I wonder whether it would be best to do business with the manufacturer, or West? (Our experience with West on other items is good)

The West catalog says it is NOT waterproof. Where to mount it on an aluminum boat?

We use a laptop as a charplotter, so the interface issues others ahve mentioned would not be a problem for us.

Anybody have one of these AIS trasnponders hooked to Nobeltec on a PC?