Category: AIS

Should I rename the blog iPanbo?  I know I’ve been focused on these marine apps a lot, but, as noted just last week, the developement velocity is awesome.  I first heard about Ship Finder...

Yesterday I fired up this sample Simrad AI50 Class B AIS transponder and found it to be pretty much as self-contained and impressive as I’d hoped.  I attached one of my boat’s VHF antennas, deployed the AI50’s included GPS antenna, gave the unit a little 12v juice (just 8 watts at 100% screen brightness), and, voila, Gizmo was transmitting its position and plotting other AIS targets, including another Class B I had set up as “Panbo.com Lab”.  A full AI50 entry will follow, but first I’ll report on its SimNet/N2K output.  I was excited about how easily NMEA 2000 could feed the AI50’s target and GPS info to all devices on the network, but nervous about that how well 2000 currently handles the data (nobody has yet tried it much). Both feelings were justified…

After METS 2007, I wrote about how many new AIS products Comar had in the pipeline.  Well, this U.K. company hasn’t slowed down, and has even developed a snappy new logo and Web site.  Comar’s latest is this AIS-Multi, which seems like quite an able AIS listener at $399 (from U.S. distributor Milltech Marine).  It features true parallel receivers, so slow Class B updates will plot as well as they can; an amplified VHF splitter, so you don’t need to add another antenna; USB data output, so you can connect it to a modern PC without needing a serial converter; and, finally, the ability to multiplex in NMEA 0183 data at 4800 baud (GPS most likely), so the unit’s 38,400 baud data output can be easily used with a plotter whose NMEA 0183 port was already in use (and the PC will get it, too).  But…

Ever since I realized that the free Siitech.com AIS pro web viewer can count and/or filter AIS types, I’ve been using it occasionally in an attempt to gauge the spread of Class B in...

I wished I’d clicked on one of those AIS targets before I took this screen shot, so you could see how CE 2009 displays their properties, but our focus (after the reboot affair) was...

In the screen above I was testing Coastal Explorer 2009 with AIS target data coming in from a shore receiver network via an IP feed.  It was neat to watch the pilot boat rendezvous with a ship inbound to Narragansett Bay, and it showed off CE’s ability, like NavSim’s, to dead reckon targets (note how it’s using COG, not heading), as well as track them and pop up useful info with a mouse click (or finger tap).  But good data and good data presentation like this could be used for very bad purposes.  Despite all the discussion of Somali pirates last week, I didn’t hear anything about whether or not they use AIS to rendezvous with their targets…but I’m not surprised that they do, and that the crews thus exposed are pretty pissed off about it!

At the Miami Boat Show, NavSim Technology was showing some neat AIS plotting features, and yesterday I got them to send some illustrative screen shots.  In the lower right “secondary chart view” above you can see how NavSim uses yellow, green, and red target icons to show moored, moving, and dangerous vessels (a full explanation of AIS icons here, and special Class B icons are coming soon).  You can also see…

If I understand the timing correctly, about when Raymarine starts shipping its new AIS 500 Class B transponder in May, it will also offer software updates for A, C, E, and G Series MFDs that provide some AIS plotting improvements. On top of the list is “buddy tracking”, which I consider a valuable feature, though the term — used by several manufacturers — is a bit misleading…