so an old question - SeeMe or AIS?

[Twister_Ken]

Do you mean this:http://www.ciel-et-marine.com/pages/indexpag.html?

€370! Might as well save up a little longer and buy an Echomax dual-band RTE, which will also beep at you when it receives a radar signal (if you turn the alarm on) and will also let chummy in the heavy metal see you on his radar screen.

 

[timbartlett]

Which ones? And do I guess that some devices can use something like an average track to predict where the vessel is going to be rather than the instantaneous SOG/COG ? Effectively dampening/smoothing the course .. ?

http://www.vespermarine.co.uk/ (No commercial connection)

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

So does the SeaMe, but you have to wire it up with your own alarm. George

Seame supply an alarm with their unit, at least the did to me.

 

[fireball]

http://www.vespermarine.co.uk/ (No commercial connection)

No criticism - just looking at their quick start guides:

Profiles
Alarm and filter settings are grouped into four profiles (anchored, harbour, coastal,
offshore). You can change the settings for each profile and switch between profiles
at any time. Select the current profile from the main menu.
Filters
You may filter targets based on their speed, range or CPA. Filters can be used to
reduce clutter. Use setup to establish filters for the current profile.

No mention of filtering based on class ... just speed/range/cpa ... unless there is a full manual with more detailed spec ...

You could make up a crude filter - assume a sailboat won't go above say 10kts and commercial would normally be above that .... but that won't always be the case ...

 

[timbartlett]

No criticism - just looking at their quick start guides:

No mention of filtering based on class ... just speed/range/cpa ... unless there is a full manual with more detailed spec ...

You could make up a crude filter - assume a sailboat won't go above say 10kts and commercial would normally be above that .... but that won't always be the case ...

Sorry, I misunderstood the question.
You are quite right: Vesper do not filter based on class A/B.

The logic, as they explained it to me, is that you do not want to be hit by a large steel workboat any more than you want to be hit by a small steel ship, so class-based filtering is illogical, and that by applying intelligent filtering to all targets, the "need" for class-based filtering is eliminated.

 

[ukmctc]

Spent too much elsewhere to install both this year so the question is which one?

At the moment I have a rain catcher type radar reflector that is used only when I hoist it up the forestay. Obviously no AIS. But AIS would not spot the fishing boats etc without transmitters and is a passive system ie it warns me of them but not them of me. Unless I get the transmitter as well but then thats even more pricey and whose to say big ships wont turn off the yottie signals on account of their being too many?

A SeeMe on the other hand warns them of me, but as I understand it would not be triggered by the latest digi radar systems. And these new systems will become more common so that problem will get worse.

I suppose I could sail as I have done for decades ie without spending anything more. But you have to keep up with the times dont you?

So which?

AIS

 

[fireball]

The logic, as they explained it to me, is that you do not want to be hit by a large steel workboat any more than you want to be hit by a small steel ship, so class-based filtering is illogical, and that by applying intelligent filtering to all targets, the "need" for class-based filtering is eliminated.

I understand that logic - however, with Class B being targeted at leisure sailors as well we're going to see the majority of Class B being small vessels ... actually sorry - train of thought changed ...

What we really need is to be able to show (and separately alarm) targets that are of interest to us ... and that may vary depending on circumstances ...
Within the Solent I'm curious as to know what ships are coming around the corner - so whats coming in and out of Portsmouth and Southampton - these tend to be Class A vessels. I don't use alarms as it's not somewhere that an alarm would be helpful as courses are generally not straight.
I'm not really interested in the smaller stuff - it's visual rules - so you're constantly alert for traffic - so I don't really want the vessels that are not restricted to the main channels displayed ...

Outside the Solent generally I have a "rule" of 1Nm CPA on a "ship" - and in a x Channel I would be interested in displaying All Ships - and alarm is usually set at 2Nm which is then reduced as we get close to the lanes ...
If a ship is going slowly - and I've come across one or two doing 8kts - then CPA can be much less - it's the fast boys I want to keep well clear of ...

Outside the congested areas I'd be interested in displaying all the leisure boats too .. but the CPA for the slower ones at least I'd be happy at a 10's of feet - so I don't really need to be alarmed when they'd get into the Big Ships alarm zone above....

So - what I really want is some intelligent filtering to achieve that ...
apart from the slightly grey area between what uses Class A and Class B it shouldn't be that tricky - perhaps there should be a final alert alarm that catches anything that is on a collision course but filtered out of the other alarms ...

 

[prv]

[ sensible filtering rules ]

So - what I really want is some intelligent filtering to achieve that ...

I think the device that will get closest to that sort of rule-set is the Vesper, but I don't know if it specifically can do what you want. If you're actively looking for such a thing, perhaps an email to Vesper themselves? They'll be able to answer the question, and maybe if it doesn't quite do what's needed they'd consider a software update to add it. They seem to pride themselves on providing filtering options that are actually useful.

Pete