What a clear night for AIS reception on board - Four targets over 75 miles away..

[Martin_J]

150 targets on the screen.. one ship at 90+ miles from me, a handful at 75+ miles and a base station showing up near Boulogne 101 miles away.. wow!

I guess the antenna splitter really is not lossy after all...

 

[Martin_J]

.. baffling.. because now there are four ship reports from 90+ miles and 184 targets on the screen..

 

[Martin_J]

And can now detect the Pride of Burgundy going into Calais at 109.67 miles from where I am in Portsmouth!

 

[Martin_J]

I must give up watching this AIS screen..

but it's now picking up the Pauline Russ heading up the Thames estuary.. and I'm in a marina in Portsmouth!

 

[Skylark]

Maybe you're missreading the screen? 185 targets within 5 miles on The Solent. That sounds more realistic

The unspoiled waters of North Wales were busy last weekend. I had three targets on my plotter during my 27M trip back to the marina :encouragement:

 

[macd]

When setting up new AIS systems in the Canaries, the fitters often check by using reception of the beacon at Madrid airport. That's around 1000 miles away.

 

[sailaboutvic]

I think your AIS would work better if you took the aerial off mount snowdon and put it on your mast

 

[sailorman]

150 targets on the screen.. one ship at 90+ miles from me, a handful at 75+ miles and a base station showing up near Boulogne 101 miles away.. wow!

I guess the antenna splitter really is not lossy after all...

what was the CPA
Im not interested in anything more than 10 mls away

 

[ribrage]

150 targets on the screen.. one ship at 90+ miles from me, a handful at 75+ miles and a base station showing up near Boulogne 101 miles away.. wow!

I guess the antenna splitter really is not lossy after all...

Did you have time to avoid them

 

[Salty John]

High atmospheric pressure and little wind leads to tropospheric ducting. VHF range of several hundred miles has been noted in these conditions, but it's unusual, and can't be relied upon.

 

[davidej]

In exceptional conditions I have heard coastguard from Aberdeen and Brixham on my VHF on the Essex coast.

 

[pagoda]

what was the CPA
Im not interested in anything more than 10 mls away

+1

There is not a huge amount of traffic in and around Scottish waters to worry about, compared to the South East. Calmac ferries can be accounted for by having a paper timetable on board. After that there are a few coasters and live fish carriers. But honestly not much around. Very few yachts appear to operate transponders. Ditto fishing boats (who don't want anybody to know where they are!)
Traffic to offshore installations on the east coast is more dense, and there's a fair bit of big stuff using the North Channel.
I really don't want alerts >10 miles away? You can generally see stuff well enough at 10-15miles. In poor vis , AIS has some extra value above eyeballs though.