Droid AIS app

N

nimrod

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C Dory Year
1996
C Dory Model
22 Cruiser
Hull Identification Number
DOR22728A696
Vessel Name
'Berta's Boy
I ran across a nifty free AIS app for my Droid phone. It's called "Marine Traffic". As long as you have cell coverage, seems like it might be a cheap AIS alternative.

jd
 
Is the app free or paid and what category is it listed under, i.e. books and reference, communication, etc.

Thanks for posting about it.
 
Barry,

It's free and you can find it by searching in the "market".
I just tried it and it seems to work.

Cheers,
Merv
 
Thanks. I'll look tonight among the 1000 or so...
 
Hey Mark, it's not that bad. Just search on "AIS".

jd
 
I just pressed the little magnifying glass icon and typed in "marine traffic" and 6 apps appeared with the one I wanted at the top.

From what I could see of the other options they had nothig to do with "marine".

M
 
nimrod":dvmukk3y said:
Hey Mark, it's not that bad. Just search on "AIS".

jd
Click to expand...

I know. I forgot this in my post: :wink:

I found it buy typing in "marine traffic"; MarineTraffic.com
 
They are fun but just be aware of the delay with many of those apps, even the ones you pay for are not often current enough to rely on for navigation. It gives you an idea of what might be in your area but does not allow you to steer around a vessel. We have tested these in proximity to ships and the results were less than inspiring. No comparison to a real AIS system. We see normal delays of 1-3 minutes and occaisional delays of up to 5-8 minutes. Thats a lot of ground a 18 knots.
 
I was just at Richmond Beach Park just this a.m. (working). I noted a tanker and Foss tug traveling south, just outside the park, so I checked the app. Yep. They were there, including pics, ship info & track. Now how "exact" were their positions? I have no idea. But based on my observations and the small Droid X screen, it was pretty good.
 
If you bring up the details of a vessel it will tell you how many minutes (or hours) ago the information was received. I have seen a number of times when the positions remained "frozen" for long periods so it is wise not to rely on them too much compared with a real time AIS.

But, as you noted, great fun to just look out to sea and be able to identify a passing ship on your cell phone :shock:

Just beware of CG ships which have a habit of "disappearing" while doing 30 Kts.


M
 
I have been using this on my laptop for sometime now. It is great to check the area and then look out at the ICW and see and identify what is passing by. They have a feature to accept uploads of your pictures. Here is a link to one I snapped of a tug that was in our area a couple of weeks ago.

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/showal ... #top_photo
 
I just tried it, and I notice it shows tows on the Mississippi. This could be very useful there. How many times have I come around the last bend before a lock, only to discover a tow ahead of me. There was that nice riverside restaurant 5 miles back I could've stopped at, had I known.
 
I just downloaded also. What a neat program for free thanks for the tip.
 
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