Is AIS in the house?

Tim,

Thanks for the really great display and explanation. It looks like it is a very good tool, useful for information, techy enjoyment, and for safety. I do think it would be worth having, especially when transiting highly used commercial traffic areas in limited visibility situations. So far, I have been fairly successful in guarding my exposure to that type of incident, but I think of AIS kind of like carrying an inflated dingy or current flares and overly rated PFD's. Do I want them there? YES! Do I want to know how to use them? YES! Do I need to use them? Hope not. I am considering including AIS on board, whether it will be just a receiver or a fully active transponder may have some to do with what the admirable says, and either way it is down a ways on the boat priority list.
You are a long way ahead of me on the use of the C120, and I need to be doing some catchup there. Just need to be spending more time on the water for that. Oh, another good reason to be on the water more.

Thanks again for the neat chart displays and useful, understandable explanations.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
I drove over to Port Ludlow Wa today and picked up my new class B
AIS. Heres the deal I got a twenty percent discount and that made the
AIS 800 dollars and another 25 for the gps puck. GPS puck for
25 is a good deal I thought. They programed it for me and looks like
only thing left to to program is my baud rate to the C80. This looks
like a easy install. Operation for sending positions or not is a simple
push button. Push for on and push again for off. Looks so far like even
I can run it. Bob Heselberg Eatonville Wa
 
K7MXE":1z299i31 said:
I drove over to Port Ludlow Wa today and picked up my new class B
AIS. Heres the deal I got a twenty percent discount and that made the
AIS 800 dollars and another 25 for the gps puck. GPS puck for
25 is a good deal I thought. They programed it for me and looks like
only thing left to to program is my baud rate to the C80. This looks
like a easy install. Operation for sending positions or not is a simple
push button. Push for on and push again for off. Looks so far like even
I can run it. Bob Heselberg Eatonville Wa
Click to expand...

Good luck, Bob! We'll get you, me, and Merv out together and see if we can confuse the commercial traffic in the Puget Sound lanes. JUST KIDDING! :)

Assuming you're not already using the NMEA port on your C80, the baud rate should be the only "tricky bit". Let us know how that goes.
 
timflan":146v7drh said:
Actually, there are several AIS-on-the-web services. My current favorite is MarineTraffic.com, which I wrote about on Navagear.
Click to expand...

During our passage from Poulsbo to Seattle, I used this site to locate and identify the ships, in particular the ferrys. Very accurate. Good tool to use.

-Greg
 
Tim,

Really good site, especially if you have access to Internet while you are running. Thanks for the link.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon
 
So we are 2 years down the road here and I have just gone back and revisited this thread.

I am getting closer to a decision point and could use some updated info.

How are those of you who have the AIS liking them? Are you using them as much as you thought, or more, and are they as helpful as you wanted?

I had not much considered the stand alone (Like the Shine unit) but possibly now after going back and rereading it it may be in the running. On another thread, the Standard horizon GXT 2100 has been discussed, and that is actually where I was leaning. So now I would like to hear some comparisons of that system to the Shine unit particularly in use on the Raymarine C series units. Obviously, the Shine is a full AIS class B transceiver with the option to run in receive only mode, and the SH 2100 is only a receiver.

These units have been out and in use for awhile. Are they de-bugged? Are there tricks that you need to use to in order to get the most out of them.

Tim, thanks for your extensive reporting on the Shine.

The floor is now open for discussion. There is a parallel thread that includes the SHGX2100 in the discussion here:

http://www.c-brats.com/viewtopic.php?p=180286#180286

Thanks for participating.

Harvey
SleepyC

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My Shine unit is running strong, but Shine seems to be focusing its efforts on the commercial/government market primarily. They've sort of disappeared from the recreational scene. They still offer the products, but it's not their top priority.

However, recreational boaters ARE Vesper Marine's top priority, and I am EXTRMELY impressed with their line of AIS receivers and Class B transponders. See what I wrote about their products last week: http://www.navagear.com/2010/11/vesper-marines-standalone-ais-products-ok-now-i-get-it/

WatchMateRXHRPRG.jpg


Being a C-Dory owner, I was skeptical of the idea of a standalone AIS unit. Like I've got room for Yet Another Screen in my little 22! But as you'll see in the article I wrote, there is some pretty compelling reasoning behind Vesper's decision to offer only standalone units.

Another line I'm impressed with are the Digital Yacht products. Like Vesper, these folks are taking the basic AIS functionality and thinking seriously about how boaters might make use of it. I haven't written a lot about Digital Yacht, but I've got an article "in the pipeline" on their stuff. For now, you'll have to settle for this short item:
http://www.navagear.com/2010/07/digital-yacht-ais200n2k-at-panbo/

All that is not to say there is anything wrong with units from other brands. Heck, for receive-only AIS, even the cheap Milltech units seem to run fine.

In fact, I've still got a Milltech SR161 (single channel, receive only) that I'm not using. These are $189 new, and I'd let this one go for $150. You'll need a 9-pin serial cable to connect it, and you'll need an antenna to connect it to, so this is NOT "plug and play". But no AIS installation is! This is the one I had hooked up to my Raymarine C-80 when I first started experimenting with AIS.
 
Almost done with installing the Garmin AIS xponder (I went all Garmin). Unfortunately, I won't be able to give you real-world feedback until next season. But, I am pretty jazzed about AIS.
---
mike
 
My iPhone has a dandy app - shipfinder. Combined with the GPS on the iPhone 4, I can see my location with regard to commercial vessels, and know their name and direction.

The app is free.
 
Wow, just read up on shipfinder! Wish it were available for the android market but it isn't.

Jim B. why don't you have this one? Bet you do by the time the sun goes down!! :mrgreen:

Charlie
 
Captains Cat":17vctfry said:
Wow, just read up on shipfinder! Wish it were available for the android market but it isn't.

Jim B. why don't you have this one? Bet you do by the time the sun goes down!! :mrgreen:

Charlie
Click to expand...
Charlie,

Ship finder is available for the Android but not for free - it costs $4.83 (2.99 british pounds).
 
We have a Raymarine AIS500 integrated with our chart-plotter. I would compare it to radar in terms of effectiveness. Often we see things on it long before radar picks them up, and I feel comfortable having it turned on at all times, unlike radar that I only turn on at night or in the fog, but it is only good for AIS enabled targets.

I have no doubt that in a few years it will be as standard as radar on most boats. Whether or not to use advanced electronics, or just stick with radio, charts, and the art of navigation is a matter of personal preference, similar to a decision about whether to have navigation in your car, or just use paper maps.

AIS is not being just being used on boats; we have encountered several oil platforms, and one buoy, with transceivers.

The collision warning part is useless in the harbor as there are too many false alarms, but it is nice on the open sea, where it takes the guesswork out of figuring out CPA (Closest Point of Approach), and whether one needs to alter, or maintain, course. Also, by giving more advance notice, course can be altered more subtly; further in advance.

There have been no reliability issues with it thus far, and, in addition to the practical aspects, it is fun to see the statistics for some of the other boats we see on the bay.

David
 
I found AIS to be very handy when transiting the Ohio river last year.
I knew where the tugs were at ahead of time and they knew I was there as well. A few times they thought I was more than I was and came on the radio and asked how many barges I had. It also gave the folks running the locks a heads up that I was heading their way and my wait times were not bad at all. On Puget Sound in Washington there are a lot of targets so your kept busy turning off the alarm. I see more and more class B units on small boats. Mine is a Shine Micro made here in Washington and I use it with a multiplexer with my Raymarine C70. I had a very early one and I was on my own as far as making it work. Les at EQ marine found my glitch and got it going great. Bob Heselberg in Eatonville Wa
 
Here is what the specs say about models and the 500.

Raymarine Multifunction Displays Requirements

•A-Series (A50/A50D, A57/A57D, A70/A70D)
•C-Series Widescreen (C90W, C120W, C140W)
•E-Series Classic software version 4.29 or higher*
•E-Series Widescreen (E90W, E120W, E140W)
•G-Series (GPM400 Processors)
 
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