I’m feeling oh-so-content as 2006 slips away, partly because Panbo has become such an satisfying and promising part of my life. Thank you all so much for reading this blog, making comments, and patronizing its advertisers. I photographed this bit of Americana, bigger here
, on Main Street in Stonington, Maine on Memorial Day Weekend, and it made a Holiday card that hopefully suggests the good humor pervasive in this household. Hope you’re all feeling ducky too.
There are only two “Best of” or “Most Innovative of” 2006 marine electronics lists I know of—MotorBoating’s and Sail’s—and neither is public yet, but I like browsing through the more general tech lists that are now hitting the Web waves. So far I’ve come across PC World’s 20 Most Innovative Products of 2006 (they’re list crazy and also have the 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time and lots more). Then there’s Weblog Awards Best Technology Blog 2006 list, and Popsci.com’s innovation of the year is a nail! What have you all found out there?
I just had the disheartening experience of having the Web version of something I once wrote censured because one the electronics companies involved—or someone who thought they had that company’s best interest in mind—didn’t like it. I’m not going to go into the details, but the big magazines I write for were not involved, and what I wrote was A) hardly negative, unless you’re truly thin skinned, and B) truly reported, i.e. information and opinion that really came from the sources, dealer/installers, I referred to. At any rate, I suggested that the editor give copies of the Cluetrain Manifesto to every executive, PR person, or publisher who pressures him like this, because therein they might learn that ultimately they are hurting their own businesses. I first came across Cluetrain in late 1999 when one of the authors, David Weinberger, spoke at a conference here. It turns out that the original site, including the whole book based on it, is still online. Some of the wording may be a bit obnoxious, especially if you’re corporate, but the ideas are not outdated. In fact, I think the Cluetrain concept becomes more self evident, and more powerful, every day:
Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked. Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.
It seems obvious that Google Earth and similar online mapping systems that allow users, individual and otherwise, to create their own overlays will somehow figure in the future of marine navigation, at least for sharing POIs and planning. But, get this, a small Florida company, DestinSharks.com, is already translating NOAA vector charts (ENCs) into Google overlays they’re calling EarthNC charts. I heard about it (thanks, Rich and Rich), signed up for the public beta test, and am impressed. I was getting fancy in the screen shot above (bigger here), using GE’s tilt mode and 3D buildings, but check out how neatly the nav aids, bottom contours, and dredged channel lines lay out, and how (left) you can control overlay elements in familiar GE fashion. But I do hope they figure out how to round the depth soundings back to their original paper chart equivalent (a vector issue I’ve complained about before). And I did see registration issues between some EarthNCs and GE satellite photos (though in this case, Miami’s Sea Isle Marina, the charted pilings seem to line up perfectly). DestinSharks, by the way, is “planning a DVD edition which will offer the full chart set for offline use”, and Google recently added photo maps of my home harbor that are almost as detailed as the most zoomed-in marine panoramas I’ve seen (so far). What else will 2007 bring?
PS 12/28: I came across the fact that Google Earth was downloaded 100 million times during the ten month period following its June, 2005, release as a free program. Yow!
I think of this painting—one of an ancient series hanging in the Venice, Italy, Maritime Museum (and bigger here)—as a how-to for sailors caught out in a storm: Put out all your anchors, jettison heavy objects (like cannons), pray to your personal savior, and hope for the best! Here in Maine we’re trying not to get upset about the freakish fact that the ground hasn’t frozen yet (and I’m thankful that we live some 180’ above sea level). But I trust that whatever happens is all in God’s plan, and I wish you all a very fine Christmas, or Chrismakka as we call it in our home, or however you honor this grand turning of the seasons.
My attempt at a fancy illustration may be sketchy, and the language unfamiliar, but the color coded AIS targets and the full-on data screen behind them suggests that Northstar’s new plotting implementation is exceptionally thorough. The photos above, bigger here, were taken at METS and show one of the ‘new’ Explorer series; its Navman not-quite-identical twin is also getting AIS abilities. Below are screen shots from the new manual for the Navman 8120/Northstar M120 (and the new M84). Notice that AIS text messages can be read, a full target list is available, and alarms can be set on both CPA and proximity. Plus you can choose to have each target project its track based on time (2 minutes to 2 hours), which might help with the Class B jumping bean issue. I have the software upgrade for the 8120 that’s still here in the test lab and a loaner SeaCAS SafePassage 100 headed my way. I’m going to try this…after Christmas. I’m taking a long weekend off, and wishing all of you a wonderful holiday.
Another AIS Class B glitch, & a parser in a pear tree
Dec 20, 2006
When Class B AIS finally gets going, there’ll be yet another issue to deal with: not all existing AIS plotting systems are going to fully understand the Class B messages. Apparently separate messages were anticipated in the original Class A standard but the slotting and details were changed in the final B standard that went official just this spring. I understand that the dynamic data—position, speed, etc.—will likely show, but the static stuff—boat name, etc.—may not until the plotter, ECDIS, radar, or whatever is updated. A good place to see exactly how AIS messages are structured is Brian Lane’s AISparser.com. Among other resources is a neat demo that let’s you turn your own raw AIS strings into targets plotted in Google Earth. Brian is even running a sort of Christmas sale on his AISparser SDK, which I’d guess to be quite good. (Imagine the look on her face!)
And here’s some more good/bad B news: An AIS expert at the U.S. Coast Guard told me that two of the Class B transponders now awaiting USCG approval will “retail for under $900”. But he could not say whose, or when approvals may be issued. Neither could the FCC.
A scupture of B&G, Leica, Furuno, and Team-Italia electronics on a sail-powered teak lawn? Hell, I’d be willing to shave my head too. (More fantastic pictures at Wally and Gilles Martin-Raget.)
So today I was on the phone with tech support at a certain marine electronics company (it probably could have been many). After a while, the gravelly voice at the other end and I developed a certain rapport. That’s when I happened to ask about a certain confusion in the product manual, and that’s probably why he gave me a truly honest answer. I’m paraphrasing here, but the gist was:
“Man, I haven’t read any of this company’s manuals in over fifteen years. First they develop the specs in xxx (a country) and then the software gets written in yyy (another country), and finally the manual goes together in zzz. In the end it’s not worth a damn! I just push buttons on the unit until I know how it works.”
I got quite a chuckle out of that, and now you know the other side of that old saw, RTFM.
Speaking of SSB, here’s a cool development, I think. Last Friday the FCC announced that it will no longer require a Morse Code test for any of their amateur radio licenses. Thus, as Dan Piltch at Marine Computer writes, “it will be easier than ever for folks to get licensed up, and start using WinLink (with their Pactor modem) for free email”. Dan put up some good dope here. I heard from lots of Panbo readers about this (thanks all!), including TechYacht’s Tim Hasson who pointed out that not all his fellow hams are pleased (as you can read here and here). The actual rule change, by the way, will take a month or more, and that classic Vibroplex Deluxe Bug above is available here should you want to do Morse just for fun.
Tis the season of wondrously weird marine electronics related holiday cards, and the indisputable winner thus far is EchoPilot’s elaborate goof on megayacht trends. The “New Super Maxtremetti 300 Baby Bling” (bigger here) is beautifully rendered on an 8x11” card with something like a 1,000 words of tongue-deep-in-cheek descriptive prose on the back. To wit:
“Baby Bling is the world’s most automated vessel. All her vital functions, hotel systems, cameras and instruments are digitally linked by satellite to the Internet. She can be monitored, manoeuvred and navigated from any password-enabled broadband-connected PC in the world, allowing her owners the combination of absolute control and zero effort to which they are accustomed. Automation and remote control also means Baby Bling only requires three crew to operate her using specially modified iPods. The remaining 127 crew look after catering, hotel and wetbar systems.”
Thanks to Mike and Susan at EchoPilot for a good giggle, and let’s hope they add it their Web site for the rest of the world to enjoy.
There’s something special about this Nobeltec Tides & Currents 3.5 screen shot, bigger here. Besides some sleek improvements to the interface, the program—targeted for release in early January—is corrected for the new Daylight Saving Time (DST) scheme coming to the U.S. in 2007. Yes, in case you hadn’t heard, we are adding a month of DST, now starting it on the second Sunday in March and extending it to the first Sunday in November (with a few exceptions). That will most definitely mess up any uncorrected software or printed tide tables you use, if they are supposedly adjusted for DST. (NOAA used to print all tables in Standard Time because, according to a functionary I once spoke to, they didn’t know how to handle predictions that fell between 1am and 2am on the last “fall back” day of DST, when that “hour” happens twice). I know way too much about tide tables from my days as ‘editor’ (data dicer actually) at Reed’s Nautical Almanacs. I still use some of the skills learned to make a couple of newspaper tide tables, like the one below (bigger here). There’s a lot of scripting and Quark XPress tag trickery behind that table, but I get the tide predictions themselves using the nifty data export facility of T&C. Note the difference between 3/11 tides above and below: I’ve marked the new “DST begins” on the table but the data is still wrong, awaiting T&C 3.5.
Argonaut's bargain marine monitor, pretty good so far
Dec 14, 2006
That’s Argonaut’s Tflex-G615, the $1,000 waterproof 15” monitor, looking pretty good in direct sunlight (though a low winter Maine sun partially filtered by trees). If I wasn’t also testing yet another compact camera (the unfamiliar UI being my excuse for erasing most of today’s shots), you’d see all four of those screens lit up, and you’d probably be pleasantly surprised that the Si-Tex ColorMax 15 looks almost as bright as the benchmark Raymarine E-120 (at least in these conditions). But both the Si-Tex and the Argonaut screens are more reflective than the Raymarine (and the Northstar 6100i), as you can see in this close-up. I’ll have more about the Tflex, ColorMax, and 6100i eventually, and also about my new super duper test bench, not yet finished.
I’m a fan of Marti Brown, author of a several how-to books about marine SSB radios. This is one of the most daunting technologies cruiser may struggle with, and Marti does a good job of clarifying just what it can do for you, and how. I’m just setting up an Icom R2500 receiver to test, and I think the book at right is going to help me listen in to some of the interesting marine nets and other resources. There’s more info at her Idi-Yacht Web site, as well as Amazon and wholesale distributor NavCom Digital. I spoke with Marti this morning and she told me about a neat project getting started in her home port of Marathon, Florida. Boot Key Harbor is full of live-aboards like her, and, despite the sunny weather, they have concerns—hurricanes, homeland security, Avian Flu breaking out in Miami and working down the Key’s single access highway, etc. So they’re setting up the “Boot Key Harbor Tropical Telegraph”, a system of phone trees and radio procedures such that all boats can be alerted of a problem. MMSI’s and DSC are a key part of the plan, and Marti says her fellow cruisers get enthused when they learn just how well DSC can work for this. The local Coast Guard apparently likes it too. The “telegraph” seems like a great idea, and another way that DSC/MMSI use might progress toward the tipping point.
Panbo reader Steve e-mailed a while back asking me to bug the VHF manufacturers to build in a replay feature. He wrote, “I cannot say how many times I have missed something on the VHF and longed for a ‘back’ 10 seconds button.” Well, I thought it was a great idea—lord knows how many times I’ve suffered through a long NOAA weather loop only to space out by the time the particular forecast or buoy stats I wanted came along. But I had nothing to do with the several VHF replay features now hitting the market. First up is a Cobra handheld that was previewed at METS (above). It has a built-in memory chip that records the last 20 seconds of whatever breaks squelch on the channel(s) you’re monitoring. You can also save recordings, make voice notes, or record a canned transmission. The U.S. version of this radio, not yet available, is also dual band, able to do GMRS with 5 watts of transmit power. I suspect that Cobra has a hot product here, and I’m hoping to test it when available. (There will also be a fixed Class D VHF with “Rewind, Say Again”.) Meanwhile, out in Everett, Washington, professional skipper Scott Sucke has developed Last Call, a VHF speaker with a memory chip inside. Straight up it will probably make your existing VHF sound better (building radios waterproof is not good for speaker performance), and it will replay/amplify the last 60 seconds of continuous transmission, save it too. Apparently the Washington State Ferry Service likes them enough to equip its whole fleet. The Last Call Web site has a demo video and contact information, but note that there’s $99 deal going on the first manufacturing batch, “while supplies last”. I hope to test Last Call too.
You really need the full screen above to see what’s going on, but that’s the “tow builder” feature in Jeppesen Marine’s new ECS product, which previewed at the WorkBoat Show. A tug captain can graphically build a computer model of the whole tow he’s pushing up a river, which is useful in two ways. One is that his plotted vessel will show realistically in the ECS, as shown at right and bigger here . The other is that the ECS can then update the tug’s own Class A AIS transponder so that at least its rough total dimensions are visible to other boats on the river. Jeppesen’s commercial marine Web site is still a bit skimpy on this product but there is a PDF describing a Precision Approach System (PAS) that will integrate with the ECS. “Hyper-accurate” GPS combined with secure wireless will let tugs and locks share all sorts of valuable data, probably including the detailed tow configurations. The overall product—ECS, PAS, and more hinted at—is called Jeppesen Marine OnBoard and is obviously adaptable, at least in part, to deep sea commercial vessels. The ECS, by the way, may or may not be based on Nobeltec code, I can’t tell, and Jeppesen’s purchase of C-Map still seems to be in its quiet period.
A Panbo reader reports that TypeKey, needed to make comments here, does not work in Firefox 2, which I haven’t tried yet. As best I can tell, it does work fine in Firefox 1.5 and Internet Explorer. If you’re having trouble making comments, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me to bitch or just to have me post your comment. Thanks.
I’m steamed this morning, having just read the New York Times detailed expose on all the problems plaguing the U.S. Coast Guard’s multi billion dollar fleet upgrade. It’s just unbelievable. Personally I’m neither anti-government nor anti-corporate, but read this and see if you don’t want to do damage to some greed heads at Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, and their cronies at the Dept. of Homeland Security. So I went looking in the CG image archives for pictures of the electronics screw ups—like the non-waterproof (and now shorted-out) radios installed on open patrol RIBs, or the oversize navigation systems that are apparently still being installed on the new National Security Cutters even though the Guard plans to strip them right off. What I found instead was this shot of 123 Haitians trying to make Miami on a funky 40’ sloop. Now that’s the moxie we humans are capable of, and vaguely akin to the energetic work the USCG has been getting done, often despite their own old boats. So how did all the new ones get so messed up?
Offshore Systems was showing this nifty fuel gauge at METS, and it was getting serious attention from show walkers. Developer Bruce Coward told me that last year he had to spend half his time explaining what NMEA 2000 is, but this year most folks seemed to understand it already. Progress! In fact, Offshore makes both an N2K networkable version and one that can just extend the tank info from an existing analog gauge. But going 2000 means you’d have tank info anywhere you wanted it, plus you could use Coward’s water-sensing and no-moving-parts tank sensors. I’m afraid this gear is pricey, however, and I can’t seem to find online dealers for it.
One-channel-at-a-time receivers, another Class B problem?
Dec 7, 2006
Well, whereas I stirred up a bit of a Class B AIS hornet’s nest yesterday, I may as well keep at it! It seems to me that another repercussion of Class B’s 30 second (at best) dynamic data rate is that the inexpensive “single frequency” receivers are only going to see Class B targets once a minute (at best). I put “single frequency” in quotes because I’m realizing that the nomenclature for these receivers has gotten pretty confused. For instance, when I characterized the EasyAIS receiver as “dual frequency” back in April, I meant that it could listen to both AIS frequencies simultaneously. Now I realize that I was probably wrong about that, though EasyAIS is not exactly forthright about its receiver's specs. The company site calls it a “real 2 channel receiver”, which, when you think about it, does not mean that it listens to both channels simultaneously, and an English install manual I found (PDF here) doesn’t mention reception modes at all. Meanwhile one retailer, YachtBits, also calls it a “double superheterodyne receiver” which sort of sounds like parallel reception on both channels, but another notes that “every few minutes it switches automatically between both channels” (Busse Yachtshop). And Y-tronic, a reliable source in my experience, says that the EasyAIS “monitors both AIS frequencies by alternating between both channels”, further noting that that it is quite well made. Conclusion: I don’t think that the EasyAIS listens to both channels at the same time, and therefore will miss 50% of the AIS messages sent out in its area. I also think that the industry should settle on some terms for these receivers and use them to properly inform customers.
PS, 12/8: It’s good to see that NASA is clear about its AIS Engine: “The unit can receive ships on either the A or B AIS channels. In default setting it alternates between the two channels.” But then in the very next paragraph NASA claims that the Engine outputs to a “NMEA 2000 input.” It absolutely does NOT, and, moreover, I’ve heard that its serial NMEA 0183 output is so flawed that it won’t drive the opto couplers that are a feature of many good multiplexers. Sigh.
Getting ready for Class B, does your AIS plotter do DR?
Dec 6, 2006
This diagram—borrowed from Dr. Andy Norris’s valuable AIS/06 conference presentation—illustrates various possible target presentations for a vessel doing 30 knots over a one minute time period. The green dots roughly represent both radar paints and Class A AIS messages received. (A normal 24 rpm radar would, of course, hit a good target twenty-four times in a minute; a Class A transponder going this speed sends out dynamic data every two seconds, or 30 times per minute.) But the triangular icons indicate what a smaller vessel (possibly a poor radar target) carrying Class B AIS might look like, given B’s maximum dynamic data speed of 30 seconds. Obviously the target could move a quarter mile between plots, making like a mexican jumping bean if your plotter/ECS is zoomed in very far. Now there is an obvious, though processor intensive, way to smooth over Class B’s relatively slow data rate, which is for your plotter or ECS to calculate DR positions for each target between actual AIS fixes. I know I’ve been shown at least one PC-based product that already does this, but I can’t remember which one, and I don’t know if any plotters do DR (in an all-Class-A world it doesn’t matter as much). So please help me—either via comments, or e-mail—build a list of the AIS viewers that do or do not DR targets.
PS 12/7: Well, this DR idea turns out to be much more controversial than I realized. Apparently only Transas, which only seems to sell ECDIS these days, currently does DR calculations on AIS targets, and some developers have serious reservations about adding this ability to their own AIS target plotters:
“My opinion is that a DR feature in between AIS fixes presents some VERY SCARY Safety Concerns. I have heard that this issue has also been raised in the IEC ECS meetings. For example, what happens if the AIS Target you are tracking changes course after an update is received and then an extended period of time elapses before another update to the to the new ship's course and speed are received??? The vessel may have made a course change which was not received by you and you may choose to make a critical navigation decision based on incorrect DR Position information.”
Others feel that, “The DR position is likely to be closer to where the boat actually is than the last actual position which is crucial for collision avoidance. You avoid a collision by anticipating where a boat will be, not where it was 30 seconds ago.” There may be a graphic solution, say changing the color of an AIS target’s “bread crumb” track to indicate fixed and DR positions. I will definitely collect more info and opinions, and share them here.
EliBoat made a good catch last week, spotting this Bushnell ONIX400CR GPS and XM handheld. The specs, as spied out by the sat radio blog Orbitcast, look impressive—waterproof, 3.5” screen, XM weather & audio, aerial and satellite photo overlays—and all supposedly retailing for $500 when the product ships in February. That’s a big discount from the Garmin handhelds that offer this same great ability to carry your XM subscriptions from boat to car to house, etc. Mind you that Bushnell shows no interest in the marine market; its thing is hunting, as shown by its Web write up for sister product ONIX200CR. Still, I want to try one and see if it might make sense, even without nautical charts, as a boating accessory. This product, by the way, is an ‘honoree’ in the Wireless Peripheral category of the 2007 CES Innovations Awards, always a geekerrific list.
More good news on the cost of marine electronics front: Navionics is apparently going from XL3 to XL9 Gold+ chart cards, three times the area for the same $200 price. That’s the whole East Coast and Northern Bahamas on one card, with full NOAA chart detail (unlike the Silver all-one-cards), plus “enhanced port services” POIs (flawed though everyone’s may be), coastal roads, and a mail-in coupon for a free Fish’n Chip bathy card. This price drop is not on Navionics’ Web site yet, and may not be effective until 2007, but Peter James of Jack Rabbit Marine has the scoop on his new blog, askjackrabbit.com. A blog by a guy who professionally installs marine electronics? Now there’s some really good news.
As previewed at METS, the Northstar family has no less than 29 new members, which means that the brand now offers full product suites for most any size boat. Of course most of you won’t even need the bigger image to realize that these are very similar to existing Navman products, only with black buttons instead of blue ones. In fact, my understanding is that most of the 27 ‘new’ Explorer units are exactly like their Navman counterparts, though a few have upgrades like higher resolution screens, and—good news—none have risen in price. The one completely new unit is the M84, at right above, which is an 8.4” version of the Northstar M120, which is essentially the same as the Navman 8120 I’ve been testing. In other words, both of the new M Series units should be able to hook up to either SmartCraft engines or stand alone fuel flow meters to show a nifty screen like the one below (never mind the road shown running over the Fox Island Thorofare—just another one of those chart anomalies we should be on the watch for!). So far only the M84 is detailed on Northstar’s Web site, and I believe that all these new relatives may retain the Navman name in certain countries like South Africa where it’s much better known than Northstar’s. Finally, whatever the name, most of these plotters have recently acquired excellent AIS display ability, to be illustrated in a coming entry.
I spent the winter of 1972 living in New Orleans and working on oil field supply boats, acquiring a huge fondness for the former (not so much the latter). But I haven’t been back until this week, and naturally was very curious about how well this wonderful city is recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Well, of course it depends a lot on who you talk to, and where you aim your camera. The shot above, bigger here, shows some wrecks still lingering in the same Lake Ponchartrain marina we saw in before-and-after satellite shots back in 2005. Even right there on the spot it’s hard to imagine the ferocious weather conditions that could break off one boat’s keel on a dock, impale another with a piling. But you can see that the nifty boathouse/apartments in the background are getting rebuilt, and a turn in either direction would show many new or fully refurbished boats and docks. The “we will survive” spirit particularly showed at the Southern Yacht Club—going full steam in temporary buildings under a resurrected flag mast, brand new club house and facilities in the works.
And the Big Easy is still very much a paradise of spirited music and food. Even an oyster po’boy from the Convention Center commissary was a total treat. The French Quarter’s Bourbon Street may have gotten more touristy and debauched in the years I’ve been away, but there’s a certain evolved brilliance there. It’s closed to traffic now, and dozens of clubs compete for your attention with various entertainments, drink deals, etc. However, there are no cover charges or waiting lines; you’re free to wander in and out of most any of them, even nursing a large take-out beer, like it’s all one huge club. Laissez les bon temps roulez, and go enjoy New Orleans when you can.
I’m a fan of Marti Brown, author of a several how-to books about marine SSB radios. This is one of the most daunting technologies cruiser may struggle with, and Marti does a good job of clarifying just what it can do for you, and how. I’m just setting up an 
will also be a fixed Class D VHF with “Rewind, Say Again”.) 
previewed at the WorkBoat Show. A tug captain can graphically build a computer model of the whole tow he’s pushing up a river, which is useful in two ways. One is that his plotted vessel will show realistically in the ECS, as shown at right and 
EliBoat made a 
break off one boat’s keel on a dock, impale another with a piling. But you can see that the nifty boathouse/apartments in the background are getting rebuilt, and a turn in either direction would show many new or fully refurbished boats and docks. The “we will survive” spirit particularly showed at the 