Garmin AIS antenna identification please?

[KevinV]

Can anyone identify this please? I've seen similar on a rail mount, but am not doing well on Google.

Things I DO know:
- It should have a stubby antenna sticking out of the top
- the rest of the electronics are 2008 vintage Raymarine
- the boat is 3000 miles away, so more detail is hard to come by
- no, I wouldn't have mounted it there either, but it's not my boat

 

[KevinV]

I *think* it's this kind of thing, but God only knows about compatibility..

 

[PaulRainbow]

What is it connected to ?

 

[KevinV]

What is it connected to ?

I don't rightly know, it's 15 years since I was on the boat, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there's a Garmin plotter with ais at the chart table, and a Raymarine plotter at the helm. I seem to recall that getting the two plotters to talk to each other was an issue. In hindsight probably to do with having 2 GPS inputs on the network. There's a separate GPS puck for the Raymarine, so I think the one in question is a combined AIS/GPS antenna dedicated to the downstairs ais/plotter.

I'll see if I can get a sensible answer out of the owner - that's not a given.

 

[KevinV]

What is it connected to ?

Thanks for being ready to step up Paul - I couldn't get any sense out of the owner so I rang the builder. Amazingly they still had the build records, so I'm out of jail!

 

[salar]

It looks like a standard Garmin GPS antenna, previously available in NMEA0183 and 2000 versions and without any top stalk. I have 2x NMEA2000 on my boat. They are mounted on the stubby stalks that come with it in my case. I have never seen a Garmin one with a stalk on top, and I have had these on current and previous boats going back at least 15 years. The main thing to ascertain is how the antennae is connected to the Chart Plotter. I switched to NMEA2000 due to reliability issues.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Thanks for being ready to step up Paul - I couldn't get any sense out of the owner so I rang the builder. Amazingly they still had the build records, so I'm out of jail!

So, what is it connected to ?

I don't rightly know, it's 15 years since I was on the boat, but I have a sneaking suspicion that there's a Garmin plotter with ais at the chart table. and a Raymarine plotter at the helm. I seem to recall that getting the two plotters to talk to each other was an issue. In hindsight probably to do with having 2 GPS inputs on the network. There's a separate GPS puck for the Raymarine, so I think the one in question is a combined AIS/GPS antenna dedicated to the downstairs ais/plotter.

Garmin never made a plotter with built in AIS, they did make a black box VHF with built in AIS, but not likely relevant here.

I've never seen a Garmin AIS/GPS antenna, I think that it's just a GPS receiver, as suggested in post #6.

If this is all 2008 equipment the AIS is almost certainly receive only, so doesn't need a GPS input, just VHF, which could have a separate antenna, or a splitter.

The Garmin plotter could be a 2xx series, which will have a GPS antenna with a coax cable or a 400x series which will be GPS 19x, NMEA0183 or NMEA2000. Is there a sticker on it ? If not, look on the back of the plotter, see what the plug pin configuration is. Pics would help.

 

[KevinV]

So, what is it connected to ?

Not a clue! I'll find that out when I get to the boat!

It's a GA38, so the owner is just wrong about it transmitting, or ever having had a stubby aerial - but being attached to the AIS transponder makes sense.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Not a clue! I'll find that out when I get to the boat!

It's a GA38, so the owner is just wrong about it transmitting, or ever having had a stubby aerial - but being attached to the AIS transponder makes sense.

If it doesn't transmit it isn't a transponder, it's just a receiver and that doesn't need GPS.

Are you sure the GA38 was an original fit in 2008 ?

What model of chart plotter is fitted ?

 

[KevinV]

If it doesn't transmit it isn't a transponder, it's just a receiver and that doesn't need GPS.

Are you sure the GA38 was an original fit in 2008 ?

What model of chart plotter is fitted ?

Like I said Paul, I don't know - but a GA38 IS compatible with a transponder, only supplying it with the GPS/GLONAS data it requires - the sending and receiving taking place from an antenna (probably up the mast). I'm just going off what the builders have told me re the GA38 being the thing I need - whether an older version was fitted in 2008 I simply don't know.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Like I said Paul, I don't know - but a GA38 IS compatible with a transponder, only supplying it with the GPS/GLONAS data it requires - the sending and receiving taking place from an antenna (probably up the mast). I'm just going off what the builders have told me re the GA38 being the thing I need - whether an older version was fitted in 2008 I simply don't know.

It's also compatible with some plotters and VHF sets. Do you know if the boat actually has a transponder ?

 

[salar]

If it helps at all, soon after that time I installed a Garmin 600 AIS Tranceiver. It required a dedicated AIS antenna (Garmin in my case, see photo earlier) for location and it had an integral spitter, so only one VHF aerial was required which was pugged into the AIS 600 and the VHF coax was also plugged into the AIS 600. My very old GPSMap 4008 at the time also needed an external GPS antenna so I had two. On reflection I can't think why I had two if they were both NMEA2000!

 

[PaulRainbow]

If it helps at all, soon after that time I installed a Garmin 600 AIS Tranceiver. It required a dedicated AIS antenna (Garmin in my case, see photo earlier) for location and it had an integral spitter, so only one VHF aerial was required which was pugged into the AIS 600 and the VHF coax was also plugged into the AIS 600. My very old GPSMap 4008 at the time also needed an external GPS antenna so I had two. On reflection I can't think why I had two if they were both NMEA2000!

Pretty sure you could have only had one GPS and set the AIS as GPS source on the plotter.

Those "very old" 400x plotters were great in the day.

 

[KevinV]

It's also compatible with some plotters and VHF sets. Do you know if the boat actually has a transponder ?

Yes, it definitely has - I can see the boat on Marinetraffic - though the transponder has evidently not worked since September 2022!