geoid96
Active member
That's certainly possible, but more than adequate heading accuracy can be achieved with GPS Compass receivers such as this one from Hemisphere.
AIS receiver - can i use a vhf aerial splitter?
- Thread starter Burnham Bob
- Start date
That's certainly possible, but more than adequate heading accuracy can be achieved with GPS Compass receivers such as this one from Hemisphere.
ianfr
Well-known member
ukmctc
New member
yes you can, but there is a definate power drop on transmission power from the vhf when ais is actively receiving.
Bobdehler
Member
For the price of a splitter you can buy a dedicated AIS receiver with aerial.
A bit of "best practice" is where the AIS receiver and the GMDSS receiver are protected from the GMDSS transmitter by diode switching within the unit.
Standard Horizon and Garmin amongst others have this option. By the time you buy an AIS Receiver and splitter, you can get a Standard Horizon GX2100 for around £290 or a Garmin VHF300I for quite a bit more. ( I have GX2100 and AIS out works very well into two chartplotters )
On the other hand the rail mounted stand alone AIS receiver/antenna might be fine for what you want, and costs a lot less.
Cheers
Bob
PeterR
Member
I have a splitter for the VHF and AIS receiver and the system works extremely well. AIS range for ships is about 25 miles and I have not noticed any drop in VHF range, although I accept there may well be a slight drop in poor conditions. Mounting a separate aerial for the AIS on the pushpit gives about 15 miles range which is good enough but I like having the longer range because I then know when entering a shipping lane if there are any ships that can possibly pose a problem during the crossing.
I found an unexpected benefit of the splitter this year. The VHF appeared to be working OK. All calls to friends’ yachts and harbour control worked as normal. However, I noticed that the AIS range had fallen to about 15 miles. When I checked the connection between the internal and external VHF cable I found slight corrosion. After nipping off half an inch of cable and resoldering I had my full AIS range back again. This presumably also increased my VHF range which I would probably not have realised was affected for quite some time so the AIS receiver in effect acted as a check on VHF performance.
I found an unexpected benefit of the splitter this year. The VHF appeared to be working OK. All calls to friends’ yachts and harbour control worked as normal. However, I noticed that the AIS range had fallen to about 15 miles. When I checked the connection between the internal and external VHF cable I found slight corrosion. After nipping off half an inch of cable and resoldering I had my full AIS range back again. This presumably also increased my VHF range which I would probably not have realised was affected for quite some time so the AIS receiver in effect acted as a check on VHF performance.
lw395
Well-known member
That just says your installation is poor.
Your corroding connections are a very good argument for keeping the two aerials separate.
There is something to be said for raising the AIS antenna well above the pushpit though.
But in practice, the bigger faster ships have their aerials nice and high, so the AIS horizon is plenty.
The smaller ships, ferries, fishing vessels etc etc, are much less likely to be steering such a straight course, so analysing them from 15 miles out is just a distraction.