AIS

[JohnGC]

I have just bought (but not yet fitted) the Matsutec HA-102. At the same time I purchased a GPS antenna for it.

Total (Paypal) invoice was USD 331. That was made up as follows;
HA-102 $220
GPS antenna $35
Shipping (DHL Express) $60
Paypal charge $16

In addition I was charged a customs clearance fee by DHL £22

So total cost was approximately £258.

I have tested it at home with my laptop running OpenCPN. I live by Plymouth Sound and MarineTraffic shows the transmission with 10 minutes.

The HA-102 does not have a display.

It doesn't have the nice features of the Digital Yacht equivalent but it is a lot cheaper.

John

 

[[70521]]

I haven't read 100% of this thread but would like to add a recommendation. We had a Digital Yacht transceiver fitted "professionally". They programmed it as a pleasure vessel which is always under power. I worry that this could put us in danger in certain circumstances. I had one attempt to change it before we came out of the water, I'll be trying again before we go back in.
I think sailing vessel showing unspecified as propulsion is best we can expect. Someone told me their unit decided whether the engine was running by the supply voltage, on lots of modern boats, like ours, this would not work as the solar panels can take the voltage up. Why can't they just have a wire from the ignition switch?
Allan

Interesting, I have a Vespmarine AIS and that field is user definable.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Is that by choice or local regulation? It seems in the UK you can't do that and need to apply for a new number to be issued. See this YBW archived thread

Due to the lack of proper thinking by the ITU there was no provision in the international regulations. The UK set its own regulations for DSC HH VHF. When the ITU realised that a seperate number was needed for DSC HH's the ITU came out with changes. These changes were quite different to what the UK had done so it a complete mess up.

South Africa has not up to date on this and do not recognize that there are even HH DSC's so have not woken up yet.

SA is also going whole hog with DSC and have plans to stop any kind of watch on channel 16 only accepting DSC emergency calls even through the voice coms is still on ch 16.

Another complete mess up.

 

[FulmarJeddo]

I haven't read 100% of this thread but would like to add a recommendation. We had a Digital Yacht transceiver fitted "professionally". They programmed it as a pleasure vessel which is always under power. I worry that this could put us in danger in certain circumstances. I had one attempt to change it before we came out of the water, I'll be trying again before we go back in.
I think sailing vessel showing unspecified as propulsion is best we can expect. Someone told me their unit decided whether the engine was running by the supply voltage, on lots of modern boats, like ours, this would not work as the solar panels can take the voltage up. Why can't they just have a wire from the ignition switch?
Allan

The Digital Yacht AIT 1500 that I have is very easy to configure. It came with a CD and drivers that you install on a PC. You simply run the proAIS2 software and plug the USB lead from the unit into the PC. I think you have to select the com port that it has installed to, but it was the only one that appeared in the drop down box. The MMSI can only be entered once but every thing else is easily changeable.

 

[Hoolie]

Due to the lack of proper thinking by the TCU there was no provision in the international regulations. The UK set its own regulations for DSC HH VHF. When the TCU realised that a seperate number was needed for DSC HH's the TCU came out with changes. These changes were quite different to what the UK had done so it a complete mess up.

South Africa has not up to date on this and do not recognize that there are even HH DSC's so have not woken up yet.

SA is also going whole hog with DSC and have plans to stop any kind of watch on channel 16 only accepting DSC emergency calls even through the voice coms is still on ch 16.

Another complete mess up.

Yes, I can see that, as it's likely going to be many years before every vessel/boat that carries a VHF will have updated to DSC

 

[Allan]

Interesting, I have a Vespmarine AIS and that field is user definable.

Hopefully it is on the Digital Yacht transceiver, I just need to get my head around it. I thought I'd changed it previously but I've only been able to test it online and it's not changed.
Allan

 

[RichardS]

It is lucky that relatively few of us think that AIS transmit is worth having - MMSI numbers are in short supply and I'm not sure there are enough unallocated to give one to every leisure sailor!

The MMSI number thing is obviously not correct .... and as for AIS transmit being not "worth having", all I said was that no-one would suggest that a transceiver is not safer than a receiver so it just boils down to finances in the end.

Richard

 

[BrianH]

What has MMSI got to do with AIS? You get an MMSI number with a DSC VHF.

It has everything to do with it.

The MMSI component of the AIS transmission is what all receivers use as the target report identifier for a specific ship and how they store and update data in the target list. It is basically the 'key' of each entry in the target report database.

They are also the matching identifier for each report to tie dynamic sentences, sent at a few seconds frequency (depending on the vessel's speed) with the static data sentence sent only every six minutes.

It is only when a static report is received that the report list is scanned to match a target in the list by its MMSI that the name of ship and other static data is added to that target's data and displayed. It is why the target icon on a plotter or other display can sometimes delay displaying the ship's name - dynamic data normally arrives within a few seconds, the static data with multiples of six minutes ... all joined up by matching the MMSI.

.

 

[PaulRainbow]

The MMSI number thing is obviously not correct .... and as for AIS transmit being not "worth having", all I said was that no-one would suggest that a transceiver is not safer than a receiver so it just boils down to finances in the end.

Richard

What nonsense Richard. I choose to have receive only, it does what i want. Nothing to do with finances, i'm pretty sure i could scrape enough together to buy a transceiver if i wanted one.

 

[RichardS]

It has everything to do with it.

The MMSI component of the AIS transmission is what all receivers use as the target report identifier for a specific ship and how they store and update data in the target list.

They are also the matching identifier for each report to tie dynamic sentences, sent at a few seconds frequency (depending on the vessel's speed) with the static data sentence sent only every six minutes.

It is only when a static report is received that the report list is scanned to match a target in the list by its MMSI that the name of ship and other static data is added to that target's data and displayed. It is why the target icon on a plotter or other display can sometimes delay displaying the ship's name - dynamic data normally arrives within a few seconds, the static data with multiples of six minutes ... all joined up by matching the MMSI.

I think what people are saying is that almost everyone is likely to have a DSC radio before they invest in AIS so they have got the MMSI number already and therefore there is no correlation between AIS transceivers and MMSI numbers "running out".

Richard

 

[RichardS]

What nonsense Richard. I choose to have receive only, it does what i want. Nothing to do with finances, i'm pretty sure i could scrape enough together to buy a transceiver if i wanted one.

Paul .... I know I keep repeating this but before you start with the aggression you really need to read my posts very, very carefully because every word is chosen with absolute precision. Start with post #34 as the above was just a summary.

Richard

 

[johnalison]

What nonsense Richard. I choose to have receive only, it does what i want. Nothing to do with finances, i'm pretty sure i could scrape enough together to buy a transceiver if i wanted one.

I hate to say it but I think that for the most part Richard is right.

Those who choose not to have classB are mostly either
Unable to afford one
Have never seen the need for one
Cruising locally and in waters where it is unnecessary
Drug-runners and don't want to be followed.

I still think that the £400 or so is the main deterrent.

 

[BrianH]

I think what people are saying is that almost everyone is likely to have a DSC radio before they invest in AIS so they have got the MMSI number already and therefore there is no correlation between AIS transceivers and MMSI numbers "running out".

Richard

Thanks Richard, I sometimes am too linguistically pedantic, it comes from living in a German-speaking environment and only getting to use English on here.

[Note to self, loosen up!]

 

[SteveGorst]

Does this surprise you? There's a lot more stuff in a transceiver, not to mention a separate GPS receiver.

Not at all. It's just that someone else earlier in the thread had said they didn't cost much more than receivers nowadays. Alas not true.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Paul .... I know I keep repeating this but before you start with the aggression you really need to read my posts very, very carefully because every word is chosen with absolute precision. Start with post #34 as the above was just a summary.

Richard

Why do you think that anything that disagrees with you is aggressive ?

I read post #34 too, it's the same nonsense as the one i quoted. As i said, i choose not to transmit AIS, it has nothing to do with "cash".

 

[Hoolie]

Those who choose not to have classB are mostly either
Unable to afford one
Have never seen the need for one
Cruising locally and in waters where it is unnecessary
Drug-runners and don't want to be followed.

I still think that the £400 or so is the main deterrent.

Indeed. For practically every other boat electronics there have been several generations and second-hand previous generation kit is readily available. Not so for AIS transponders - people buy and keep; so if you want an AIS transponder you have to spend £100's to buy new. That may well be out of balance with what has been spent on other stuff.

I have recently bought an AIS transponder and it is by a large margin the most expensive piece of electronic kit I have ever bought for the boat.

 

[PaulRainbow]

I hate to say it but I think that for the most part Richard is right.

Those who choose not to have classB are mostly either
Unable to afford one
Have never seen the need for one
Cruising locally and in waters where it is unnecessary
Drug-runners and don't want to be followed.

I still think that the £400 or so is the main deterrent.

I've highlighted the one that comes closest to my reasoning for not having one John. As for the £400 price tag, my AIS is part of a N2K black box VHF that cost £800. I could have had a basic DSC VHF and an AIS transceiver for a lot less money

 

[solent clown]

being mostly solent bound in our own boats till now, we have neber bothered with AIS, and our only real experience of seeing it in action was at Solent VTS on thier huge displays in the control room. Absolutely fascinating in itself, but the cleverest bit of all wss their ability to "switch off" the traces from non commercial craft. it went from a near indecipherable myriad of dots to a readable plot of the "big stuff"
Is that facility available to one and all?

 

[Allan]

being mostly solent bound in our own boats till now, we have neber bothered with AIS, and our only real experience of seeing it in action was at Solent VTS on thier huge displays in the control room. Absolutely fascinating in itself, but the cleverest bit of all wss their ability to "switch off" the traces from non commercial craft. it went from a near indecipherable myriad of dots to a readable plot of the "big stuff"
Is that facility available to one and all?

Mr Clown, I don't believe that's available on our class B system. I have been told that it is on most, if not all, class A systems. It is always my hope that vessels which must have to turn it off in places like the Solent, turn it back on out to sea!
Allan

 

[LadyInBed]

If you're looking for cheap, you'll find it hard to beat the £349 Onwa KS-200A from JG Tech - http://jgtech.com/shop10.htm

I went for the em-track Class B AIS B330 from jg, not cheap at £559 but it had all the features I wanted - wifi without a protruding antenna, built in GPS antenna, silent mode (by adding an on/off switch) and all the connectors on the same edge.
I was able to offset some of the cost by selling on my AIS receiver for half price.