A follow-up to my original posting:

I have been using my Pocket PC program to capture and process the AIS data
being received by the SR162 receiver, and just wrote a quick program to
diaplay the tracks on Google Earth. Here is a link to my boat's blog, where
I have put some GE screen images, as well as the GE track-file:
http://www.sailvalis.com/wordpress_1/?p=129

By the way, I did visit the San Francisco VTS facility, and learned that
there are no AIS repeaters in the Bay area. This propagation is due to
tropo ducting for sure.

-Paul