I agree that it is weird that position cannot be output from the AIS700, either on N2K or NMEA0183. There may be a technical reason, but more probably it was made by the marketing team!
Raymarine do not make the AIS 700 completely in house. The AIS boards are made by SRT (whose marketing brand is em-trac) The equivalent unit from em-trac is the B953, which does actually allow output of GPS data on both N2K and NMEA0 0183 and it is one of these that I have on board Chardonnay - which has a relatively recent ICOM M506 VHF, but unfortunately the version without N2K.
I do have to say that part of the problem is with VHF Radio manufacturers, who have been pounding us with the (very real) importance of DSC and the attendant requirement for position to be available at the radio for distress purposes as well as its added benefits for private call and reply etc for years, but yet have been incredibly slow to incorporate N2K into their products as the standard for position input.
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As I have been typing this, I did have the thought that perhaps the method Raymarine have for ignoring own ship AIS transmissions in its received data could be the sticking point. Raymarine displays use the proximity of the AIS receiver to the vessel's main GPS receiver to determine whether to ignore a broadcast deemed to be from its own ship, but I guess that would all depend upon who wrote the software. If for instance the AIS700 were to use the main GPS position to figure out own ship and then rebroadcast it on the N2K network or over NMEA 0183, this may cause data loops.
Lastly, I would like to say that knowing Joel at Raymarine personally, he is undoubtedly my go to man there, very knowledgeable and is a straight shooter, who will always go the extra mile to get answers.
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Pete Waterson
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S38-2
Oriental, NC
Pete Waterson