BrianH
Well-Known Member
I've found Vesselfinder marginally better than Marinetraffic in the Mediterranean - it performed well in tracking a friend from our NE Italian marina to the Canaries last year, where Marinetraffic often showed no reports.
In the northern Adriatic we have both website receivers sited in mountains above Koper in Slovenia (Lat: 45.55°N, Lon: 13.73°E, Elev: 1028m). The following two track reports are for the same day-sail I made from my marina. They are from Marinetraffic and Vesselfinder respectively, I was approximately some 30nm from the receivers.
Note that reports are missing from Marinetraffic while on starboard tack (wind 180deg. 15kts) with the port side, where the AIS antenna is mounted on the pushpit, significantly lowered by heeling, as well as shielded by a wind-generator mast with the half-wave propagation pattern tilted inefficiently. I infer the difference in the degree of report reception to be due to either different receiver sensitivities or antenna siting. The receivers, are supplied by the website companies and hosted by the same Slovenian radio club.
MarineTraffic
VesselFinder
Below is the screen-shot from the PC running OpenCPN connected to the AIS transponder for the same time. Koper AIS receivers are bottom right on the screen. Note that I am receiving reports from Class A targets in Trieste (centre right), over 30nm distant.
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