Category: AIS

Thanks to an angelic Panbot, I’ve now read pertinent sections of IEC 62288, a.k.a. “Maritime navigation and radiocommunication equipment and systems – Presentation of navigation-related information on shipborne navigational displays – General requirements, methods of testing and required test results.” It’s a hundred pages (preview PDF here) laying out in great detail the minimum requirements for how all new radars going on SOLAS ships will perform and present data.  Perhaps most important among many mandated enhancements is the treatment of AIS targets, Class B included, putting them on essentially the same level of safety value as radar targets.  I think these standards are good news not only for the bridge teams on big ships, but also us little guys who sometimes travel amongst them (despite the consternation that came up yesterday)…

Given the new C Series Widescreens and ST70+ displays, and my mid-week absence (moms happen!), let’s just call this Raymarine New Stuff Week. Behold the AIS500, which just may be the easiest-to-integrate-into-your-system Class B transponder yet…

My coverage of the NMEA Conference last October was dominated by Class B AIS (and largely—doh!—a vessel naming issue that turned out to be immaterial). But in fact I also learned how AIS is getting into all sorts of marine systems, and…

Just online this morning is the USCG’s latest proposed rulemaking regarding the use of AIS by commercial vessels…

So far, the best (free) Web AIS coverage I can find for New York Harbor is provided by Vesseltracker.com. Though you have to register to get even a two hour target delay, the site is helping me understand the scene, VHF chatter included, and also illustrates an important point about AIS today…

I don’t know why Furuno has been quiet about it, but on Nov. 6 the FCC certified its FA-50 Class B AIS transponder…

Here’s Digital Yacht’s SPL250 VHF antenna splitter, purportedly the only splitter able to handle 2 watt Class B AIS and regular 25w VHF transceivers without smoke rising from either…

We’re down to Class B AIS details, my friends, and they aren’t hard. Above, and bigger here, is the Static data screen seen in the proAIS software that comes with the European version of Digital Yacht’s AIT250 transponder (and possibly others, as it comes from SRT, the manufacturer of so many Class B circuit boards and finished boxes). In the U.S. market this is the screen an installer would see after he or she had entered the vessel’s MMSI number. Users will see all those data fields grayed out (I presume, as I haven’t actually seen the finished U.S. software). Of course that’s because the FCC barred users from inputing the data themselves. But the user does have to supply accurate info to the installer. Let’s break it down: