AIS Engine 2
- Thread starter BigStu
- Start date
pvb
Well-Known Member
That's too deep for me, especially at this time of night
Never heard the phrase "buy cheap, buy twice"?
Bru
Well-Known Member
Ah yes, got it now
In the case of NASA I have actually done just that (Depth / Log) and it still worked out cheaper than buying once!!!!
pvb
Well-Known Member
Did you include the cost of replacing it? Seriously, these forums are full of stories of people with Nasa wind instruments which shed their windcups as soon as a light breeze gets up. It's always the same - "Nasa were very helpful" and "the new windcups didn't cost much", but nobody mentions the cost/inconvenience of getting to the top of the mast to change the wretched stuff. There's no way I'd go up my mast, so if it happened to me, it'd be a £200 boatyard job. That's why I'd never buy Nasa.
BrianH
Well-Known Member
Especially not their single active channel (alternating between both channels) AIS 'engine' when simultaneous dual channel AIS receivers are available for so little more. It can make such a time difference to obtain a ship's name from the 6 minute static data sentence if the active channel is out of synch with the target transponder.
A trivial defect? I was once very happy to have the fast ferry name from the AIS report to call on VHF as it was coming straight at me with a closing speed of 40 knots and only 1nm distant.
rogerthebodger
Well-Known Member
I lost count of the number of times I went up my mast to remove and repair my NASA LED anchor/tricolour lights. When sent back to NASA to find out why they kept failing with out a result just "we will repair for a cost.
BTW I am happy with my NASA AIS 2 engine
pvb
Well-Known Member
Agree entirely; I wrote in post #14 that a proper dual channel receiver is really needed if you want to get sensible AIS plots. People buy the Nasa engine because it's cheap, and they don't understand it only receives one channel at a time, perhaps because Nasa describe it as a 2 channel receiver.
BrianH
Well-Known Member
I suspect there had been some official objection to the lack of clarity and marketing obfuscation in the advertising because suddenly there appeared an addition:
"The unit can receive ships on either the A or B AIS channels. In default setting it alternates between the two channels."
Up to then only the 2-channel receive function was mentioned in any of the specification details, leaving the uninformed to erroneously infer dual, simultaneous reception like most of the competition.
But even that addition, "in default setting" could imply that non-default could be some sort of simultaneous function when, in effect, it means permanently set to one channel or the other.
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rogerthebodger
Well-Known Member
If you have a DSC VHF radio which can display the AIS data you can call any target direct without knowing their name using their MMSI number that cones in the first message more often that the message that contains the ships name.
BrianH
Well-Known Member
My rather early model DSC radio has no AIS facility. In any case, it may have been advantageous to transmit my request for intention on channel 16 for all to hear and that there was no acknowledgement other than an immediate swerve to starboard of the ship as soon as my call went out. A later call from the main shore radio station asking me if all had been resolved confirmed that impression.
rogerthebodger
Well-Known Member
You can select any VHF channel to have voice communicate on including 16. The main advantage for using DSC is that an alarm sounds to alert the target vessel thich IMHO is important and particularly at night. You can also make an all ships call to alarm on all stations that have DSC radios.
I had a similar situation one night down the South African coast when I could not raise a ship on a close course by calling on channel 16 (the vessel I was on did have a DSC radio but had separate raymarine AIS not connected to the radio). This was the reason I upgraded my radio system to integrate AIS and DSC.