Cheap AIS

[Geoff A]

What is, how much, is the cheapest stand alone AIS setup I can get for my 29ft sailing boat. I have a small gantry on the back for mounting aerials/antenna. I realise the range will not be as good as a top of the mast one but it will have to do for now.

 

[MoodySabre]

The NASA stuff is inexpensive Navtex / Weather/AIS Archives - Nasa Marine Instruments

 

[DreadShips]

Read only or broadcasting as well?

 

[Geoff A]

Read only or broadcasting as well?

Both depending on cost

 

[Roberto]

There are stand alone Chinese (ie aliexpress) fishing net ais transmitters, not receivers/transponders only transmitters, battery operated, cost under 100gbp.
Technical suggestion, quite possibly not legal in many countries.

 

[DreadShips]

The very, very cheapest way to play with AIS (in sight of land at least) is to have it on your phone - the free Orca app will show traffic and overlay leading lines to where it'll be in x minutes. I presume alternatives exist.

I'm guessing it's not suitable for your needs if you're already looking at adding a receiver/transceiver, but still worth mentioning in case somebody else wanted to dip a toe in the water and see if it works for them before making an investment.

 

[DownWest]

There was a recent thread were I put this up
dAISy AIS Receiver - The Original

Could be a start.

 

[zulloboy]

The dAISY's are great little cheap units and the support is good too. I've had mine since 2017.

 

[Refueler]

Do you have a chart plotter already ?

If not - then I thoroughly recc'd an ONWA unit with built in AIS transceiver .... or Matsutec ... up to you. ONWA has full UK support through AVES marine ...
I have the KP-39A .. a budget machine ... free K-Chart .... Navionics capable .... AIS Tx and Rx .... all it needs is 12v power and an antenna .. for about same money as a fancy brand AIS only unit ..

The K-Charts are good ... I have Navionics on tablet .. I have on my Garmin main plotter and I have yet to see any difference to question K-Charts ...

 

[PaulRainbow]

The very, very cheapest way to play with AIS (in sight of land at least) is to have it on your phone - the free Orca app will show traffic and overlay leading lines to where it'll be in x minutes. I presume alternatives exist.

I'm guessing it's not suitable for your needs if you're already looking at adding a receiver/transceiver, but still worth mentioning in case somebody else wanted to dip a toe in the water and see if it works for them before making an investment.

Orca uses internet data from Marine Traffic. Using internet AIS for navigation can be very dangerous, as it's often several minutes behind real time and there are lots of dead spots where it doesn't work at all. Relying on overlaid data to predict a vessels future position would be particularly risky.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Both depending on cost

If you want suggestions it's really helpful to provide some information.

Do you have a way to display the AIS data ?

Budget ?

 

[Refueler]

Orca uses internet data from Marine Traffic. Using internet AIS for navigation can be very dangerous, as it's often several minutes behind real time and there are lots of dead spots where it doesn't work at all. Relying on overlaid data to predict a vessels future position would be particularly risky.

Internet AIS poroviders specifically warn that data of a vessel may be old ...

We use Marine Traffic in our work and frequently find this - even though we are pro licenced users.

 

[fredrussell]

I bought a Matsutec HA102 (I think) and it’s been great. It’s a send and receive ‘black box’ that displays info on any NMEA 0183 equipped plotter. Cost less than £200, hasn’t missed a beat in 3 years.

 

[Plum]

The dAISY's are great little cheap units and the support is good too. I've had mine since 2017.

Agree. I have the daisy 2+ version receiver from here dAISy 2+ Dual-channel AIS Receiver with NMEA 0183 output for £90 (currently out of stock but hopefully you can find another supplier). If you want a wifi output to, say, a tablet, then they provide instructions here https://wegmatt.com/files/AIS over WiFi with the DT-06 module.pdf and a link of where to buy the plug in WiFi module for £5 from here DOIT einfach zu bedienen DT-06 Wireless WiFi Serial Port Transparentes Übertragungsmodul ähnlich Bluetooth HC-06 TTL zu WiFi DIY RC Spielzeug - AliExpress 26

I use this setup in conjunction with my Android tablet chart plotter and an aerial 2m above sea level and reliably receive ships at 8 miles and boats at 5 miles.

 

[Geoff A]

If you want suggestions it's really helpful to provide some information.

Do you have a way to display the AIS data ?

Budget ?

NO

 

[Refueler]

NO

OK ... then have you any thoughts on how you will display the AIS results ?

 

[PaulRainbow]

NO

No to what ?

 

[Sea Change]

Do you have a chart plotter already ?

If not - then I thoroughly recc'd an ONWA unit with built in AIS transceiver .... or Matsutec ... up to you. ONWA has full UK support through AVES marine ...
I have the KP-39A .. a budget machine ... free K-Chart .... Navionics capable .... AIS Tx and Rx .... all it needs is 12v power and an antenna .. for about same money as a fancy brand AIS only unit ..

The K-Charts are good ... I have Navionics on tablet .. I have on my Garmin main plotter and I have yet to see any difference to question K-Charts ...

I've got the Onwa K-708 and it's... OK. Hard to beat for the money (7" plotter with class B+ AIS transceiver and free global charting for £600) but compared to big name plotters I've used it's pretty clunky. In particular the scrolling around is a bit painful because of the way the cursor suddenly jumps to a higher speed.
A couple of days ago I noticed that the K charts had me half a mile out of position, whereas Navionics and Google maps were spot on.
Alan, the distributor, is extremely helpful and great to deal with. Given the value for money it represents, I have no regrets, but I tend to use my phone with Navionics in preference to the ONWA for actual chart plotting.

 

[Refueler]

I've got the Onwa K-708 and it's... OK. Hard to beat for the money (7" plotter with class B+ AIS transceiver and free global charting for £600) but compared to big name plotters I've used it's pretty clunky. In particular the scrolling around is a bit painful because of the way the cursor suddenly jumps to a higher speed.
A couple of days ago I noticed that the K charts had me half a mile out of position, whereas Navionics and Google maps were spot on.
Alan, the distributor, is extremely helpful and great to deal with. Given the value for money it represents, I have no regrets, but I tend to use my phone with Navionics in preference to the ONWA for actual chart plotting.

With Navionics on the Phone / Tablet at around the 50 quid mark a year ... its a no-brainer ....

Having provided data to GPS Utility author ... you can now transfer routes / waypoints etc to / from your Navionics - ONWA ...

Sorry to hear of your 1/2 mile error ... as I say - I have found no errors and that's in and around the Swedish and Finnish Archipelagos ... where such error would mean catastrophe ! But as a prudent mariner - I use as many means to ascertain position as possible ...

 

[toothless]

I have owned an onwa with AIS - it was a good bit of kit for the money.

New boat and new set up and now I'm using a matsutec Ali express black box thingy as it already had a decent plotter. Nothing seemed to be coming through the nmea0183 signal lines for some reason, but the serial port outputs the data just fine so I use that instead. Perfectly good bit of kit with an antenna on the stern rail showing me targets a good 5 miles or so away. I would buy again if i needed one.