ACR AIS simulator, very cool

ACR AIS simulatorPanbo—all AIS, all the time! I’m surprised to be writing so much on this subject, but there’s a lot going on, and you all seem so interested. Yesterday’s discovery was that ACR is giving away a PC simulation of its GlobalWatch Class A AIS set, an interesting all-in-one design that includes a qwerty keyboard. The software emulates all the machine’s functions, and thus is quite informative about the operational nuts and bolts of AIS, particularly its little discussed messaging and polling capabilities. There’s even a control panel that lets you manage the signals other vessels are sending. In this screen shot (bigger here), Dora has sent out a “Sinking!” alert and M/V Panbo responds (hey, it’s raining and ugly here). The software is in a zip file here, and seems quite safe and unobtrusive—I don’t think it writes even one line to your registry file.

Ben Ellison

Ben Ellison

Panbo editor, publisher & chief bottlewasher from 4/2005 until 8/2018, and now pleased to have Ben Stein as a very able publisher, webmaster, and editing colleague. Please don't regard him as an "expert"; he's getting quite old and thinks that "fadiddling fumble-putz" is a more accurate description.

1 Response

  1. Dave B says:

    Looks like the GlobalWatch AIS is a re-badged Nauticast AIS? Nauticast also has the same software.

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