Which Ais Transponder/Transceiver

[Kemp]

XB-8000 with AIS/VHF/FM Antenna Splitter works perfectly.

 

[jbweston]

The GPS mushroom for my XB8000 is also mounted alongside the transceiver and splitter inside the boat's control panel recess. It gets a quick stable fix and is currently providing location data for the XB8000, the DSC radio and the C80 chartplotter.

Plastic boat.

Richard

and

I have two GPS antennas behind mine and they both work fine. As do my phone and iPad in the cabin. I think early GPS receivers were less sensitive and needed a very clear view of the sky, but modern kit is far more tolerant and works easily from inside a fibreglass boat.

Pete

Thanks for this. I knew I'd been able to get GPS signals in the saloon when I tried but thought it might be unsafe to rely on it.

 

[yotter]

I'm interetsed to hear that the GPS receiver works behind the electric panel. It's the inconveninece of installing a second one on the pushpit that is my main reason for not converting from an AIS receiver to a transceiver.

Is your boat wood or plastic? We're plastic and the internal GPS receiver in the ICOM VHF works fine from inside the panel, although we use it only as backup to the main GPS on the pushpit.

My boat is plastic, Polyester gel with foam core for upper hull and deck, electrical panel is approx. 12mm plywood. The receiver normally uses around 8 to 9 good satellite signals. PROAIS gives good diagnostics here (although have not checked HDOP and VDOP). I would not use this GPS setup for a navigation GPS, but seem fine for the AIS.
Angus

 

[Eeyore]

Of course, you lose the "look at me, I've got an AIS transponder" benefits...

Which is now mandatory in some waters!

 

[pvb]

Which is now mandatory in some waters!

Especially in the marina!

 

[Andy61]

I'm a Vesper fan also - XB9000 with SP160 splitter. Fitted myself, works fine, had to get it for a rally operating to RORC safety standards but is the best yachting instrument I have purchased. It sits at the chart table but I can see it from the cockpit and it gives me all the info I need, brilliant piece of kit.

 

[Playtime]

Very happy with my AIT2000 - 450UKP inc VAT from cactus marine electronics. Very simple and it just works (I use NMEA 2000, but it has an NMEA183 output too.

+1.

I've had the AIT2000 for 4 years and am very happy with it. I fitted it's VHF antenna and GPS mushroom on a 5' pole at the pushpit. It comes with laptop software to set up the transceiver parameters (MMSI, Boatname, size etc) - very simple to do.
I feed the NMEA2000 signal into the network to the chartplotter and the NMEA0183 signal to a laptop running OpenCPN which has an excellent AIS presentation.
I have also fitted the optional 'stealth' switch so I can turn off the transmitter when not needed.

 

[superheat6k]

If you want a plotter function as well then the Matsutec HP628A or HP828A are good value for money.

However, not sure AIS works too well in the Solent any more - this was a picture of my C120 plotter screen on Saturday off Spithead where the America's Cup was underway (I had disabled the alarm function !) ...

 

[pvb]

However, not sure AIS works too well in the Solent any more - this was a picture of my C120 plotter screen on Saturday off Spithead where the America's Cup was underway (I had disabled the alarm function !) ...

This is the madness I and many others predicted! There's little point in having a Class B transceiver.

 

[prv]

This is the madness I and many others predicted! There's little point in having a Class B transceiver.

All that's needed is a smarter display. They're coming.

Pete

 

[pvb]

All that's needed is a smarter display. They're coming.

You mean the ones that filter out Class B targets? Like ships have?

 

[crisjones]

Although that picture of the Solent looks horrendous it is worth remembering that all those boats would still be there even if they did not transmit AIS data and of course there will be many boats in the same area that are not transmitting AIS. All in all a difficult situation to deal with as far as deciding what boats are actually a concern to yourself.
Obviously in all that mess it becomes nearly impossible to differentiate between boats that are showing AIS and ones that aren't since they are all so close together and it would be very difficult to visually identify the individual boats.
The screenshot shown is a bit extreme but nevertheless demonstrates how crowded with AIS some areas can be. However AIS does make it much eaiser to decide if any particular target is of concern or not so it should not be dismissed as being of little benefit in crowded areas.
Also the AIS implementation on Raymarine C and E series plotters is pretty woeful, you only get a list of targets sorted by distance with no ability to sort by CPA or TCPA, both of which would quickly eliminate a huge proportion of the targets from your concerns. I use OpenCPN in addition to our E series plotter and the AIS implementation in OpenCPN is in a different league to Raymarine, you can see instantly on screen what targets are dangerous and can adjust various parameters to allow you to adapt the dangerous target definitions to suit the conditions. For instance you can suppress targets from being marked as dangerous until they are within a certain distance or time of yourself and you can filter by target speed, CPA, TCPA etc. I tend to use OpenCPN much more then the plotter for deciding what targets are dangerous. Other plotters may be better and Raymarine may have improved on newer plotters but there is really no reason why plotters cannot display and sort AIS targets as well as OpenCPN does.
AIS is here to stay and is a valuable tool when used properly in conjunction with other aids but it does need much better implementation on plotters to achieve maximum benefit.

 

[RichardS]

This is the madness I and many others predicted! There's little point in having a Class B transceiver.

I disagree ..... mine is brilliant.

Screenshot taken around 14:00 (so no weird troposphoric bouncing) as we were closing on Venice. The rings are set at 20 Nm.

I interrogated the targets to see what kind of range I am getting and the Class B targets go out to around 40 miles from me. As you can see, the Class A targets reach out beyond 140 miles.

Of course, in practice I filter out all but vessels which might potentially be a problem and only interrogate far distant targets on the horizon which look interesting purely for interest sake.

Richard

 

[GHA]

This is the madness I and many others predicted! There's little point in having a Class B transceiver.

Little point in the solent where it's madness to look at an ais display instead of using your eyes. Everywhere else it's fine.

 

[Momac]

This is the madness I and many others predicted! There's little point in having a Class B transceiver.

Surely this is an extreme case - the busiest few days of the year in this particular location. Also the Solent in general being very much a busy leisure boat area. Why dismiss a piece of equipment as being pointless because it doesn't function usefully at certain busy times in one small area ?
Anywhere else there is surely less clutter. On the Humber and The Wash the number of ships far exceeds the numbers of leisure boats out at any one time.




.

 

[Bru]

... Raymarine may have improved on newer plotters ...

They have. The latest version of Lighthouse (17) is streets ahead on AIS target display. Still some room for improvement but it's actually the main reason I'd like to upgrade my otherwise perfectly serviceable legacy C80. One feature I particularly like is that it uses different target symbols to differentiate between types of target so you can pick out the big stuff from amongst the minnows etc. and you can display only dangerous targets amongst other useful features

AIS is here to stay and is a valuable tool when used properly in conjunction with other aids but it does need much better implementation on plotters to achieve maximum benefit.

Indeed. The Solent is an extreme situation. In East Coast waters where I usually sail target clutter is rarely if ever a problem (in fact, it's never been a problem yet, ever)

 

[knuterikt]

This is the madness I and many others predicted! There's little point in having a Class B transceiver.

How many places is like Solent whith or without Americas cup going on?

 

[superheat6k]

I agree that this was an extreme, and I only took the photo for interest it might generate on here - I was navigating or rather piloting on mark one eyeball and with my paper chart out too.

But my own AIS was merrily sending out my own position signal to add to the clutter, despite thinking I would only use it in transmit mode when offshore when I bought the thing. But folk like to track their own and their friends voyages on Marine Traffic or simply forget to turn the transmit mode off.

The annoying issue was the inability to differentiate Class A from Class B contacts, but I am perfectly happy with my science museum C120. It will be effective once offshore.

 

[DJE]

Another vote for the Em-Trak B100. It allows a simple switch to be fitted to disable transmissions in congested areas.

As regards the "look at me" comments I had an AIS reciever on my previous boat and it didn't seem fair when offshore to expect everyone else to be transmitting while I wasn't.

I also have the GPS antenna below decks with no problem - there seemed to be little point in having two independent GPS systems on the boat and putting their antennas next to each other on the pushpit rail.

 

[PaulRainbow]

Thanks for this. I knew I'd been able to get GPS signals in the saloon when I tried but thought it might be unsafe to rely on it.

As i've been experimenting with things my N2K network is a bit temporary, the Garmin GPS receiver is currently under one of the saloon sofas. It works fine though.