AIS radar

whiteoaks7

whiteoaks7

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Joined
29 Nov 2002
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570
Location
South Wales, UK
www.seasolutions.co.uk
Anyone any experience with AIS radar yet? I'm considering the NASA AIS engine sold by a number of outlets for around £120 so my questions are basically about compatibility with Radar (furuno), and available laptop software.
 
Only very few conventional radars are compatible with AIS - mostly professional sets. This is because the target consolidation (merging of radar and AIS "echos" from the same object require a lot of calculating) Some of the combined plotters with radar overlay may do the trick, or an update might be available soon (or later).
Laptop software and charting software is, in the newest version, normally able to display the data. Two types of software are available: charts with AIS overlay and AIS-only software that displays in a radar-like manner on the PC.
 
I fitted a NASA ASI Radar (screen display version) last summer with the aerial mounted on a pole above the pushpit. It worked really well and picked up all the merchant shipping we could see and also other ships 24+ miles away. The only ships it did not receive were some fishing vessels which may have been under the 300 ton mandatory fitting requirement. Its plotting was accurate with some comercial shipping which passed us quite close! Our cruise was cross channel and the SW coast on our way to Holyhead. It,s definetly worth fitting, good value and combined with radar would make sailing in fog almost stress free!!!!! Hope this helps.
 
There are still not that many PC plotters that are able to use AIS.
Perhaps the best is Maxsea, which is pure quality, but you pay for it.
AIS is an add on module, bringing the price to about £799.
Latest Nobeletec Admiral 8 version also can, but again not cheap..and a very "American" product.

Seapro in its full version at £450 will also handle AIS data, and is a good choice as it comes packaged with all UK and Eire Vector charts.

Seclear, which is free, is able to use AIS data, but you will need to scan your own charts into it and it is this software that comes packaged with the NASA engine.
It is a great little program, but let down by it's incompatibility with any of the major chart formats on the market today...although it will handle the older BSB3 and below charts, if you can get hold of these, or if you are prepared to spend a lot of time either scanning or screenshot grabbing charts and calibrating them. There are also a lot of older SHOM/Fugawi charts around on the web, if you just want to cruise the solent, west country and the channel.

Software on board "SOB", an Australian product, can also do AIS. This is initially free for a timed trial version, but only uses C-mapNT charts, which you will need to purchase.

If you wait about a month then the new "Maptech" (licensed from Rose Point Nav) system called Chart Navigator Pro will be released in UK and Germany.
This will be available in three versions "lite" Standard and Pro.
The pro version will do AIS and ARPA, plus a load of other stuff..its got great reveiws in the states.
It utilises either Maptech BSB charts or S57 ENC's
The German Price is 298 euros so I expect Evo will be doing it at a little over £200.
Apart from the range of charts it can use, in everything else it's pretty comparable to Maxsea, Tides, Currents, Weather Overlays...etc etc.

Steve.
 
I copy this from rec.boats.electronics:- (not radar, but chart plotters)

RayMarine C/E Ploters now support AIS receivers

The best just keep getting better. Improved for 2006, Raymarine is
proud to announce a whole host of new features for both C-Series and
E-Series.

New features include:

AIS Support. Overlay and track AIS (Automatic Information System) data
on your C-Series radar or electronic chart display from your NMEA 0183
compatible AIS receiver.
Fully customizable data screens. Select from multiple combinations of
digital, analog and graphical displays.
Electronic engine instrument data. Monitor the output of your NMEA
2000 or J1939 compatible electronic engine system.
NAVTEX Support. Monitor and display navigation safety messages,
weather bulletins and more from your NMEA 0183 compatible NAVTEX
receiver.
Software upgrades to support these new features on your existinc C & E
Series displays will be available soon.
 
AIS on C series?

I received an email from Raymarine tech support to say that the screen refresh was not sufficient to display AIS data on them ... hence it would only be avilable on their E series ... are they now changing their mind??
 
New 2006 features for C series...

The 2006 Raymarine catalogue lists the following new features for the C Series, available Spring 06:-

* Navtex weather data input support
* AIS data input support
* Engine monitoring support for NMEA2000 and J1939 compatible engines
* Customisable instrument and data screens, including a compass rose and sea temperature graph.
 
I've seen it working on an E Series, I supplied and connected an NASA AIS to one of their test boats.

Worked okay but it did have a few bits of data missing. Is was a test version though.

Don't expect to see the software released before April.

Don't ask me about C Series, I don't know.

Kev
 
I've sent an email to Raymarine tech ... I'll let you know what they come back with ... /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
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