Droid AIS app

N

nimrod

New member
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
 
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
 
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 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.
 
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