Geez, this morning I found myself confused about Class B AIS details touched on yesterday, and realized that my sources are somewhat sketchy. The USCG AIS site is pretty informative generally, but its Class B particulars seem suspect, the statement “IEC has begun work on a Class B certification standard, which should be completed by 2003” suggesting that it has not been updated in a long time. I am grateful for the Documentation section of AISParser.com, which is where I found the following message info, much edited and with a few notes added:
Message 18 - Standard Class B CS Position Report: UserID/MMSI, Time, SOG, COG, Longitude, Latitude, True Heading. {CS, or Carrier Sense, integrates “politely” with the Class A protocol known as Self-Organizing Time Division Multiple Access or SOTDMA, illustrated above}. Message 19 - Extended Class B Equipment Position Report: Same as 18, plus Ship Type and Dimensions {measured bow/stern and port/starboard relative to GPS, which may be why they are often screwed up}. Message 24 - Class B CS Static Data Report: UserID/MMSI, Boat Name, Ship Type, Call Sign, Dimensions, and Vendor ID {i.e. transponder manufacturer, to help track down problems}.
While I don’t understand the purpose of #19, which seems redundant, I think that the list includes every significant data field that a Class B can transmit. But I could be wrong!
A wildly coincidental e-mail is going around. While John was using his Raymarine E-Series to track AIS traffic in the Channel yesterday, Mike Harker was grooving on what his E and autopilot could do as he power reached (9.6k) toward Colon, Panama. Last night he somehow blast emailed the photo along with some enthusiastic text, including a good explanation of those five lines around his boat plot:
1) the thin red line (left) is the course the boat is steering to keep the boat headed in the direction of #2. {aka Heading} 2) the thin black line (middle) is the direct course to the destination {the Colon waypoint}, or as sailors call it the “Rhumb Line”.
Ever wonder why the U.K. and Western Europe are such AIS hot beds? John C. send in this shot of his zoomed out screen, taken as he sailed across the English Channel yesterday:
I was heading northwest just about right angles to the main shipping routes. Those going northeast are heading up Channel to Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Kiel Canal etc, and those heading SW in the other lane are heading to the rest of the world. A couple of cross channel ferries are more north/south. Equipment is a Raymarine E-80 with additional VGA screen (in photo) and Easy AIS receiver.
I wonder what this picture will look like with class B's as well! I am planning to upgrade to class B soon - please lets get some real user experience on this subject on your site soon! {I hope so too, but we don’t even have B over here yet—ed} BTW: with the class B's, do you know how I might differentiate between Underway Sailing, and Underway Motoring? {Anyone?}
PS I’d bet that if the 47’ Wahkuna, making a similar crossing in 2003, had had an AIS receiver like John’s, it might still be afloat. I wrote about the accident here, and the amazingly complete MAIB report is here.
PPS Regarding Underway status (and thanks to Marinate’s input below), apparently Class B can not send out Nav Status, but will see the Nav Status of Class A transponders.
Garmin is making waves beyond its smart seeming autopilot acquisition today. For one thing, a bit of evidence in the incident involving the 15 British Royal Navy detained by Iran is the clever helicopter photo above, in which a wee little Garmin eTrex is being used to prove the ship was in international waters. Garmin was also selected as a new member of Wired magazine’s 40 most innovative companies, at 22 just above Amazon’s current rating, yet. But maybe the most interesting tell is a call I got today from a hedge fund researcher working on the investment premise that Garmin is such a juggernaut that publicly traded competitors like TomTom and Raymarine may be good shorts. I don’t know much, but I don’t think I’d bet on that.
Moments ago Garmin announced that it has acquired Nautamatic Marine Systems, the inventors and manufacturers of what’s arguably the most innovative autopilot system out there. When I first profiled the TR-1 Gladiator in a 2004 PMY column I noted that breaking into this niche has to be really hard as experimentation and testing are difficult and reputations are built over decades. Hell, I think even the Furuno NavPilot has gone slowly, despite the great name and what I understand is very good performance. At any rate, Nautamatic stuck with it, eventually began to prove its technology, and—yeehaa!—just made the big leagues. Naturally a Gladiator autopilot is going to be a lot more attractive as part of Garmin’s already ambitious Marine Network, both to individuals and boatbuilders, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Garmin engineers help Nautamatic shine up its user interface a bit (though the “Shadow Drive” feature needs none). Of course, the bigger picture here is that Garmin—obviously intent on going toe to toe with Raymarine, Navico, Furuno, etc. over serious recreational boat electronics—just stepped a dite closer, ramping up a competition that I think is good for all of us. It’s also ironic that today I’m finishing up my PMY feature on ideal electronics systems! At least I recommended designing such a system so that it is easily modified or even replaced.
I had a hard time getting enthused about the original SeaKey (explained here, with humor, by good ole Bill Pike), because its communications link seemed pretty flaky. SeaKey v2 is a major upgrade from v1, adding an LCD interface and two-way satellite communications, but the goal remains the same…an OnStar-like service for boaters. There’s a call center able to both handle emergencies and deliver concierge service. Plus you get geo-fence security and simple monitoring—bilge, battery, and main power switch—when you're ashore. You can even send e-mails (though short, and hard to key in), and subscribers get a personal Web site where friends and family can they follow their cruises. Stolen boats have been recovered using SeaKey, as documented in this PDF, which contains the wonderful:
Miami-Dade Police officer Neubauer stated while talking to the SeaKey Response Center Coordinator, "[Darn], this thing works good!"
But I’m not sure that SeaKey has really caught on, or even if it has any direct competitors. Opinions, or references, anyone?
Well, Inmarsat’s 2004 projections on the size and timing of marine BGAN may have been a bit optimistic, but the fourth generation birds are in place and the service appears to getting more and more mobile, like this ruggedized Hughes 9201 (thanks, Russ!). “The unit supports speeds of up to 464/464 Kbps transmit/receive, has a built-in WiFi access point/router, and supports dedicated IP QoS at up to 128 Kbps. It is also software upgradeable to the high-performance Class 11 land vehicular rating, which will operate with Inmarsat's BGAN-X network expected to be commercially launched later in 2007.” I don’t yet know what BGAN-X is, but I’ve heard that this nearly global broadband service will eventually come to boats in Fleet 33 size antenna domes. Meanwhile Steve Dashew has sniffed out BGAN pricing, which seems pretty good, and is apparently experimenting with his own funky marine version using a FollowMeTV tracker (a neat product I’ve been meaning to Panbo about for some time). As I’ve said before, the Dashew family’s SetSail.com is a great resource.
I know I’m beyond the W.Weirdness window, but maybe you need a Monday distraction? Check out brand new MarineBiz online TV. There are lots of curious clips available but search on “Operation Training” and skip right to Part 4 for some work that would make Monty Pyth*n proud. Seriously, though, MarineBizTV is based in Dubai, and Dubai has become a marine industry buzz word. Why? Well, this country is building so much waterfront residential properties, like The Palm Jumeirah, that I’m told it will eventually exceed Florida’s by 50%, and new yachts, selling well already, are expected to number 100,000 in the next 10 years. Marine electronics opportunities…you betcha.
PS. Given that “The Vision of MarineBiz TV is to become the single point of contact and reference for all marine activities and information worldwide,” should I be worried?
PPS. Truly weird: I had a hell of time posting this silly entry, because it turns out that the correct spelling of Monty Pyth*n causes a .cgi error in this blogging software setup, a little joke by some programmer somewhere I guess!
Magellan has not been doing much in the North American marine market recently, and actually this new CrossoverGPS comes loaded with street maps and topos, but you need to purchase pretty pricey chart SD cards to use it on a boat. Nonetheless that little 3.5” touch screen appears to be quite able (don’t miss the demo). I’d like to test it versus the Lowrance iWay 600c, supposedly heading my way for delivery next week. Have a fine weekend!
I’m hesitant about using Panbo as a bug list, but, geez, I’ve been getting bombed with bug reports. So, here goes:
It seems that some or all Icom 802s, almost undoubtedly the premier SSB marine radios, have a clipping problem as noted here at Lectronic Latitude, and here at Icom itself.
A reader reports that his Raymarine E-Series Sirius Weather system messes up some NOAA buoy reports, specifically showing oddly high wind speeds. I don’t have a link to this but have seen correspondence with Raymarine which admits that it is their problem, not Sirius’s, and promises “to address it in a future E-Series software release” (which is less aggressive that the reader would like).
Another reader reports another weirdo: apparently some older Garmins stop sending valid NMEA messages at 23:59:59 GMT. Pascal and others are on the case at rec.boats.electronics. I also got some graphics from a Panbot which showed how a certain BlueChart v8 Bahamas chart was out of whack, putting the routes he’d carefully collected on a Blue Chart v6 into foul waters. They are worth an entry one day to reinforce the point that more than one navigation source is always a good idea!
Finally, the latest version of MaxSea apparently refuses to open virtual com ports created by the Bluetooth protocol stack, according to ShipModul which makes a nifty BT equipped multiplexer (I’ve been trying). Older versions of MaxSea supposedly do not have this problem.
I’m sure I haven’t investigated deeply enough, but I’m mystified by Si-Tex’s eLoran, and maybe you can help. I got excited about the eLoran when first announced, then discouraged that, according to Si-Tex, it only works with their charting systems and P-Sea WindPlot software (primarily for commercial fishermen). Supposedly other companies could develop eLoran compatibility, but none have, as best I know. Then I actually plugged a borrowed eLoran into a laptop running Coastal Explorer and was a bit surprised to find it delivered both GPS and Loran heading information no problem, and might have given a Loran fix if CE was able to convert TD lines to Lat/Long. But maybe not, as that NMEA 0183 LCGLC Loran position sentence seen above may not be kosher. Then I plugged the eLoran into a Si-Tex ColorMax and while it gets a good GPS position, the Loran heading doesn’t seem to work. and I can’t tell if its getting Loran TD’s (the manual doesn’t even mention eLoran), let alone the sophisticated features like RAIM (Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring) described in the eLoran manual (diagram below) . At any rate, I’m talking with Si-Tex technical support, but maybe some of you would check out the eLoran’s NMEA output. A log/text file is downloadable right here. Do those sentences make sense? Any chance you cab feed the data into a charting program or plotter, and see what happens?
PS Today I got a Franson GPSGate log file of eLoran NMEA for download here. While GPSGate is a terrific program, it will not play back this file; another mystery. But maybe someone can find a program that does?
I just finished a June PMY column about how the gauge manufacturer Faria is busting out into marine electronics. I visited their Connecticut factory in January and then saw more of their Maestro do-it-all touch screen system in Miami. I’m hot to tell you more about Maestro but am going to wait until Faria puts it up on its Web site (hint, hint). In the meantime, take a gander at the WatchDog 750. Right now it’s aimed at the commercial fishing boats mandated to report positions and catches—i.e. the Vessel Monitoring System, or VMS—but dealers are telling Faria that it’s suitable for the bluewater cruising market. No kidding! The 750 combines Iridium and GSM transceivers for “least cost” global tracking/monitoring/email. Who’d want that? Be sure to check out the demo of WatchDog’s server side abilities (though the link seems a bit flaky and may need a few tries). Then imagine a cruising version of this dual-mode comms integrated with a dedicated touch screen navigation, engine monitoring, digital switching, etc. boat PC. By the way, I think we’re going to see a number of multi mode marine comms devices like this and Syrens WiFi/cell.
It wasn’t surprising that Jeppesen Marine’s Miami press conference was meatier than Navico’s. Jep’s acquisition of C-Map had been through a many-month due diligence process and had already closed before the boat show. I came away thinking that existing C-Map customers, retail and OEM, have nothing to worry about, and that the products that evolve out of this combination are going to be interesting. For one thing, we were introduced to the new manager of the Recreational division, James Detar—to the left above, with Jeppesen Marine VP Tim Sukle and Nobeltec manager Shepard Tucker. Detar seems evolved for the task; he grew up in a Cape Cod boatyard, then went on to earn an advanced degree in cartography and work at C-Map for some 15 years, first in chart production, then business development. He even speaks fluent Italian. When asked if Jeppesen would change any of C-Map’s many existing OEM relationships, Detar said, very convincingly: “Absolutely not!” Sukle and Tucker described the overall vision of Jeppesen Marine, which is next generation charts/data/software (not hardware), both for OEM’s and their own products. Thus Nobeltec will help advance C-Map’s plotter OS much like it’s worked backstage on Simrad’s Glass Bridge and certain Northstar products. (I later spoke with a big C-Map OEM, and he’s excited). Tucker also described how Jeppesen is applying its massive resources to a set of Web services that will include facilities for users to share data, including POI info, with each other and the world. That made me smile.
Jeppesen, by the way, has a heck of a history. It didn’t seem to be in the movie (worth watching), but we were told that founder, and early mail pilot, Elrey Jeppesen famously said, “I didn’t do this to make money; I did it to stay alive!”
Just a month after the announcement in Miami, Navico closed its deal to buy Northstar, Navman, and MX Marine. I attended the post-announcement press conference in Miami, and even had a few words with Navico CEO Jens-Thomas Pietralla (above), but I really don’t know how this marine electronics conglomeration will play out. I did hear Pietralla say that he is not terribly concerned about overlapping brands, though the brands may become more “focused”. I’m guessing that may mean Simrad as the high-end yacht (and commercial) brand, costarring B&G particularly in sail, then followed by Northstar, Navman, and Lowrance as you move toward smaller yachts or further inland. But there’s also a promised sharing of technologies, not to mention differences in national tastes and distributing operations, and the unexplained “supply agreement” with Brunswick, to factor in. I note on the press release that Navico claims 2,800 employees globally, with revenues of close to 350 million dollars, and, besides its headquarters in Lysaker, Norway, it has development and manufacturing facilities in Egersund; Støvring, Denmark; Romsey, UK; Acton, Massachusetts; Tulsa, Okalahoma; Torrance, California; Ensenada, Mexico; and Auckland, New Zealand. Wow. What do you suppose this around-the-clock operation will mean to electronics?
We didn’t get a lot of submissions to the Ideal Marine Electronics project last week, but all are juicy. I’m particularly tickled with this diagram, sent in by an English sailor who writes his own blog with some good m.e. content. There are a few items that I still don’t understand, or may be mistakes, but if you look at the full image here, you can quickly see what gear is aboard Enterprise and how it works together. Go here to see the latest submissions, and then try to top Russ with a graphic explanation of your ideal system. Thanks!
You’re probably going to see a lot of cute headlines like the above, as West Marine had the wisdom to supply many a marine writer with a pair of Fanning Thongs, which are not only comfy and seriously technical but have a “church key” built into their soles. The literature says that this is for opening a “soda” bottle, but a Corona seemed the better test. Worked fine too, which is probably why thong reviewer “Jim E Jams” writes that “The ladies always go ooooh and aaaah when I pop a top with my reef fannings.” It’s an absolutely horrible weather day here in Maine, my excuse for another in the Weekend Weirdness series. I also updated the GrandCentral entry; thanks all!
Simrad introduced a Class B AIS in Europe today, and it looks very cool indeed. Besides the obvious, if unique, color plotting screen, this unit has a “Buddy Tracking” feature whereby you put in a list of your friends’ MMSI numbers and if they show up within AIS range, the A150 will highlight them. And if you have a “suitable SimNet equipped” DSC radio attached, you can cursor over an AIS target, select “DSC”, and the radio will initiate a call. I don’t know if the A150 outputs target data to other displays, via SimNet (aka NMEA 2000) or otherwise, and I also don’t know its price, but I’m guessing that it will get some serious attention. Mind you, of course, that the A150 is not for sale in the U.S. (see FCC languarge below, and click here for more on that subject, here for more on Class B in general).
This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.
Yesterday David Pogue of the New York Times wrote a pretty glowing review of a new Web-centered phone and voice mail management service called GrandCentral. The central idea is one single phone number for life, and the central technology seems to be some slick switching software that can, for instance, ring either or both of my physical phones instantly if, say, I want to initiate a call from my GrandCentral voice mail box (which imported a big Outlook contact list flawlessly), or decide to record a custom greeting for that test Call Me button up there. So, yeah I spent some time signing up for a free GrandCentral account and testing some of its many features, and I too am pretty blown away.
How cool is that? In this cropped screen shot, Coastal Explorer is plotting a SAR aircraft that’s using the special AIS message discussed here the other day. Rosepoint’s Jeff Hummel, who sent the screen, says they’ve never actually seen message 9 data before, but this function was already built into CE, as are other obscure AIS and DSC capabilities. Jeff’s also proud that “Coastal Explorer works just fine on VISTA”, unlike the competition (and alma mater) he likes to tweak. By the way, Rosepoint can see AIS targets cross country because they’ve got CE tapped into the IP feed of Shine Micro’s receiver network. Coincidentally I just learned more about this CE ability yesterday, even tried it, thanks to Penobscot Bay pilot Skip Strong, who’s responsible for the series of Shine Micro receivers that I’ve been enjoying via Shine’s public live AIS site. Strong is a big fan of AIS in general and this setup in particular, as he and his associates use it to avoid wasted time waiting offshore for a ship that’s forgotten to call in late. The CE screen below, bigger here, shows the Penobscot Pilot which may have just put Strong aboard the Alouette Arrow (off screen). I’ll have more one day on this gentleman, and also on a trip aboard the pilot boat which I’m looking forward to, big time.
You don’t have to hang around old salts too long to realize that many consider radar to be the primary electronic navigation tool (even before solid state performance), but I’ve wondered for some time if that wasn’t somewhat an artifact of the days before good chart plotters, not to mention AIS. I don’t mean that either replaces radar, but it seems to me that the primary nav tool has become the multifunction display (which even a lil Lowrance can be these days). Here’s some thinking along similar lines from that old salt Milt Baker:
“A friend with a Nordhavn 62 asked me whether I saw advantages to installing a 20 or 25 kW radar in his boat as opposed to a 4 or 6 kW radar. Of course, everybody knows that more is better. Or is it?
Well, I’ve updated the Ideal Marine Electronics pages with new entries, even pictures and diagrams. One professional installer has weighed in so far, and I thought it interesting that at the end of his high-end-gear-that-doesn’t-break list—mostly brands of IBM stature—is relative newbie Krill Systems. Which reminded me of this snapshot taken at the Ft. Lauderdale Show. Krill was demonstrating live how easily their software can monitor a boat via IP and Krill’s secure server. In fact, the volunteer yacht was in a marina somewhere in the Pacific Northwest and not a lot was going on, but apparently if you were a little bored in a show booth, you could keep track of when someone flushed a head, causing a noticeable rise in the black water tank (bigger image here)!
C.A.P. Major Tim Strickland wrote in: “In my free time, I'm doing an experiment to track Civil Air Patrol Search & Rescue aircraft using the AIS SAR Aircraft Position Report (AIS Message 9) in maritime environments. There's interest in other SAR air assets doing the same, and curiosity on whether vessels can (they should) see these aircraft when they're transmitting. Have you seen much regarding the use of AIS Message 9? I've gotten one aviation AIS transponder company to loan a unit to test/demonstrate this and perhaps pursue migration to AIS Message 25 (BFT). I'm looking for a low-cost receive, display & chart (with land, not just marine maps).” I know nothing about this SAR Aircraft message, but am hoping someone can educate us in the comments section (or you can email Tim directly). Meanwhile, if you’re thinking about building AIS transponders, CML Microcircuits wants you to check out their dedicated CMX processors. Their site is mostly above my head, but I think it’s another sign that AIS may get smaller and less expensive at a rapid rate. By the way, PMY has started to post my columns again, including my March one on Class B.
PS 3/13 Good question from Tim Flanagan, now at Navagear.com, who’s writing an article on the potential value of “Synthetic AIS”: “Is anybody broadcasting aids-to-navigation, hazards-to-navigation, or vessel-in-distress info from equipment NOT installed upon the affected vessel or object? By the way, have you encountered any nomenclature to describe this, besides Synthetic AIS and Virtual AIS?”
Today is not exactly like 12/31/1999, but there definitely are some questions about what’s going to automatically understand the Daylight Saving Change tomorrow, and what isn’t. For instance, will your Windows PC? Apparently that depends on update status, and ditto for Macs. Now, I already discussed the update planned for Nobeltec’s Tides & Currents, but it turns out that the 9.1.2213 service pack for VNS and Admiral 9 just finally released today, which seems a bit tardy! (I also understand that Nobeltec is not yet supporting Vista, but I’m not sure any other ECS is.) I got wondering about other tide prediction programs. It turns out that at least Coastal Explorer get its time from the computer it’s on. Why didn’t T&C take this easy approach? Well, if a program doesn’t know about DST, it can’t use it when predicting tides in the future. That’s why there’s no sign of the DST change tomorrow in CE’s tide table above, and bigger here, as calculated today. (I also notice that CE is figuring Rockland tides off of Bar Harbor, whereas T&C uses NOAA’s harmonics for Rockland, not wicked important but more accurate). As for all the chart plotters that can predict tides, I think they all base their time on GPS input plus or minus a local, user entered, offset. For instance, if you’re in Eastern Standard Time, five hours later than Universal Time (aka GMT), tomorrow you “spring ahead” to EDT by changing a Raymarine’s offset to -4.0.
I think I had a pretty good idea yesterday, encouraging you all to submit your visions of ideal gear set-ups, but I made it much too complicated. Now you’ll see below that I’ve simplified the categories into classic “good, better, best” terms, and also started (crude) Web pages for system descriptions that come via email. These could become valuable resources not only for my writing projects, but for anyone trying to think through a nav/comms system of their own. Isn’t it interesting, for instance, that the first two submissions in the “better” category represent two quite different approaches and brand choices (both reasonable, I think)? Richard’s came with these photos of his Mac Mini install, and his “Thanks to GPSnavX for giving me the privilege to not have to run Windows for navigation!”, which makes the second time this week that he’s gotten raves here.
I’ve already described the premise below, and here are some vague notions of the three categories, plus links to some responses. Please share your ideal gear ideas via comments or email. Thanks.
Good: About a 30’ cruising sail or powerboat doing short hops along coast with the occasional overnight trips; budget/value is important. Submissions so far (3/19/07).
Better: Typically a 40’ +/- cruising powerboat capable of trips, say, up into Canada or out to the Bahamas, including occasional overnight runs; the budget is good but not over the top. Sailboats in this category would certainly include racer/cruisers used for extended coastal cruising combined with ocean racing events like the Marblehead-Halifax and Bermuda races. Submissions so far plus Dan’s sailboat (3/24/07).
Best: 50’ and better bluewater cruisers, sailboat ready for a circumnavigation including high latitude sailing, powerboat capable of ocean crossings and remote explorations; very healthy budget. Submissions so far (3/24/07), plus check out Panbo entries on Bluewater and Spirit of Zopilote.
Alrighty, then, time to quit my whining and really put Panbo to work. And I mean YOU! I have a Sail feature assignment to “design ideal navigation and communications gear set-ups” for three different size but fairly typical saltwater cruising boats, and I’m doing something similar in PMY). Obviously it’s a terrifying opportunity to piss off all the manufacturers who don’t make the lists. And it’s also impossible. There’s so much good gear out there, and so many personal variables to what’s “ideal”—simplicity vs. whiz bang, reliability vs. new new, embedded vs. computer-based, single brand vs. many, good value vs. gimme-the-best…etc. etc. But let’s give it shot; it’ll be educational. Whether you’re a pro installer, boat owner, or a dreamer, tell us what your ideal set-up would be for. The only categories we’ll go for will be “good, better, best”, sail or power, as detailed in the entry above. Please submit your ideas in the comments section, or by email for addition to the Web pages I’ll create for each category (and please tell me if I can use your name here and in magazines). Equipment chosen should be at least real enough that you can order it. Of course we’d like to hear about the thinking behind your decisions, and detailed gear lists, photos, helm mockups, and system diagrams are all very welcome. In return you’ll get the chance to share your ideas, a possible magazine credit, and my gratitude.
Yesterday loaner units of two new Cobra VHF’s—the MR F80 B and MR HH425LI VP (who makes up such names?)—showed up on my doorstep. I plan thorough tests, but first some initial reaction to the handheld, which I wrote about when a similar model was introduced in Europe. If you read that entry, you’ll see that I liked the “Rewind, Say Again” memory feature in part because I pictured using it when I missed an important bit of a long NOAA weather forecast loop. Well, guess what? The memory feature does not work when you’re on the weather frequencies! Now, in many other ways the feature is quite well done, like that count down timer shown on the screen (my replay has 13 of 20 seconds left to play), the way you can record your own transmission (though you won’t know how without the manual), and the “REW” on screen showing if you have the recorder on or off. And, by the way, 20 seconds turns out to be fairly long in terms of VHF transmissions. (And, yes, there is something a bit unbalanced about the screen lighting, more on that later.) I want to whine some more about my wrong presumption re: replaying weather forecasts. I know that at least one knowledgeable person at Cobra read that entry, but did not think to explain this particular limitation to the feature (or missed it). That’s a shame, because such corrections are a real Panbo feature. In fact, to some extent I use these entries as raw writer’s notes, and that usually works well because I get the feedback of electronics enthusiasts and the trade, I can correct mistakes nearly instantly, and all that means that what I eventually write for print publication is more accurate. In fact, I just mentioned that same weather replay bit in a piece on this radio for Sail. It happens that it’s still fixable, but in a week or so it would be headed to ink where it might have put a wrong idea into the heads of possible Cobra customers for many months to come. Plus, I know that others in the marine press use Panbo as an electronics research tool. So, head’s up, manufacturers, please, please correct mistakes made here before they go further!
There were several reasons for that grin on John Gass, Electronics Manager at Wayfarer Marine, the most obvious being that he was beating a particularly nasty February Maine day by testing a possible upgrade system in his shop. Second would be how unusual the system was, closeup here, a Mac Mini running MacENC (review link here) and talking to both a Furuno RD-30 and a NavNet vx2, black box model. John was stressing the whole kit by inputing GPS either from the laptop running Nema Talker or a Garmin 192, plus he had an AIS simulator running on a PC in the next room and connected to the Mini via Bluetooth, and a radar simulator that Furuno apparently supplies to dealers. There was also a Keyspan serial-to-USB converter plus lots of wires and alligator clips involved, which made me feel better about some of my test setups, and may account for the embarrassed portion of that smile. Regardless, John got all the data—routes and waypoints included—running around quite well except for one little MacENC-waypoint-to-NavNet glitch. Despite good support from both companies, he didn’t get that one solved before the potential owner of this system—who already has a very nice one, but wants MARPA and AIS—decided to put the R&D on hold. At any rate good geek fun was had, and I also became acquainted with Firma Mats Kagstron’s AIS Simulator (source of many other NMEA software products) and Effective Solutions’ combined AIS and NMEA Simulation, both of which I’d like to investigate further. Thanks, John!
I kid you not when I say I’ve had my eye on this product for many months. Now some real info has come to Kelvin Hughes’ SharpEye Web site, though you have to register to get at it, and there still aren’t any actual radar screenshots up yet. No matter, this looks like a major development. SharpEye is a solid state radar transceiver that purportedly uses a tiny fraction of the power demanded by an equivalent scanner, yet is radically better at finding small targets in clutter. It also “extracts the relative motion of targets by measuring the phase of received radar echoes relative to the phase of the transmission.” The first shipping product, in June, will only work with large (4 meter!) existing Kelvin Hughes S band antennas, but they’re working on X band, and rumor has it that this technology will eventually come to recreational boats. I won’t try to explain how “monostatic pulse radar” works, because I don’t know, but you can detect the enthusiasm yourself in places like this Navigation News PDF.
If you read Power & Motoryacht, you may have noticed a contest we’re running on the last inside page. Each month there’s a beautiful full page photo of a distinctive coastal landmark from the vast archives of marinas.com. Inset is a Raymarine E-Series with screen like the above, only smaller. The challenge is to use the data on the screen to figure out where the landmark is. Well, we’re getting more correct answers than expected and I’m especially curious why because I’m making the screens (harder and harder). So help me out; can you figure out where this lovely place is? Did you do it using the screen, or by searching through marinas.com (for a long time), or some other way we never anticipated? Please email me your answers. By the way, the contest has some nice electronics prizes, but, sorry, the entries for this February edition are closed. If you’re good at this, you could always buy the March issue (try a big bookstore, PMY is not into newstand), or a subscription.
So while I was on my AIS soap box yesterday, Raymarine put up a podcast on the subject that I helped make a couple of months ago. It was done over the phone, and without a script, but some editor clipped out enough of my “ums and ahs” that I think it sounds pretty good. I’m also impressed by Raymarine’s apparent commitment to education over marketing. This was made well before I knew a thing about the Raymarine AIS250 and toward the end I went into my concerns about one-channel-at-a-time receivers. Raymarine could have easily edited that bit out of this sixteen minute podcast, but they didn’t. Not that Raymarine doesn’t know a thing or two about marketing. I was delighted to hear CEO Terry Carlson’s intro, in which he not only mentions Panbo, but spells out the URL! This is #8 in the podcast series; others deal with fishing, offshore sailboat racing, weather, etc. and you can even subscribe to an RSS/XML feed to be notified of new material. Pretty hip for a marine electronics company!
Word of ACR’s Nauticast B started an interesting, if sometimes fretful, conversation yesterday, and, whereas I’ve got the bully pit here (guest bloggers welcome), I’m going to exercise it. While the concerns about over-crowded AIS screens, Class B filters, and minimal big ship AIS plotting minded by minimal seamen all have truth to them—and should be part of every new AIS user’s education—I think their overall importance may be exaggerated. Here are some reasons why:
While I’m sure that San Francisco Bay in heavy fog can be terrifying, in my experience the scariest contacts with shipping weren’t in crowded ports but out in the open ocean, where any bridge with half decent equipment and personnel will likely be monitoring Class B targets. Lord knows there are some dunderheads driving very, very large objects out there, but I do not buy the notion that a high percentage of commercial sailors are oblivious to small boats.
This photo I took on Penobscot Bay illustrates another scenario. Shipping is light here—I’ve never seen two underway at the same time—but the traffic lane that runs down the bay crosses the route of almost every cruising boat going in or out of four active harbors. And it can get so foggy that…
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