Following a thread on uk.rec.boats about pirates ......

All vessels over 200 tonne are supposed to carry AIS transmitters. Does
anyone know what the regulations are if you *want* to carry AIS being
under 200 tonnes? How does anyone police the use of the system. It
appears to me that there is no registration id of the transmitting
equipment and anyway that could be falsified.

Has anyone considered what would happen if someone was to start
transmitting false 'echoes'. The original idea was to masquerade as a
naval ship if threatened by pirates. It might at least make them think
twice if they thought there was a chance that someone with bigger guns
than them was nearby.

Ian

In article .com,
"nimbusgb" wrote:

Following a thread on uk.rec.boats about pirates ......

All vessels over 200 tonne are supposed to carry AIS transmitters. Does
anyone know what the regulations are if you *want* to carry AIS being
under 200 tonnes? How does anyone police the use of the system. It
appears to me that there is no registration id of the transmitting
equipment and anyway that could be falsified.

Has anyone considered what would happen if someone was to start
transmitting false 'echoes'. The original idea was to masquerade as a
naval ship if threatened by pirates. It might at least make them think
twice if they thought there was a chance that someone with bigger guns
than them was nearby.

Ian


AIS is supposed to ID via the MMID of the vessels DSC System, so that
any receiving GMDSS operator can call the vessel, so Identified, via VHF
DSC, and make passage arrangments.

nimbusgb wrote:
Following a thread on uk.rec.boats about pirates ......

All vessels over 200 tonne are supposed to carry AIS transmitters. Does
anyone know what the regulations are if you *want* to carry AIS being
under 200 tonnes? How does anyone police the use of the system. It
appears to me that there is no registration id of the transmitting
equipment and anyway that could be falsified.

Wrt. identification: AIS transmits ship's name, MMSI number, IMO
registration number and callsign. MMSI number is transmitted in every
message, and functions as the key used to correlate messages coming from
the same transmitter. The other fields are not mandatory.

And yes, all of these fields can be falsified. You could also state
false statements about depth, length, etc. easily, as these are also
just entered into the AIS transmitter's configuration. Transmitting a
false GPS position, speed and course would also be possible, but would
require more work.

Anyone with a DSC radio will (should) have a MMSI number. Anyone with a
radio license will have a call sign. Only the IMO number will remain
blank for non-IMO classified ships.

--
Kees

nimbusgb wrote:
Following a thread on uk.rec.boats about pirates ......

All vessels over 200 tonne are supposed to carry AIS transmitters.
Does anyone know what the regulations are if you *want* to carry AIS
being under 200 tonnes? How does anyone police the use of the system.
It appears to me that there is no registration id of the transmitting
equipment and anyway that could be falsified.

Has anyone considered what would happen if someone was to start
transmitting false 'echoes'. The original idea was to masquerade as a
naval ship if threatened by pirates. It might at least make them think
twice if they thought there was a chance that someone with bigger guns
than them was nearby.

Ian

You are all working on the assumption that pirates use radar, AIS, GPS to
track their victims. Most of them just cruise around aimlessly looking for a
likely target. It's difficult to disguise a 35-foot cruising yacht as a navy
frigate.

If your boat is big enough, and your pocket will stretch to it, try an
Apache attack helicopter, fully armed and ready to go. And don't forget to
dispense the chaff......................

Dennis Pogson wrote:
nimbusgb wrote:
Following a thread on uk.rec.boats about pirates ......

All vessels over 200 tonne are supposed to carry AIS transmitters.
Does anyone know what the regulations are if you *want* to carry AIS
being under 200 tonnes? How does anyone police the use of the system.
It appears to me that there is no registration id of the transmitting
equipment and anyway that could be falsified.

Has anyone considered what would happen if someone was to start
transmitting false 'echoes'. The original idea was to masquerade as a
naval ship if threatened by pirates. It might at least make them think
twice if they thought there was a chance that someone with bigger guns
than them was nearby.

Ian

You are all working on the assumption that pirates use radar, AIS, GPS to
track their victims. Most of them just cruise around aimlessly looking for a
likely target. It's difficult to disguise a 35-foot cruising yacht as a navy
frigate.

If your boat is big enough, and your pocket will stretch to it, try an
Apache attack helicopter, fully armed and ready to go. And don't forget to
dispense the chaff......................



Haha, at night we could try projecting a naval vessel onto the sails?
Gets us back to our favourite subject he how to power the projector
from the batteries :-)

--
Kees

The MMSI is normally pre-programmed into the AIS unit by the manufacturer or protected by an admin-password. However, on most units the name and type of vessel can be altered by the user.
Most states consider faulty AIS data as a reason for a closer inspection, but around 5 percent of the ships transmitting AIS data today transmit faulty data anyway (has decreased from around 15-20 percent when AIS was mandated last year).

Kees Verruijt wrote:
Dennis Pogson wrote:
nimbusgb wrote:
Following a thread on uk.rec.boats about pirates ......

All vessels over 200 tonne are supposed to carry AIS transmitters.
Does anyone know what the regulations are if you *want* to carry AIS
being under 200 tonnes? How does anyone police the use of the
system. It appears to me that there is no registration id of the
transmitting equipment and anyway that could be falsified.

Has anyone considered what would happen if someone was to start
transmitting false 'echoes'. The original idea was to masquerade as
a naval ship if threatened by pirates. It might at least make them
think twice if they thought there was a chance that someone with
bigger guns than them was nearby.

Ian

You are all working on the assumption that pirates use radar, AIS,
GPS to track their victims. Most of them just cruise around
aimlessly looking for a likely target. It's difficult to disguise a
35-foot cruising yacht as a navy frigate.

If your boat is big enough, and your pocket will stretch to it, try
an Apache attack helicopter, fully armed and ready to go. And don't
forget to dispense the chaff......................



Haha, at night we could try projecting a naval vessel onto the sails?
Gets us back to our favourite subject he how to power the projector
from the batteries :-)

Pirates in the Straits of Malacca don't use AIS, they use binoculars, it's
cheaper.