RunAgroundHard
Well-known member
I am looking for a website or App to track a ship across the Atlantic, preferably for free. So far all the free sites only track when in range of the coast.
Any advise appreciated.
Any advise appreciated.
Best App For Vessel Tracking Across an Ocean
- Thread starter RunAgroundHard
- Start date
Roberto
Well-known member
"Ship" or sailboat?
It depends upon how the vessel being followed sends its position.
A ship will likely send Ais-Sat type A, the easy way is to pay the fee to Marinetraffic/Vesselfiinder/et al. to see the positions; they are usually spaced a few hours apart.
A leisure vessel (or of course ship) has other options: private trackers (Spot, YB, etc), positions sent by email or SMS to different platforms (winlink, aprs, localizatodo, youposition, etc etc), if the receiver is ashore it will depend upon the communication means being used onboard. To rely upon AIS it would be most useful if the vessel had AIS B sotdma and enabled transmission of message 27, though even that way sometimes time intervals between positions may amount to several hours.
It depends upon how the vessel being followed sends its position.
A ship will likely send Ais-Sat type A, the easy way is to pay the fee to Marinetraffic/Vesselfiinder/et al. to see the positions; they are usually spaced a few hours apart.
A leisure vessel (or of course ship) has other options: private trackers (Spot, YB, etc), positions sent by email or SMS to different platforms (winlink, aprs, localizatodo, youposition, etc etc), if the receiver is ashore it will depend upon the communication means being used onboard. To rely upon AIS it would be most useful if the vessel had AIS B sotdma and enabled transmission of message 27, though even that way sometimes time intervals between positions may amount to several hours.
Frank Holden
Well-known member
Random ships and yachts using AIS can be tracked using MarineTraffic.com.
Offshore they are anonymouse(sp) but if your object of desire is in a remote area you can normally follow them for free.
Other option is the 'single vessel' option at Marinetraffic. MarineTraffic Online Services | MarineTraffic
$1000 Australian for a year.
If they are chums and are using iridium go / predict wind they can post positions on line that you can access for free.
Offshore they are anonymouse(sp) but if your object of desire is in a remote area you can normally follow them for free.
Other option is the 'single vessel' option at Marinetraffic. MarineTraffic Online Services | MarineTraffic
$1000 Australian for a year.
If they are chums and are using iridium go / predict wind they can post positions on line that you can access for free.
Rappey
Well-known member
Marine traffic is £16.50 a month to track offshore.
Frank Holden
Well-known member
The devil is in the detail.. billed annually so £198.00 minimum. Bit expensive to track a single yacht for maybe a month.
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
When in "civilized" coastal waters (fuzzy boundary, but maybe up to 20-25 nm offshore), a vessel transmitting AIS will be tracked by a network of volunteers. When offshore, sites like MarineTraffic or VesselFinder have to pay to obtain the AIS signals received by satellite, and of course, these costs have to be passed on. So there isn't a free way to track a vessel across oceans using AIS - you have to pay a fairly hefty fee. There's also the issue that a sailing vessel may prefer not to transmit AIS when offshore in unfrequented waters - their electrical budget may be tight.
There are other techniques, but all depend on some form of satellite or HF comms equipment on the vessel, and such equipment isn't particularly cheap and (in the case of HF comms) requires much more stringent training and examination to get an operator's license than the ordinary VHF license does. Satellite comms also require hefty ongoing fees.
There are other techniques, but all depend on some form of satellite or HF comms equipment on the vessel, and such equipment isn't particularly cheap and (in the case of HF comms) requires much more stringent training and examination to get an operator's license than the ordinary VHF license does. Satellite comms also require hefty ongoing fees.
RunAgroundHard
Well-known member
Thanks everyone for the feedback. It is a ship. Looks like I have to pay a fee.