Does someone knows what AIS is about and what kind of apparatus is required
to be able to display commercial trafic on the screen using Fugawi 4 ENC ?

http://207.181.106.97/robin/news_ca_...otation_hr.jpg
AIS - Automatic Identification System Plug in a third party AIS radio
receiver to view commercial vessel traffic directly on top of your ENC or
other chart.

AIS is what commercial ships use instead of DSC to identify themselves.
If you get connect a Class D VHF radio to a newer chart plotter, you will
see a cursor marking the position of a vessel broadcasting a DSC signal.
Shippers have been doing this with AIS. I recently saw a manufacturer
advertise an add on AIS receiver for about $600. I don't remember what other
equipment you need to display the position information.

"André Langevi" wrote in message
...
Does someone knows what AIS is about and what kind of apparatus is
required
to be able to display commercial trafic on the screen using Fugawi 4 ENC ?


http://207.181.106.97/robin/news_ca_...otation_hr.jpg
AIS - Automatic Identification System Plug in a third party AIS radio
receiver to view commercial vessel traffic directly on top of your ENC or
other chart.

"André Langevin" wrote in message
...
Does someone knows what AIS is about and what kind of apparatus is
required to be able to display commercial trafic on the screen using
Fugawi 4 ENC ?

http://207.181.106.97/robin/news_ca_...otation_hr.jpg
AIS - Automatic Identification System Plug in a third party AIS radio
receiver to view commercial vessel traffic directly on top of your ENC or
other chart.


André,
Look here www.aislive.com, to see it live, or if you want to buy one, here
is what it looks like
http://www.allgadgets.co.uk/ag/produ...pf%5Fid=AG3928

regards,
Philip.

"William Andersen" wrote in
:

I recently saw a manufacturer
advertise an add on AIS receiver for about $600.

My captain asked me where we'd put it when it's delivered from
England....display and all....(sigh).

It's my fault. I sent him the webpages....(c;

I hear signals on the two channels in Charleston Harbor on my scanner, now.
Can't wait to see how they look on the new AIS radar...

--
Larry

To receive and display AIS data you need a dedicated AIS receiver. They come as single or dual channel receivers. The advantage of dual-channel receivers is that they display ALL of the info broadcasted via AIS as the Transponders alternate the freqency after each broadcast.

You may have a look at www.yacht-ais.com

Best regards
Holger

How many people here think AIS is a good idea? It just seems like
jack-booted thuggary to require it on the bigger boats.

Me's be thinkin thar be some mighty happy pirates.

-Name Withheld For Security Concerns wrote in
:



How many people here think AIS is a good idea?

If it saves one sailor's life, if it saves one ship from a collision, it's
got my vote. The ability to see the ship in the channel around that bend
up ahead on a busy waterway, alone, is more than enough incentive to have
it.

It just seems like
jack-booted thuggary to require it on the bigger boats.

The ONLY way to get a shipping company to install anything that doesn't
make a direct profit, regardless of its safety-at-sea function, is to make
it MANDATORY. Ships sometimes seem "disposable" to them. We also require
them to have certain other safety equipments, like lifeboats. That's
thuggery, too. Compliance is the only way to get it installed in a
reasonable length of time on the fleets.


Me's be thinkin thar be some mighty happy pirates.


I've thought of that, too. What a great way for terrorists to target a
ship, having all this information about it right on their laptops. The
pirates know where the ships are and when they leave, anyways. It's
published in the newspaper in Charleston and doesn't seem to be a problem.

We'll install the receiving system on Lionheart when it's delivered. The
transponder will come, once shipping has their $4000 units and prices drop
to something reasonable for a low-powered VHF FM transceiver and a ROM-
based modem the hams have had for years. This system is a modification of
APRS, Automatic Packet Reporting System, invented by Bob Bruninga, WB4APR,
at the Naval Academy. He let the hams have it and it's really neat.

AIS' ability to time slot, not just broadcast in the blind, is a vast
improvement. Time slot is what your cellphone does to share channels with
other cellphones. The cellphone has more digital technology than AIS at a
much higher frequency, with much more miniturization. It sells for $250,
which I figure would be a fair price for an AIS transponder that didn't
have a display, just a NMEA 0183/NMEA-whatever-is-new data output jack so
we can see the AIS targets on the various chartplotters/radar displays we
already have installed in the boats' networks. The pleasure boat market
for AIS is much larger than the APRS market for hams, so this price point
should be doable. Of course, boaters will be paying double or triple this
price because it will be a "marine" unit from your local marine ripoff
theives....just like their plumbing parts.

When these units become available at more reasonable prices, every yacht
not engaged in drug smuggling should get one. Your little worthless radar
reflector's blip on the containership's radar is NOTHING compared to your
yacht showing up as a HARD target with all that information on the bridge
of the containership's AIS system. How great that will be....instead of
being run down in the middle of the night, of course.

Price 'em cheap and make 'em mandatory for EVERY boat that leaves the
harbor for sea is a great idea.....and make them RUN them all the time.
Sure would make the ship's watches a lot easier.

On 9/22/05 8:32 AM, in article , "Larry"
wrote:

-Name Withheld For Security Concerns wrote in
:



How many people here think AIS is a good idea?

If it saves one sailor's life, if it saves one ship from a collision, it's
got my vote. The ability to see the ship in the channel around that bend
up ahead on a busy waterway, alone, is more than enough incentive to have
it.



Me's be thinkin thar be some mighty happy pirates.


I've thought of that, too. What a great way for terrorists to target a
ship, having all this information about it right on their laptops. The
....


You make some good points Larry. I was mainly thinking of the piracy angle,
but I guess the master could just turn off the transponder in areas where he
has to be concerned. I thing the self organizing TDMA is kind of neat. I
had no idea that HAMs created the system's. Prices will come down.

-Regards

-Name Withheld For Security Concerns wrote:


How many people here think AIS is a good idea? It just seems like
jack-booted thuggary to require it on the bigger boats.

Me's be thinkin thar be some mighty happy pirates.

Arrrrr! We pirates don't need no AIS to find you!

Blackbeard

--
Jack Erbes in Ellsworth, Maine, USA - jackerbes at adelphia dot net
(also receiving email at jacker at midmaine.com)

Dave Baker wrote in
:

http://smartradio.ebigchina.com/sdp/...369-74856.html


Wow! Thanks for the information, Dave!

I wonder if this isn't one of the companies the AIS inventors in Sweden are
warning about. There seems to be a lot of unlicensed (read that royalty-
free) manufacturing going on across the planet.

I don't see any reference to FCC type-approval or acceptance for this VHF
transmitter, so be informed without it and putting it on the air you are
opening yourself up to $10K/day FCC prosecution and probably import
prosecutions from the US Attorney for importing an unapproved
unit....assuming, of course, you are in the USA. Other countries have
similar, if not even more stringent, regulations to prevent competition
with the bigboy NMEA members. Is it FCC approved that you know of?

--
Larry