AIS - transponder or receiver only?

[sailorman]

AIS is quite useful to identify the ships name of vessels heading towards you if you need to call them up.

And that`s about it

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/

 

[pagoda]

+1

The CPA alarm function would be really useful but for the yachts that transmit.

Still, the clusters of them give a distance and bearing to the nearest marinas.

CPA drove me to distraction , passing stationary yachts, probably unoccupied, in harbours, with no other traffic around to be concerned about. That said, commercial traffic often continue to transmit even while loading or tied up waiting for orders...

 

[sailorman]

CPA drove me to distraction , passing stationary yachts, probably unoccupied, in harbours, with no other traffic around to be concerned about. That said, commercial traffic often continue to transmit even while loading or tied up waiting for orders...

my open cpn system differentiates anchored from moving. no cpa from moored

 

[Rivers & creeks]

It is certainly a problem on the Orwell, where I am currently berthed three or four boats seem to have their AIS on permanently

Just out of interest, why would that cause you a problem? I know it's a funny thing for people to leave switched on, but surely you'll not be using AIS to avoid other boats in a marina?

 

[Robin]

Just out of interest, why would that cause you a problem? I know it's a funny thing for people to leave switched on, but surely you'll not be using AIS to avoid other boats in a marina?

almost non-stop collision warning alarms that you can only silence for a shortwhile before they come back. when I first turn on my instruments breaker the AIS alarms start going befor I have even got the cover off the cockpit display and can silence them by turning them off. leaving the alarms turned off doesn't work as the thing resets to default 'on' on power off.

I understand too that with my Garmin transponder and probably others are similar, the transmitter bit is running as soon as it is powered up and it gets it's power from the NMEa backbone cabling ergo it will transmit even with the AIS receiver/ plotter display turned off. Another bit of daft logic from a software design man who is not a user of the product and hasn't checked consequences in practical terms.

 

[LadyInBed]

I only turn my alarms on when I'm having a snooze

 

[Robin]

I only turn my alarms on when I'm having a snooze

mine are 'off when we are home but powering on the instruments has the alarms set to go again as the default on powering on, garmin logic apparently, not mine.

 

[Rivers & creeks]

almost non-stop collision warning alarms that you can only silence for a shortwhile before they come back. when I first turn on my instruments breaker the AIS alarms start going befor I have even got the cover off the cockpit display and can silence them by turning them off. leaving the alarms turned off doesn't work as the thing resets to default 'on' on power off.

I understand too that with my Garmin transponder and probably others are similar, the transmitter bit is running as soon as it is powered up and it gets it's power from the NMEa backbone cabling ergo it will transmit even with the AIS receiver/ plotter display turned off. Another bit of daft logic from a software design man who is not a user of the product and hasn't checked consequences in practical terms.

OK. I turn mine off as soon as I switch on, but to be honest I don't much need AIS on the Orwell, I never seem to have problems seeing the ships with my eyes. It's jolly useful crossing the estuary and channel though. Sadly my transponder is always on, turning it off is a real pain so I can see I'm adding to the clutter.

 

[BrianH]

I upgraded my 8-year old AIS Receiver this year with a transponder unit. The main driver was that, as with most older receivers, while dual channel, it was not parallel but alternated between them. This meant missing too many static data sentences and at only a 6 minute transmission frequency, waiting sometimes a very long time for the ship's name and details, as Tx and RX channels skipped about out of synch - not good if one wants to call them on VHF. The new combined unit with a genuine parallel channel receive function is noticeably better updating all target details in a timely fashion.

As transponder prices have really become affordable now it made sense to fit one for all the usual reasons and as a bonus, as I sail single-handed, my worry-pot wife at home has a reassuring facility to invoke the MarineTraffic site to see where I am and if still afloat.