AIS 'Radar' - Does it do it for you?

Robin

Robin

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AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

With all last winter's arguments that raged about the NASA so-called 'Radar':-

Is it the ideal low power 'Radar' device for small boats?
Does it do what it says on the box?
Has anyone used it in practice to contact another vessel?
Has anyone used it in fog and if so with or without proper radar?
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

Only seen demos, albeit with live traffic, and certainly impressed with what it provides for a relatively low cost.

Plan to fit the NASA engine into the PC, over the winter. I wanted to interface it on to my Maptech software, but the boat show chaps didn't know when this would be available - certainly not on my current version.

This will mean running at least 2 applications at once, and as the briney was coming in through a leaky window straight onto the chart table on Sunday, I had better attend to that first!
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

Parahandy was singing its praises this weekend.

Although he wasn't on his boat he showed us the prgogram on his laptop and was able to show all the details from a previous passage.

I must admit I was impressed with the info it gave and you can see how it will become a valuable aid in the future.

I think he had installed it all himself for about £125.
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

I'm not really into electronics on the boat, but I asked the same question of a friend who sails an Elizabethan 30, and who fitted AIS this year. He reckoned was the canine's gonads and it did exactly what it said on the box.
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

I do not have a radar set on board so I fitted a NASA detector last spring and it does what is claimed - the screen can get pretty cluttered at times and north-up only on the screen can be a pain, but I have got used to that and in two cross- North Sea passages this year it was very useful crossing shipping lanes as it can"see" over the visual horizon.
I use it in conjunction with my Yeoman plotter which makes location and direction of targets pretty straightforward.
I have not used it in fog but have at night with the same result - I have not had an occasion to communicate with any target, but most do display their mmsi numbers should you wish to (I prefer to keep out of their way!)
I have found it a useful aid that works well and is relatively inexpensive.
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

in a word, yes

not in fog, yet, although that what it was bought for - coupled with radar. However, at night it is very good so I am reasonably confident about AIS in general should I meet fog. The Nasa engine with a standard whip aerial mounted on the pushpit has a range of 12-18m and it is a strange experience planning collision avoidance with a gaggle of ships well below the horizon.

I fitted it 2 months ago and used it for 3 channel crossings and think it considerably less stressful crossing shipping lanes these days.

The software i use (cost 25 euros) is shipplotter and has better target identification, cpa stuff than SeaClear .. in my opinion. There are also fixes (thro' shipplotter) to the Nasa engine which make it work a bit better although you can apply these separately but it does indicate a better understanding of what's going on than other s/w packages.
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

this came up while you were on your cruise, Para, and I recalled that you mentioned to me that you had to upgrade your laptop. Was it really necessary to get more power for AIS ......... or just an excuse for a new toy? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

no .. the old laptop had win 98 and this s/w just works better on XP. Also, rather than use or buy digital charts when I already had perfectly good stuff, I was downloading landsat satellite images for shipplotter AIS and then overlaying gps data such as nav marks, tracks etc. the landsat images are very accurately generated and in most, the forts in the eastern solent are just visible. Anyway, these jpg files do display much better on the new laptop ..
 
Re: I was anti

and it won't surprise anyone to hear that I still am.

My worry about AIS as it is are still there...

Lots of big things don't show up on it.
If rubbish is put in then rubbish comes out.
There is well documented reliability problems with the transponders.
It promises too much.

People in shipping treat it with the respect it deserves. It's another thing, that sits there an whir's, that they have to fiddle with every now and then.

Like so many of these rushed international implimentations it's all a bit weak. I'm hoping they'll get it right eventually.
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

Install Radar first - AIS is not a substitute. My last "close encounters" in channel fog were with a fishing vessel and with another yacht - and neither would have AIS transmitters. AIS is great for telling if big ships are altering course though - provided they're transmitting rate of turn info.
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

That is my feeling too and I do have radar and have had for many years. However so many folk last winter were convinced that AIS 'Radar' was the answer to a small boat prayer I wondered if the reality was better or worse than expected.

FWIW I still heard this year many VHF calls on Ch 16 'calling the ship in position Lat...Long' or 'ship on my port side' etc from other ships and from Joburg Traffic Control and Ushant Traffic Control in the Channel. This has to mean they did NOT have the callsign, name, MMSI number etc that they should have had on their screens IF AIS was being received as it should, which suggests there are still holes in the coverage be they deliberate, accidental or from equipment failures.

For the time being I will keep my money in the piggy bank I think.
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

Well, with Radar an unlikely addition to our boat I am intending to purchase an AIS receiver next season prior to a channel crossing. Hopefully I'll be able to integrate with Maptech but if not then the basic display will have to do.
It will not make me trust it in fog, but it will give a little more confidence when the ship that you've been tracking for the last 10 minutes appears over the horizon.
Of course, the Ship that appears on the other side that isn't transmitting AIS appears as a little shock, but hopefully that is not likely to happen (too often!).
I think, if used as an AID to nav and collision avoidance rather than relied upon, the AIS engine/display etc etc could be very useful.
 
If...

If radar systems only showed the vessels which wanted to be shown, I wonder how many of us would bother buying radar?
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

hmm .. forgot to mention that the landsat images are accessed thro' shipplotter. Don't know what altitude it flies at but resolution good enuff to sea jeanneau owner pissing in the wind ... !!
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

Yes, we have the NASA "AIS Radar" fitted. We wanted 'real' radar, but couldn't quite stretch the money that far.

Has it worked? By and large, yes. We came across the Elbe at Cuxhaven in fog, relying on the set to tell us about big ships. We reckoned that small craft would be slow enough and manoeuvrable enough to be avoidable, but that fast-moving big ships would be dangerous. It worked.

Since then we've crossed back from the Channel Islands in poor vis (about a mile or less). The AIS Radar gave us the warning that we needed. But this was in or close to an area covered by VTS, and we reckoned that there would have been warnings if a big fast ship had been transitting the area without its AIS operating.

The most interesting plot came when one contact was shown making 2 knots and "sailing". We wondered, but then the name "MIR" appeared. It was just off our direct course, but a small alteration had the three-master appearing through the murk. Lovely sight.

Next year, proper radar. But I suspect we'll keep our AIS version as well.

One point about it though. As someone else has said, it's north-up only. So you have to work out which way your own boat is pointing relative to the ones on the screen. A heading marker would make interpretation a lot easier.
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

"AIS - Radar" - This name really annoys me, it is not Radar and to sell/describe it as such is totally misleading. It does not show; any vessel that has turned it's set off, warships, most fishing vessels, yachts, small vessels (under 300 tons), rouge vessels (ie set broken or wrongly set-up) or non-ship type objects. In relation to ships the type of vessel that will not show up are just the type of vessel that are less likely to keep a good bridge watch and/or obey collision regs.
Of course it is a useful aid but it is NOT radar. The mind set that thinks of it as radar is a dangerous one.
Anyone who thinks it is radar will one foggy night, end up dead.
Give me MAPRA any time.
 
Re: AIS \'Radar\' - Does it do it for you?

I. too. have AIS and radar and like MARPA it complements rather than substitutes. A couple of points that have not been mentioned. Firstly, it can look around corners so in narrow channels and fjords, etc you can see the oppposition a bit earlier than you otherwise would and secondly it displays the target vessels MMSI number so you call them up directly if you wish. This together with showing the course in all seastates something which MARPA is poor at in ruffstuff makes it a useful addition to the navtoys.

In short, I think that it is a good piece of kit and regardless of the naysayers a worthwhile investment. At £150 for the engine, less than the price of a couple of good meals, FFS.
 
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