AIS/gps aerial

[Picks]

Afternoon all,
I have a Standard Horizon gx2100 ais/vhf radio. Currently don't have it connected to a chart plotter or gps aerial. Looking through YM this month and saw the digital yacht gps 150 and was wondering if I could connect the radio to this to enable the ais on the radio to work or do I need an ais engine and aerial combination?
Cheers.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Your existing VHF antenna should receive the AIS information; it is a VHF transmission.

 

[Caer Urfa]

Afternoon all,
I have a Standard Horizon gx2100 ais/vhf radio. Currently don't have it connected to a chart plotter or gps aerial. Looking through YM this month and saw the digital yacht gps 150 and was wondering if I could connect the radio to this to enable the ais on the radio to work or do I need an ais engine and aerial combination?
Cheers.

I have the same SH radio GX 2100e connected to a SH 300i plotter working from the radio's VHF aerial only and both work fine.

Your radio uses the standard VHF aerial which I assume is ontop of your mast?

This is the first time I have had a plotter with an 'inbuilt' aerial, the plotter is mounted in my wheelhouse and to date I have found no problems with reception or quality.

You should not need an AIS engine which is more expense.

Mike

 

[Vara]

Are you asking for a GPS source to feed location to the radio/AIS unit?

if you don't already have a plotter which outputs NMAE, then probably the simplest/cheapest way of doing this would be to employ one of Angus McDoons' Yapps and a GPS mouse, cost about £35 plus a bit of wiring and time.

Details here;
http://yappelectronics.co.uk/GPPS.htm

Angus is a forumite and will also help with any probs you may have with Tilley lamps.

In use the AIS using the radio on its own is not ideal, it comes into its own when twinned with an SH plotter like this...other suppliers are available!...

http://www.force4.co.uk/5794/Standard-Horizon-CP-180i-Plotter-Internal-Antenna.html

This would ramp up the cost to about £450 with charts, but would display AIS targets very clearly and supply a GPS source for the radio.

 

[Caer Urfa]

Are you asking for a GPS source to feed location to the radio/AIS unit?

if you don't already have a plotter which outputs NMAE, then probably the simplest/cheapest way of doing this would be to employ one of Angus McDoons' Yapps and a GPS mouse, cost about £35 plus a bit of wiring and time.

Details here;
http://yappelectronics.co.uk/GPPS.htm

Angus is a forumite and will also help with any probs you may have with Tilley lamps.

In use the AIS using the radio on its own is not ideal, it comes into its own when twinned with an SH plotter like this...other suppliers are available!...

http://www.force4.co.uk/5794/Standard-Horizon-CP-180i-Plotter-Internal-Antenna.html

This would ramp up the cost to about £450 with charts, but would display AIS targets very clearly and supply a GPS source for the radio.

Wow thats an expensive CP180i plotter at £324.95, save £25 here at £299.99 http://www.marinechandlery.com/standard-horizon-cp180i-int-ant-plotter

You may as well go for a 300i 7" at £519.95 http://www.marinechandlery.com/standard-horizon-cp300i-internal-ant-plotter

PS I have nothing to do with this chandler only it's our local.

 

[Vara]

Wow thats an expensive CP180i plotter at £324.95, save £25 here at £299.99 http://www.marinechandlery.com/standard-horizon-cp180i-int-ant-plotter

You may as well go for a 300i 7" at £519.95 http://www.marinechandlery.com/standard-horizon-cp300i-internal-ant-plotter

PS I have nothing to do with this chandler only it's our local.

Which is why I stressed that other suppliers are available, agree that for most people the bigger the better for plotters but not having info re boat size or budget difficult to tailor response.

 

[Picks]

Wow thats an expensive CP180i plotter at £324.95, save £25 here at £299.99 http://www.marinechandlery.com/standard-horizon-cp180i-int-ant-plotter

You may as well go for a 300i 7" at £519.95 http://www.marinechandlery.com/standard-horizon-cp300i-internal-ant-plotter

PS I have nothing to do with this chandler only it's our local.

The price of a chartplotter is one of the reasons I asked the question if I would get away with just installing a gps/vhf aerial. The rrp for the digital yacht 150 is £150 compared with the above prices for chartplotter. I have no need for another chartplotter as have a handheld one and am quite happy to use the ais display on the standard horizon radio.

 

[Vara]

The price of a chartplotter is one of the reasons I asked the question if I would get away with just installing a gps/vhf aerial. The rrp for the digital yacht 150 is £150 compared with the above prices for chartplotter. I have no need for another chartplotter as have a handheld one and am quite happy to use the ais display on the standard horizon radio.

I'm getting confused here, you seem to be combining VHF aerial and GPS, they are seperate items.

So you have an SH AIS/VHF GX2100E radio to make it work you need a standard VHF aerial (not one optimised for AIS reception, as it will have to deal with all the other frequencys) and a GPS source outputting NMAE, for that Angus' YAPP would be ideal. With that kit you shouldn't need any Digital yacht gear at all. All in cost about £100.

Worth having a mooch about Salty Johns site for info on aerials. No connection other than as customer.
http://www.saltyjohn.co.uk/metzmantavhfantennaaerial.htm

BTW that radio is very good, pleased with mine.

 

[Buck Turgidson]

Afternoon all,
I have a Standard Horizon gx2100 ais/vhf radio. Currently don't have it connected to a chart plotter or gps aerial. Looking through YM this month and saw the digital yacht gps 150 and was wondering if I could connect the radio to this to enable the ais on the radio to work or do I need an ais engine and aerial combination?
Cheers.

Yes. Your radio has no gps position so it doesn't know where it is and therefore the AIS function cannot position the signals it receives relative to you. Any GPS receiver with standard NMAE output will allow AIS functions and many chart plotter include GPS receivers but if you are not connecting to a chart plotter then a stand alone GPS receiver is needed. Given the small cost of gps chips I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would manufacture an AIS receiver without an embedded GPS receiver but they do so you need to add a GPS source. The Digital Yacht 150 is a very good choice as it can use any of the current or future GNSS and uses SBAS to give a very accurate position.

 

[prv]

I have the same radio - as Vara says, it's a good one. I'm going to assume you have it properly connected to an aerial, as apart from getting confused between VHF and GPS you haven't mentioned not being able to use it as a radio.

I believe the radio disables the AIS display when it's lacking position information - although it knows where the other ships are, it doesn't know where it itself is, so it can't tell you anything useful like a range and bearing or whether the ship is on a collision course. Without a GPS, it also won't be able to include your position in a DSC distress call. In summary, to use the radio as anything other than a voice transmitter / receiver, you need to connect some kind of GPS to tell it where it is.

Although you can wire it to a chartplotter, in my opinion the better and simpler approach is to use a dedicated GPS "puck" or "mouse" - just a small box on a wire that receives GPS signals and emits position information in NMEA format. You can buy these as special marine items for marine prices; you can also buy generic ones from eBay for around £25, which is what I've done. A fellow forumite, "Angus McDoon", has made the latter option a little easier by selling a converter box that makes the wiring and power supply really simple - see http://yappelectronics.co.uk/GPPS.htm . All-in price if you do that should be around £35.

(I don't think Angus's site has a checkout system as such, you have to email him. I'm sure he'd be able to help you find the right GPS unit on eBay at the same time.)

Once you have a GPS connected, and give it a few minutes to find itself the first time, you should see time and position information on the radio screen. If you press the "AIS" button, you should then see an AIS "radar-style" display. You can also display the targets (assuming there are some ships near you) as a list by pressing one of the soft-keys.

What you will swiftly find is that the built-in AIS display is almost useless in any real traffic because of its small size. The real use of the AIS receiver in this radio is when it's connected to an external display, either a special AIS unit or a plotter, but that's a different question.

Pete

 

[Picks]

Thanks for the replies and info re : angus's gps boxes. I'm sure all this is in the manual but thats on the boat 130miles away. I agree its very good radio with clear speaker. Looks like I'll have to stary saving for chart plotter wiyh inbuilt gps receiver.

 

[GHA]

. Looks like I'll have to stary saving for chart plotter wiyh inbuilt gps receiver.

Is there a fixed gps on the boat you could take a feed from?

 

[Picks]

Yes there is an old garmin gps unit next to the radio by the chart table below. I forget the exact model (152 ? ). It gives out basic gps location, sog etc.

 

[GHA]

Yes there is an old garmin gps unit next to the radio by the chart table below. I forget the exact model (152 ? ). It gives out basic gps location, sog etc.

That probably outputs the nmea data through a couple of wires in the little wiring loom that powers the 152. If you dig out thee manuals you just need to connect nmea output on the 152 to nmea input on the radio and off you go. You might need to set the 152 to output nmea in a menu somewhere. Assuming the radio takes nmea 0183, hope so, I want one as well.

 

[Vara]

Yes there is an old garmin gps unit next to the radio by the chart table below. I forget the exact model (152 ? ). It gives out basic gps location, sog etc.

Brilliant then we've established you have a GPS and a VHF aerial.

if it is a 152 then it should be simple using the power data cable to connect it to the radio.

Manual here;
http://www.kadlec-broedlin.de/GPS152_OwnersManual.pdf

The relevant page is at top of this post.(formatting not my strong point).

I'll leave it to the more knowledgeable to advise on what colours go where and what settings to put in the plotter.

If it works job done for pennies....result.

 

[Vara]

That probably outputs the nmea data through a couple of wires in the little wiring loom that powers the 152. If you dig out thee manuals you just need to connect nmea output on the 152 to nmea input on the radio and off you go. You might need to set the 152 to output nmea in a menu somewhere. Assuming the radio takes nmea 0183, hope so, I want one as well.

Yes it does take NMAE 0183.

 

[ditchcrawler]

I have a Garmin 152 feeding my S/H 2100 and it works fine.Garmin said the 152 will feed up to 4 listeners.In reality they said it will feed more if they have a low signal requirement like a repeater. My 152 feeds the S/H radio,a Vesper AIS display,my Yeoman plotter and a Nasa GPS repeater in the cockpit with no problem.It also feeds a position(lollipop) to my radar but I don't have that on very often.