The National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) is the unifying force behind the entire marine electronics industry, bringing together all aspects of the industry for the betterment of all in our business.

NMEA has become a developer, maintainer and distributor of various documents and standards related to the marine electronics industry. NMEA standards have been accepted as the common practice for how to share specific data information between competing entities or companies since the late 1970s.

NMEA defines the protocol that GPS receiver communicates with GPS software. Specially the NMEA 0183 standard is followed. It defines both the electrical and communication protocol. A NMEA stream of data from the GPS sends real-time position, time and satellite information to the GPS software.

Make sure the GPS receiver you plan to buy and use transmits NMEA (i.e. not all Garmin models offer NMEA output) and check with the GPS software producer for compatability with a specific GPS receiver model.

NMEA GPS communication Interface