Is AIS in the house?

[hardee]

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

[K7MXE]

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

[timflan]

[Dene]

[hardee]

Tim,

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

Harvey
SleepyC

[timflan]

I just added a new vessel picture there, too:
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/shipdetails.aspx?mmsi=338855000&header=true

[Bad Boy]

Has anyone used the Furuno FA30 AIS or know anyone that has? It looks like it will hook up to my existing Furuno NavNet system.

[Dene]

[timflan]

[hardee]

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

[timflan]

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/



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.

[Mike...]

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

[El and Bill]

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.

[Captains Cat]

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!!

Charlie

[rogerbum]