AIS gone bonkers

Sans Bateau

Sans Bateau

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I am so pleased all these boats chose to transmit their AIS position in the Solent this weekend, with visibility down to around 8 - 10 miles it would have been difficult to see them without. So thanks to everyone with an AIS transmitter, I am most grateful to you. If I had zoomed out, the whole of the Solent would be red arrows.

Note to self. Must add a switch to the AIS receiver so I dont have to put up with this display of 'look what new toy I have'


_DSF0199_zps5106ed22.jpg
 
Cannot think why you did not overlay your radar on top as well, had a split screen with depth on one half of the screen and had a few way points with a route. You could have had all that and more if you had invested in the latest, the new Zeus Touch - it could have had, all this, and your laylines as well and historic wind data. You can have it all on your ipad and you can enjoy it all from the comfort of your berth.

And to think we used to rely on a trailing log, woolies and a magnetic compass.

Jonathan

Great opening image!:) no wonder they call Oz 'The Lucky Country'! we have no idea what the real world is like.

PS - You could water ski at that speed!
 
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galadriel said:
I am so pleased all these boats chose to transmit their AIS position in the Solent this weekend, with visibility down to around 8 - 10 miles it would have been difficult to see them without. So thanks to everyone with an AIS transmitter, I am most grateful to you. If I had zoomed out, the whole of the Solent would be red arrows.

Note to self. Must add a switch to the AIS receiver so I dont have to put up with this display of 'look what new toy I have'


_DSF0199_zps5106ed22.jpg
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I was quite vocal against this some while back but have to own up now in my re-incarnation post- stroke and post moving back from a liveaboard mobo herein Florida to our new non- liveaboard Benny Oceanis 36CC sailboat. we have just ordered a new box of GArmin electronic toys with a new NMEA 2000 setup with cockpit mounted plotter/gps, hd radar with MARPA, AIS Transceiver and full wind instruments. THE Garmin AIS Transceiver however has what they call her a 'piracy' mode which switches off transmissions of your own positions etc when you wish not to be seen. Looking here at AIS On line sites showing our new playground areas (USA east coast, Intracoastal waterway, Bahamas and Abacos, there are a lot of plonkers seen transmitting AIS 24/7 whilst in their marina berths. I will try not to join the plonker club but will have ourAIS transmit running when on passage. I know big ships will probably not have class B AIS targets displayed overlaid routinely on their radars or plotter screens but hopefully the big boat recreational cruisers ,like the 70ft plus stinkboat mob private cruisers and some of them are like X-Channel ferries in size it seems, that are out and about often at high speeds with their crews in full party mode wil see us on their AIS displays , plus we will receive theirs and of course we will have our own radar capability also to see them with AIS overlaid. Big ships are easy enough to see either visually in clear vis. and also make good radar targets the technology is very clever but often the dickheads using not so.... Also over here in paranoialand USA there are frequent calls for all boats regardless of size to transmit their positions, in the holy name of preventing terrorism, to the Dept. of Homeland Security as good a reason in my book for having a silent/invisible /piracy mode on my AIS as I can think of.

we have had and been very gLaD OF RAdaR fOR twenty or more years and have got very used to using it in anger in UK/EU waters in all conditions. I found it disturbing over there to hear folk say that AIS replaces radar and I have now heard that same claptrap spouted over here, including from the manager of a local West Marine store who as a liveaboard cruiser really should know better IMO or at least to shut up!
 
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Lazy Kipper said:
Some of us have been saying for a couple of years that class B transmission is a retrograde safety move.
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And I am one of them; having to turn off the CPA alarm because of them in the Adriatic where high-speed ferries can be a very real risk.

The OCPN developers seem not to recognise that filtering out Class B targets is a valid feature request, which I can somehow understand. A forumite in another thread did point out that another display software has an adjustable SOG filter so that low speed targets do not constantly trigger the alarms, which would be a good compromise.
 
galadriel said:
I am so pleased all these boats chose to transmit their AIS position in the Solent this weekend, with visibility down to around 8 - 10 miles it would have been difficult to see them without. So thanks to everyone with an AIS transmitter, I am most grateful to you. If I had zoomed out, the whole of the Solent would be red arrows.

Note to self. Must add a switch to the AIS receiver so I dont have to put up with this display of 'look what new toy I have'


_DSF0199_zps5106ed22.jpg
Click to expand...
I think it really comes into its own in the marina.
 
Yes, you do sometimes get thick fog in confined waters.

I recall one early start when a cluttered AIS picture would have been tricky. With only a couple of fast moving targets things are much easier to assess. These leisure broadcasters seems to be a money spinner so, alas, we are stuck with them.
 
doug748 said:
Yes, you do sometimes get thick fog in confined waters.

I recall one early start when a cluttered AIS picture would have been tricky. With only a couple of fast moving targets things are much easier to assess. These leisure broadcasters seems to be a money spinner so, alas, we are stuck with them.
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many now on the East Coast mainly boats that dont go far ( mebe i should get one :rolleyes:)
 
Its almost impossible to use AIS in the Solent without the alarm disabled, it would be going off constantly. Next job for me will be to wire a switch into the Comar receiver, only switching it on when crossing the channel or at least outside the Solent.
 
One benefit of paper charts is that they don't come with little plastic coloured triangles.

Mind you, I could always raid the Monopoly set: would houses and hotels do?
 
galadriel said:
Its almost impossible to use AIS in the Solent without the alarm disabled, it would be going off constantly. Next job for me will be to wire a switch into the Comar receiver, only switching it on when crossing the channel or at least outside the Solent.
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My plotter (Garmin) has a menu that allows AIS info to be defaulted out - standard setting for me in the Solent.
 
With AIS on in anything like crowded waters the chart data is obscured; showing class B AIS is like the chart plotter showing you the colour of the water that day - how fascinating - what what I want are the rocks and the sandbanks - the bits that'll sink me if I hit them. That was the beauty of class A but all we've got now is a whole lot of yachts thinking they're being seen on plotters when actually most of us have turned AIS off and the ships have filtered it out.
 
LK, I suspect you can add to that, if we were to rely on AIS for collision avoidance rather than Mk1 eyeball in places like the Solent you would see a significant increase in collisions, heads buried in screens rather than working out who is where.
 
Your post is the reason I have opted for a separate display, the Vesper Watchmate.This can also filter out signals which are not on a collision course depending on what parameters you have set. Although I must admit the fact that my plotter does not have the AIS facility was a major factor in my decision.I bought it direct from the manufacturers in New Zealand for £199 including delivery and taxes.It is a few pounds more now .
 
ditchcrawler said:
Your post is the reason I have opted for a separate display, the Vesper Watchmate.This can also filter out signals which are not on a collision course depending on what parameters you have set. Although I must admit the fact that my plotter does not have the AIS facility was a major factor in my decision.I bought it direct from the manufacturers in New Zealand for £199 including delivery and taxes.It is a few pounds more now .
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I've done exactly the same.

I wasn't originally going to connect the AIS signal to the plotter at all, but then it occurred to me that adding an AIS overlay to the radar picture might be handy on occasion. So I might connect it, but via a switch so I can turn it on and off.

I certainly won't enable alarms on the plotter, they're fairly primitive. The Watchmate will handle that part.

Pete
 
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