That's a big leap John. You will need a Ship Station license if you sail
internationally period and AIS has nothing to do with it. Your statement is
correct only if you sail within US waters. If you have to have a Ships
Station license, what difference does it make with either class A or B?
Steve

"John Navas" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:59:28 +0000, Larry wrote in
:

Bruce in alaska wrote in
:

Followup.... well the guy called "Me" back, Twice now, but I was out
of the cabin both times, so we are exchanging Phone Messages.... I did
learn that "AIS is licensed to the vessel, on it's "Radio License", as
"Transponder", and therefor can NOT be fitted on a vessel that does
NOT have a valid Ship Station License". So if you want to have AIS,
you MUST license your vessel, and receive a Ship Station License....
No Blanket Licensing allowed... I suspect, but have yet to get a firm
conformation, that AIS, as a Transponder, doesn't REQUIRE an Operators
Permit or License, as once it is programmed with the vessels IDent,
Callsign, Etc, it then just repeats that information, in a FIXED and
Defined format, therefore wouldn't need Operator Intervention, and
therefor doesn't require a Licensed Operator, like an MF/HF Radio
would.

But, each time you sail, the operator must program into AIS the
destination, ETA, current draft, etc, that does change on each leg of a
voyage. That would, I'm guessing, require a GMDSS Operator's License to
program, which is about half the AIS message format.

Not required for AIS Class B.

Well, we DID answer the pressing question that NO, casual sailboaters
will NOT just plug in an AIS to their GPS and antenna and go blindly
around transmitting on AIS to anyone who listens with no license or
training like they do VHF FM voice. It's not a plug n play device.

AIS Class B is essentially play and play.

Definitive AIS information:
http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/enav/ais/

--
Best regards,
John Navas, publisher of Navas' Sailing & Racing in
the San Francisco Bay Area http://sail.navas.us/