AIS & Safety

Anchor Light strobing

2011-11-30T21:01:16Z

Orca makes an LED anchor light that strobes supposedly by having a nav station switch reverse the polarity of the power feed. Does anyone know what little circuit to make to add a nav station switch that would do this on other LED's.

Having just moved my boat to the coast, I am being told by more than one voyager that 'at sea' this is a valuable safety aid - even if not technically approved!!

Antenna proximity VHF/AIS/Ultrasonic Wind

2011-11-19T21:42:22Z

My masthead has a VHF antenna (GAM can with whip and windex) mounted 4 inches VHF top bracket of lopolight which is mounted on two one inch spacers above mast top plate. 12 inches forward and 26 inches up (Lopolight VHF top bracket and glomex aluminum extension tube makes the base of Maretron WS100 stand 28 inches above mast top plate.

I have not had any interference notable between sensors and radio - however VHF is not constantly broadcasting. If I add AIS with a splitter to this antenna I will have a lot of broadcasting.

First alternative:

I have a radar pole at stern. Put AIS here? will have cell and wifi antennas relatively near it. What interference here?

Second alternative. Put 48 inch Glomex extension tube. Issues with this are mechanical right off the bat: Is cable long enough? Is mount strong enough?

Furuno Dealers

2011-08-30T23:43:48Z

Can anyone suggest a good reliable Furuno Dealer as I,m setting up a 24Ft Fly Bridge
Thanks Cliff

Marine VHF with AIS and DSC functions

2011-07-09T22:50:10Z

Hello,
plan to buy AIS - VHF DSC RO4800 from this shop http://www.seashop.eu/en/vhf-dsc-class-d/18-marine-vhf-dsc-ro4800.html
Can someone share his expirience with such equipment. Do you know this shop ?

AIS receivers compatible with humminbird Chartplotter

2011-07-08T20:44:31Z

Hello

Someone know which AIS receivers to use with 1197C SI ?

Best Regards

Erland

Norway

Why did BR24 3G NOT see 200' Ferry 300' away in the fog?

2011-06-22T15:54:21Z

OK, major kudo's to my new 3G (with Zeus 8) for picking up everything in the harbor including my trailing dinghy. But why in the middle of Long Island Sound in thick fog did it NOT pick up an approx. 200'x30' tall ferry approaching me from 90-degrees and crossing 300' in front of me - either coming, when it stopped or going??! Everything else except this massive structure was clear as can be.

Still waiting to hear an answer from Navico.

New AIS transcievers

2011-06-14T22:46:38Z

Over a year ago the FCC approved an AIS Class B transciever on a single board about the size of a poker card. Shouldn't we be seeing some of these boards coming to market about now? Or is the market for existing AIS B units a bit underwhelming to manufacturers?

SEAKEY still beneficial?

2011-02-01T00:02:56Z

As a safety resource, SEAKEY was my first pick in 2005 when I purchased my Silverton. Although it did not come with SEAKEY installed, it was wired for it. I purchased the unit and had it installed by a reputable marine electronic company.

After a couple years, the display would cycle through shutdown then attempt to power up over and over. I called SEAKEY and after some discussion, agreed to purchase a newer unit which now had cellular service in it.

Everything was fine until last summer when the display problem re-occurred. The only remedy for me was to crawl down under the cockpit storage and unplug then plug-in the unit.

I don't want to suspect the reliability of this device but I have to wonder, with the lack of information, reports or press releases since 2008, is this technology worth keeping? Are new boat OEMs still installing this as a sea going "on-star"?

Raymarine AIS500 Transponder

2010-12-31T17:39:12Z

For sale, brand-new, still in the box. Selling due to having had an unexpected opportunity to buy a used Class A. The Raymarine will be delivered with your MMSI and vessel details programmed! $975.00 with free delivery within ContiUSA. Contact bremerspeck at gmail dot com

AIS Output Formats

2010-12-27T19:01:40Z

I was just doing a little research about my own AIS plans on s/v Deep Playa and I'm a little confused about the output data stream from AIS receivers.

The ICOM MXA-5000 shows in the specs that is has a +/- pin out connector (Rs-232c) and that the format is VMD

The Comar AIS-Multi (to compare apples to apples) claims to have a USB and NMEA 2000 connection. The docs for their AIS-2000 products claims to output NMEA formatted messages and has a mapping of AIS messaes to HMEA PGNs. http://www.comarsystems.com/manuals/AIS2000_manual.pdf

Digital Yacht's product comparison page (thank you DY!)
http://www.digitalyacht.co.uk/files/AIS%20RECEIVER%20COMPARISON%20TABLE.pdf
Shows NMEA 0183 output, NMEA 2000 output and a USB output with no spec on the format.

My question is this:
Given a common solution where you'd want this data availalbe to an existing VHF, a PC Nav Package and a chartplotter I'll need to look for an AIS Receiver (or Transceiver) that can connect to my VHF and will it be enough to output to the NMEA network as well?

I'm trying to make this a general question, maybe an overview of integration options is called for...?

Thanks!
-p

Heading Sensor, 3 axis vs. 2 axis rate gyro?

2010-11-20T11:53:25Z

This is an e-mail exchange I have had with Airmar. I am trying to decide if I will suffer and how much if I buy the PB200 with the wireless weather features because its gyro is only a two axis. I certainly put a premium on accurately knowing my position. The primary reason for the purchase is to buy a heading sensor to enhance my radar's capabilities and work with an autopilot.

Will your PB200 or the GH2183 do the same job that I was expecting from the H2183? I would like the added functions of the weather information if the heading sensor function is going to be the same in my application for both sensors. I will be using the heading sensor to talk to my Garmin HD radar on the screen of my GPSMAP 3210.

Can you clear this up for me please before I make my purchase.

While they are very similar the H2183 uses a 3 axis rate gyro and the PB200 uses a 2 axis rate gyro. This difference will make the H2183 more stable in dynamic conditions.>

I want a stable heading sensor, right? How stable?

Overlaying AIS data onto radar display

2010-11-04T15:08:14Z

The Raymarine AIS250 and AIS500 specs indicate that they can send AIS target details and overlay them onto the radar screen of Raymarine MFD's. I am wondering whether this is a Raymarine specific function, built into their devices or if this something that can be done, using other AIS equipment? In other words, could I use a Vespermarine Watchmate and use the output to overlay the same onto a Raymarine radar screen?

Broadband radar display

2010-10-14T01:45:43Z

We are on a circumnavigating sailboat presently on an island in Malaysia. Our Raymarine radar has crapped out and we plan, in large part based on this website, to replace it with the Lowrance BR24. Our problem is the display. We do all our navigating on charts or a PC via Maxsea and have little interest in displaying anything else on the display for the radar. All our instruments are Autohelm ST30s, the main GPS is Furuno and the autopilot is a Raymarine 7000. All interconnections are via NMEA0183.

Also based in good measure on this website and a discussion with Jeff Robbins of Vesper is our plan to purchase shortly the Vespermarine AIS.

Although we might want to overlay the AIS data on the radar it is not a high priority.

Our problem is to find a reasonably priced display for the BR24 radar. The lowest priced option we have found is the HDS 5 but not having any to look at we fear it is too small.

Any comments or suggestions would be most appreciated.

Jim and Helen sv GAIA Tioman island Malaysia

AIS Receivers for RayMarine C70 MFD

2010-08-23T03:44:14Z

Hello Knowledgeable Ones!
I'd like to add AIS capability to my RayMarine system and I'm currently smitten with "Analysis Paralysis". After owning a '75 Ericson 23 with basic electronics (Depth, Speed, VHF) for many years, we purchased a '97 Catalina 320 with copious amounts of RayMarine electronics installed by the previous owner. The MFD is a RayMarine C70 classic series. At first, I thought it would be easy, and desirable, to add a RayMarine AIS500 into the Seatalk bus. As I became more enlightened on the RayMarine hardware, I found that the AIS500 is not supported on the C series Seatalk bus (only Seatalkng)and I would need to provide NMEA 0183 input to the C series MFD. After a few Email exchanges with RayMarine support made me feel like an idiot for asking some simple connectivity questions about connecting THEIR AIS Transceiver with THEIR C series MFD, I've come to the understanding (I think) that I could hook anyone's AIS device to the C70 via the NMEA input because that's it's only option. (It's amazing to me that RayMarine doesn't have a specific hookup kit/guide for their own products with cabling, connectors, etc... All they have is the wiring harness that comes out of the device with bare NMEA wires and a simple diagram...) The AIS500 is expensive too. My Better-Looking-Half thinks we could make due with just an AIS receiver. I guess I have to agree. So I noticed the reference to the Digital Yacht's AIS200 series in this blog. It looks like the AIS200Pro may be a great choice for me. I'd also like to get the AIS data on my laptop. I bought the RayMarine PC-Seatalk-NMEA device (E85001) but haven't installed it yet. My ultimate goal is to have all the Seatalk NMEA data and the AIS NMEA data available on the PC. If anyone out there has had this kind of environment or goal with a core of RayMarine C series hardware, I'd like to know what your experiences and recommendations are. Thanks in advance...
~Smitski

Class B Transponder

2010-07-28T21:36:50Z

This year I used my new West Marine branded AIS Transponder. I was disappointed that on the two occasions I needed to contact a ship, one did not see me as an AIS target until we were 3 miles apart, and another only at 1 mile. I don't consider these short distances adequate or helpful.
Is there such a thing as a linear amplifier for the output?
I can receive other ship's signals from up to 50 miles away.
Can anyone else let me know what their experience has been?