Vhf Ais Reciever

[Rossmonty]

Hi Everybody

MillTech has a VHF AIS reciever

Question, Has anybody had any expeirience good or Bad re the product,

I am told in a busy shipping lane this is a great bit of Kit,

I am about to sail through Singapore waters in a couple of Months so any feed back would be nice.

Regards

Rosso

[MMNETSEA]

Hello Rosso,

As you are probably already aware the Singapore Strait has a Shipping Traffic Separation Scheme in force. The Northern Lane East to West . Sail Boats are not advised to use either lane.

In addition transit should ONLY be made during daylight hours. Therefore AIS on VHF has little use during the transit. More important is to know the direction and timing of the current at specific daylight hours on a specific day. Once you are reasonably sure of your transit time - come back and I will give you exact current information ( I will start looking for the data today) thanks for the reminder.

Richard

PS. AIS has certainly a real value when visibility is impaired.

[svReboot]

Originally Posted by Rossmonty

Hi Everybody

MillTech has a VHF AIS reciever

Question, Has anybody had any expeirience good or Bad re the product,

I am told in a busy shipping lane this is a great bit of Kit,

I am about to sail through Singapore waters in a couple of Months so any feed back would be nice.

Regards

Rosso

I own one. It works fine. I have recently upgraded to a class "B" (transmit and receive) AIS unit so that I would be broadcasting my location in addition to seeing the other ships.

[Istioploos]

As of May I own a SIMRAD AI50 class B. It works very well and it is great in detecting many ships.

In EU at least it is compulsory for ships over 50 m. However, many fishing boats and large recreational cruisers do not have them. Nor do the Greek and Turkish coast guard patrol vessels. So, it is not a cure all. But, in combination with radar and most important with ones eyes, it is of great help and improves overall safety.

I can see one possible pitfall. It calculates time and distance of closest approach, assuming both vessels maintain their current speed and heading. This is in general good and helpful but if somebody relies totally on this calculation and does not monitor the unit and does not look out it may lead into complacency and possible trouble.

Some people have raised the issue of a security risk, especially in the Red Sea and other pirate infested regions. The assumptions is that the bad guys will know where you are. I do not think this is an issue for the yachtsman. With a class B one can always turn off the transmission and just monitor the receiver. Of course, if everyone stops transmiting the unit will be of no value but it is not s risk.

[Rossmonty]

Hi Richard, yes I am aware of that however there is such a large amount of traffic around Singapore I was told by another person whe just passages through there that the AIS is a great tool I also have a Furuno 32mn Radar which has AIS but i find many ships do not similar devices,'

Recent trips up through Indo we could see ships on the Radar, with the AIS requirement for larger ships it all helps however nothing beats a couple of pairs of Eyes.

I haven't planned down to an individual day yet so I'll get back to you

Regards

Rosso

Originally Posted by MMNETSEA

Hello Rosso,