Any views on AIS Recievers??

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Firestone

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A friend is contemplating putting one on his cruiser as a further aid to navigation,ie to be seen and to give his missus peace of mind.He wants to know- is it just another Gizmo, thought up by marketing people or is it a case of fit and forget and worth the money.
 
Definetly not a gizzmo, my friend has just fitted one with his new garmin radar/plotter, as im always on the look out when we leave the Hamble for the fast 40plus knot Redjet 1,2 and3, would be nice to see it on the screen in front of me rather than having to look behind me.

Before all the political correctness replies come in, its still no substitute for not keeping a proper watch!!!.

I dont think they are worth spending the extra so that I could be seen by other craft though, unless a cheaper version comes out.

Also the better the aerial the better the range, you have to be in uncluttered view the benefit totally, the range from up the hamble river was not that good until the mouth of the hamble.
 
great piece of kit, alarms can be a bit annoying when in a busy area as every ship seems to become a dangerous target even when tied up, although they are also great just to find out what all the ships are up to, have used both raymarine models and comar, am led to believe that the raymarine one is made by comar as you use the same software to set it up.
I think they are more than just another gadget.
 
AIS.

Yes AIS definitely worth the money.

NASA have just upgraded their AIS Engine to a MK3 which now includes All class A and B messages and is the same price as the last version I think £109+VAT but shop around and you will probably get 10 to fifteen quid off that price.

Have a look here:

www.nasamarine.com


Cheers

Steve.
 
No not a gimmick but probably the best navigation aid to come out since radar.
Close to busy shipping lanes at night it is a godsend. I wouldn't be without it now.
 
I use the NASA receiver feeding a PC running OziExplorer. Works very well. Bear in mind that either an aeriel splitter or 2nd VHF aeriel is also required when budgeting. My Furuno GP30 feeds the AIS unit using NMEA which in turn sends the consolidated data to the PC (also via NMEA).
 
steverow said:
Yes AIS definitely worth the money.

NASA have just upgraded their AIS Engine to a MK3 which now includes All class A and B messages and is the same price as the last version I think £109+VAT but shop around and you will probably get 10 to fifteen quid off that price.
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Spot on, I just quoted a price of 95.00 for the NASA.

As for antennae, I would always suggest a second one rather than a splitter. It just makes sense to have a spare, the type and height are not crucial though as even a low profile setup should show targets out to 20 miles.

The technology sometimes gets a hard time because it is a new capability, so people wrongly try to pigeon hole it.
 
I fitted a cheap receiver last year mainly to find the right ship in the anchorage when doing crew changes and not able to understand foreign accents with lat/long. Local accents bad enough. Useful for back up should radar fail and gives an indicator of type of vessel (manoeuverability) and instant info on course & speed ... if fully operational. Dont rely on them off Somali coast. !!!
I considered an ais transmitter, but decided a RTE reflector (electronic radar target enhancer) a better option.
 
A good aid to radar. Don't understand why by now ais is not an integrated feature of modern radar systems rather than a separate add-on box that has to be cabled up. Wish apple designed marine electronics systems. The iNav dream! ;)
 
I have the NASA standalone AIS (not really a...) radar, and it's a mixed bag. It works well, shows targets correctly and the alarm is great, but it only works in north up mode, and my plotter (and hence brain) run in head up mode. Hence, you need a bit of mental spatial awareness jiggery to work out where the blighters actually are in relation to me. Not the end of the world, but a bit of a pain when approaching an unfamiliar area and you can't see the ship that's apparently dead ahead... Cos he's actually looming up behind me!
 
Firestone said:
A friend is contemplating putting one on his cruiser as a further aid to navigation,ie to be seen and to give his missus peace of mind.He wants to know- is it just another Gizmo, thought up by marketing people or is it a case of fit and forget and worth the money.
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I have just had a quick whizz through the answers so far and didn't see the following, but apologies if I am repeating anyone here:

An AIS receiver will NOT allow you to be seen any easier by other vessels. It will allow you to see other vessels and find out certain info about them.

If your friend wants to be seen, he needs a transceiver, ie one that receives and transmits. These are typically alot more money than a simple receiver and even with one fitted I would still assume that big ships haven't seen me. They don't all have AIS overlaid onto a chartplotter like we do. For many it is another display on the bridge that provides text readouts only.
 
I agree, the OP mentioned 'being seen' and for that you need an AIS Transponder (£500 and upward)

see http://www.mesltd.co.uk/ait250-transponder-class-p-11172.html .

FWIW most ships will have their AIS coupled to their ARPA radar but equally I would not guarantee that a Class B transponder (such as we fit in our smaller boats) would show up always.

It will certainly show up most of the time (provided you know you are transmitting as well as receiving).

Tom
 
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Thanks to all once again for your help and for clarifying the issue of the need for a Transciever to work in conjuction with a Reciever. I had forgot to ask about it in my Original question and also the advice of NOT to rely solely on it as a new aid to navigation,in that Keeping A Proper Lookout,Passage Planning et all is also necessary to have an enjoyable cruise. I will pass on this updated information to my friend. Many thanks again.:):):)
 
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