New Radio Needed - Any recommendations?

An even easier solution than a terminal block is to use gel filled telephone splice connectors. They are dirt cheap and completely waterproof.

http://emoics.info/bright-navy-blue/telephone-splice-connectors.html

You want the red ones for the little NMEA 083 wires. They come in 2-wire and 3-wire types. The 3-wire ones let you connect 2 NMEA devices to your GPS antenna simultaneously. You just crimp them on with a pliers and fasten the splice wires with tape or a wire tie. I've never had this type of connection fail.

I have a GX1600 hooked up with my Garmin 546s using the NMEA 083 wires provided....works great :mrgreen:

Don't know if it was mentioned here but the polling function is awesome on these newer radios. If you have another boater with the same polling functions in their VHF, all it takes is to enter their MMSI number, a touch of a few buttons and they will show up on my chartplotter screen as a waypoint in seconds

My unit will do tracking up to four preprogrammed boats but I haven't played with that yet

The DSC calling is great too, makes the VHF like a phone

Definitely worth the extra time to wire it to your gps, even if yours has built-in gps

I have the Standard Horizon GX1600 and hooked it up to my Furuno NavNet to get the GPS signal. It works and looks exactly the same as the GX1700 when you have it hooked to an external GPS source. Matter of fact, my user manual is for the GX1600/1700. If you have satellite connection issues with your GPS, I'd get the 1700 just in case. You'll love the features of either one. Very nice radio for the price.