Automatic Identification System (ais)

[Istioploos]

I am thinking of getting an AIS transceiver or just a receiver for my boat. Does anyone have any direct experience and/or recommendations on this? Any thoughts on the subject?

[edsailing]

IMHO, AIS is probably the greatest aid to safety that you can have as long as you have a transponder so that commercial shipping can see you. A receiver is very useful but I'd go for the full works.

Not experienced enough different systems to make comparisons or meaningful recommendations.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on.

[Trim50]

I just bought mine and have not installed it on my Raymarine E80 yet because I sent the E80 in for software upgrade and new graphics drive.

I bought my SR161 AIS from Sea-Tech for $189US

http://www.sea-tech.com/smart_radio_...s_receiver.htm

I'll let ya know how it works when I get everything connected...could be a month depending on how long the E80 takes to get worked on at Raymarine.

[Istioploos]

Originally Posted by Trim50

I just bought mine and have not installed it on my Raymarine E80 yet because I sent the E80 in for software upgrade and new graphics drive.

I bought my SR161 AIS from Sea-Tech for $189US

I will be very interested in hearing how it will work out. I have not bought a unit yet but I am leaning towards a transponder class B (receive & transmit) such as the SIMRAD AI50

[svReboot]

I have been using the Smart Radio 161 with the Nobeltec Admiral program and it works fine.

[Istioploos]

I just received my SIMRAD AI50, class-B AIS, today. It was backordered for many weeks. I will be installing it on my boat in May. I hope it lives up to its promise.

It is a gift to my wife who has an almost pathological fear of large ships, especially the ones that look rusty!

In the mean time, you can view real-time AIS data on AIS Data.

[MMNETSEA]

Have had good reports regarding the Simrad AI 150 (no personal knowledge)

Richard

[oldhairy]

Hi, I have a NASA receive only unit. Absolutely love it but with 20/20 hindsight I'd go for a transceiver instead.

[transcendence]

I turned on the Simrad 150 a few hours ago and I'm amazed!

I'm in a marina well in from the sea and pretty well surrounded by hills.

It picked up 2 navigational beacons.

The Old Head of Kinsale Lighthouse about 6 miles away

and the leading buoy for Cork Harbour about 8 miles away.

Neither can be seen-no line of sight-.

Also a tug leaving Cork Harbour 10 miles away showed up.

Using the Guard Zone feature the alarm works well.

I took some photos and you can see them at the following link

http://picasaweb.google.com/desmondhouse/Simrad150May22009

It's a small screen but is very easy to read.

As you can see neither the GPS or VHF aerials are particularly high, perhaps 8 feet over the deck.

If I had not recently bought a good ICOM vhf I'd definitely get one of the Simrad ones so that I could use the cursor to call using DSC.

I think that the extra cost of the Simrad is made up by the ease of installation and it's independence from other systems.

[Istioploos]

I installed my new Simrad AI50 yesterday. It is working very nicely and although I an in the shipyard surrounded by masts the unit is picking most of the targets shown on the Internet. However, my boat does not appear on the internet, maybe my signal is too weak.

After my boat S/Y Thetis is launched and I am on the open sea I will report again on performance.

The display, as pointed out by transcendence, is small but very sharp. The only negative I can find so far is that the unit has sluggish response to the keys.

By the way, I bought the unit in the US at much lower price than the one the dealer here, Greece, want.

[Istioploos]

Here is the promised report:

It works great. I can see ships on its screen way before I see them either visually on on the Radar. Some can be as far as 30 nM.

I do not see however my boat the S/Y Thetis on the Internet Traffic site. But after contacting another vessel on the VHF they assured me that they do see Thetis on their AIS. Also, I have noticed that the the Internet Traffic site does not show all the big ships shown on my AIS display.

In conclusion I think that the Simrad AI50 is well worth the investment and makes passage making much safer.

[Nausikaa]

From a traffic surveillance point of view, it will be really interesting to follow the new developments as AIS is complemented by satellite based AIS which will permit global coverage. Added to this will be LRAT (Long Range Automatic Tracking).

No point in technology being there if it is not put to good use.