using &5% &5% /GPW /GPW other methods.
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DSC OPERATION D Transmitting a Test Ack call e Push [ENT] to transmit the Test Ack call. Transmit a Test Acknowledgement call when a Test call is re- ceived. 6GUV #%- 6GUV #%- q Enter “ ” in the DSC menu. •...
DSC OPERATION ■ Receiving DSC Calls D Receiving a Distress D Receiving a Distress Relay call/ Acknowledgement Distress Relay Acknowledgement D Receiving a Distress call While monitoring Channel 70 and a Dis- While monitoring Channel 70 and a Distress tress acknowledgement to other ship is While monitoring Channel 70 and a dis- Relay call/Distress Relay Acknowledgement received:...
DSC OPERATION D Receiving an Individual Call While monitoring Channel 70 and an Individual Call is received: ➥ The emergency alarm or beeps sound, depending on the received category. 4GEGKXGF 4GEGKXGF ➥ “ ” appears on the display. )TQWR )TQWR ➥...
DSC OPERATION D Receiving a Position Request Call ■ Receiving DSC Calls (Continued) D Receiving a Geographical Area call While monitoring Channel 70 and a Position Request Call is received: ➥ “ ” appears on the display. While monitoring Channel 70 and a Geographical Area call ➥...
DSC OPERATION D Receiving a Polling Request Call D Receiving a Position Report Reply Call While monitoring Channel 70 and a Polling Request Call is re- While monitoring Channel 70 and a Position Report Reply ceived: Call is received: ➥ “ ➥...
DSC OPERATION ■ Receiving DSC Calls (Continued) D Receiving a Test Acknowledgement call D Receiving a Test call When a Test Acknowledgement call is received: ➥ “ When a Test call is received: ” and the LCD backlight blink. ➥ “ ➥...
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DSC OPERATION D Auto Switch function w Rotate [SELECTOR] to turn the Auto Tune timer “ON” or “OFF.” By regulation, after receiving a Distress call, the transceiver : After receiving a Distress call, the transceiver re- basically switches the operating channel to Channel 16. How- mains on the operating channel for 10 seconds, ever, when this setting is set to “OFF,”...
DSC OPERATION ■ Received messages r Push [CLR] to exit the screen or push [CE] to clear the displayed message and return to the DSC menu. The transceiver automatically stores up to 20 distress mes- D Other messages sages and 20 other messages. The messages can be used q Enter “...
DSC OPERATION ■ DSC Set mode D Automatic Acknowledgement D Add Individual ID/Group ID (See pages 16, 17) This item sets the automatic acknowledgement function to D Delete Individual ID/Group ID (See page 17) ON or OFF. When a position request, position report or polling request D MMSI Code Check call is received, the transceiver automatically transmits a po- The programmed 9 digit MMSI (DSC self ID) code can be...
DSC OPERATION D NMEA Output ■ Received messages (Continued) D Offset Time Select an NMEA Output function from List Station, All Sta- tion or OFF. This item sets the offset time from the UTC (Universal Time Coordinated) time. When receiving position acknowledgment, the transceiver outputs it to the external equipment via the NMEA connector.
” appears on the HM-157. if the power is OFF. • “ ” appears on the IC-M604A or HM-162 if it is idle. When the connected COMMANDMIC™ is one, step w • To adjust the IC-M604A’s speaker output level, rotate [VOL].
After releasing [PTT] you can hear the response through the speaker. The IC-M604A has a 2-way hailer function for voice amplifi - y To return to normal operation, push [CLR] or repeat step q. cation and reception over a loudspeaker, making it unneces- sary to leave the bridge to hear a hailing party.
OTHER FUNCTIONS ■ Automatic foghorn A hailer speaker is used to sound the foghorn. To use this The automatic foghorn function repeatedly sounds a horn function, the hailer speaker must be connected to the trans- until the function is turned OFF. Four patterns are selectable ceiver.
■ Automatic foghron (Continued) q Push [O], then push [8• ] to activate the foghorn. . The IC-M604A has an RX speaker function. When this func- tion is turned ON, the received audio can be heard on the Push deck or tower through a hailer speaker.
SET MODE ■ Set mode programming ■ Set mode items D Scan type The Set mode is used to change the settings of the trans- ceiver’s functions: Scan type, Scan resume timer, Weather The transceiver has 2 scan types: normal scan and priority alert, Beep tone, Internal speaker, LCD contrast, Attenuation scan.
SET MODE D Weather Alert D LCD contrast A NOAA broadcast station transmits a weather alert tone This item adjusts the contrast of the LCD in 8 steps. before important weather information. When “ ” is se- 5GV 5GV /QFG /QFG lected, the previously selected (used) weather channel is %QPVTCUV...
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(Default: UT-112) 76 76 76 76 D Remote ID Set a Remote ID number between 01 and 69. The ID is included in the sentence of the format for the Icom original NMEA. 5GV 5GV /QFG /QFG 4GOQVG 4GOQVG +&...
CONNECTIONS AND MAINTENANCE ■ Connections r EXTERNAL MICROPHONE CONNECTORS [COMMAND MIC-1]/[COMMAND MIC-2] Connects the optional COMMANDMIC™ (HM-157/HM-162.) CAUTION: NEVER connect other microphone here, such as the HM-134, may cause damage to the transceiver. t GPS RECEIVER/EXTERNAL SPEAKER CONNECTOR ➥ Connects a GPS receiver for position and time display. •...
CONNECTIONS AND MAINTENANCE ■ Supplied accessories • NMEA PIN ASSIGNMENT NMEAOUT (–) NMEAOUT (+) Lead 4 of OPC-2014 Lead 5 of OPC-2014 The following accessories are supplied. NMEAIN (–) NMEAIN (+) Mounting bracket Lead 3 of OPC-2014 Lead 2 of OPC-2014 For the mounting bracket Transceiver’s rear panel view Knob bolts...
CONNECTIONS AND MAINTENANCE ■ Mounting the transceiver D Using the supplied mounting bracket • OVERHEAD MOUNTING The universal mounting bracket supplied with your trans- ceiver allows overhead or upright mounting. Sponge* • Mount the transceiver securely with the 4 supplied screws (5 ×...
FLUSH MOUNT KIT the transceiver to a fl at surface such as an instrument panel. • Make sure that the clamps align parallel to the IC-M604A’s body. KEEP the transceiver and microphone at least 1 m (3.3 ft) away from the vessel’s magnetic navigation compass.
CONNECTIONS AND MAINTENANCE ■ UT-112/UT-98* installation RWARNING!: DISCONNECT the DC power cable from w Turn the transceiver upside down, then disconnect the fl at cables and Rear mic control (6-pin) from LOGIC board, the transceiver before performing any work on the trans- and Front mic control (2-pin) and Volume control (3-pin) ceiver.
CONNECTIONS AND MAINTENANCE ■ HM-157/HM-162 installation e Install an optional unit to J3 on the AF board as shown below. Optional unit AF board HM-157 HM-162 The optional HM-157 can be connected to the transceiver di- rectly, as well as using the supplied connection cable for longer distance remote operation.
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CONNECTIONS AND MAINTENANCE ■ HM-157/HM162 installation (Continued) t Install the mounting base using the supplied screws as q Insert the supplied cable (or HM-157 without the cable) shown below. into the [COMMAND MIC-1] or [COMMAND MIC-2] connector and tighten the cable nut as shown below. •...
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CONNECTIONS AND MAINTENANCE HM-162 HM-157 Mounting base Mounting base Gasket Gasket...
TROUBLESHOOTING PROBLEM POSSIBLE CAUSE SOLUTION REF. The transceiver does • Bad connection to the power supply. • Check the connection between the battery- pp. 50, not turn ON. and the transceiver. No sound comes from • Squelch level is too high. •...
FLUSH MOUNT KIT performance when used with an Icom transceiver. For mounting the transceiver to a panel. Icom is not responsible for the destruction or damage to an • HM-157 ™ Icom transceiver in the event the Icom transceiver is used COMMANDMICII External microphone-type controller.
CHANNEL LIST Channel number Frequency (MHz) Channel number Frequency (MHz) Channel number Frequency (MHz) Channel number Frequency (MHz) CAN Transmit Receive CAN Transmit Receive CAN Transmit Receive CAN Transmit Receive 156.050 160.650 157.050 161.650 156.425 156.425 157.325 157.325 156.050 156.050 21A 157.050 157.050 156.475 156.475 157.375 161.975...
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