Calling other vessels via AIS on different brand kit

[smert]

Is it possible to call other vessels via AIS on the plotter (B&G Vulcan) and say a Garmin VHF?

 

[Mistroma]

Is it possible to call other vessels via AIS on the plotter (B&G Vulcan) and say a Garmin VHF?

I assume you mean that your plotter uses the MMSI from the displayed AIS data and makes a call on your VHF. It is just automating the process of making the VHF call. Nothing different from just punching in the numbers by hand to make the call. The other vessel's VHF equipment only requires it to handle Digital Selective Calling. Make of the other vessel's VHF is not relevant.

The problem is more likely to lie at your end. I vaguely remember something about that part of the NMEA spec. not being universally implemented. I think it might have been poorly written but not certain and the "sentence" was open to different implementations. I know it used to be quite common for the feature to be missing or not work as expected.

Perhaps someone else will clarify.

UPDATE: I misunderstood the question when I read "Calling other vessels via AIS on different brand kit. I thought it was asking if the yacht being called needed the same make of equipment as the yacht making the call. Obviously not that after reading it again. OP was about compatibility issues between plotter and VHF on calling vessel. Silly me.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Is it possible to call other vessels via AIS on the plotter (B&G Vulcan) and say a Garmin VHF?

No, it is not possible. Garmin plotter and VHF works, as do some B&G models, other than that, no.

 

[ylop]

for the best chance the plotter and vhf should be the same brand (but even then some modes don’t support it at all), the ais does not need to be the same brand.

Generally it does work more universally (to an extent) the other way round - so your plotter is more likely to display the location of an incoming DSC distress call regardless of the radio as that is standardised data.