We have reviewed a number of Rikaline GPS receivers over the years and tested them out on our aerial platform, a Cessna Centurion. They’ve always performed well and came through our tests with flying colours, as they say…

The latest Rikaline product caters to a different group of navigators: those plying the watery waves.

The Rikaline GPS-6051 Marine receiver is housed in a white, spherical, waterproof module that houses the antenna and receiver.

The marine GPS arrived in a see-through package with a 10m long cable which has a 7 pin female connector at one end (hooks up to the male connector attached to the GPS receiver) and the other end has the seven wires stripped and labelled, ready for installation.

Ready for installation?

Well, there is a one page leaflet with some installation instructions which have me puzzled.

There are SIX wire colours described (for power supply, input and output). Yet there are SEVEN wires labelled and the labels don’t match the designation as indicated in the leaflet.

For instance, the Negative Output wire is supposed to be yellow, yet is labelled as Positive Output.

Likewise, the Negative Power Supply is listed as being a green wire but the labelled stripped wire is black!

We probably got a pre-production model as it did not include a manual even though a manual and warranty card is listed in the leaflet.

I should also mention that the receiver is fitted with a 1 inch tapped hole so that it can easily be mounted on standard brackets.

The GPS-6051 is primarily aimed at the marine market but there’s no reason to dismiss installation on motor homes or trucks.

Because we did not have access to a display unit and we did not feel like experimenting with the confusing labelling of the wires we did not test the receiver.

It’s probably the first product we have written about but not tested so this is more in the line of a product announcement.

We do have experience with several other Rikaline receivers so we have no doubt that this unit will also perform as advertised.

Pricing? Around the USD275 mark.

Let’s look at some of the specifications.

They look fairly standard including the maximum speed of 1800 km/hr and a max altitude of 18,000 metres! I couldn’t find a boat fast enough to test this out so I’ll believe the manufacturer!

The real specs are of course that it is an L1 receiver with 12 parallel channels and WAAS compatible.

It can operate from any power source with a voltage range of 10 – 36 VDC and is protected from polarity reversal.