Category: AIS

From the minutes of the 5/10/2007 GMDSS Task Force meeting, summarizing one portion of the FCC report:

Pending approval of AIS Class B Units: The Coast Guard has approved 4 AIS Class B Units and those same units are expected to receive routine FCC approval which has not yet been released, however.

What the ?!#$?…

Y-tronic just introduced a slick looking combo GPS and tuned AIS antennas meant especially for Class B transponders. Y-tronic is also showing the Trueheading Class B as FCC approved. I wish that was true but...

I hate to be a scold, but an otherwise fine new article about AIS in Cruising World contains this flawed paragraph: Once an AIS signal is received by the antenna, it’s sent to a black box that...

A big thanks to Shine Micro for  providing some useful detail about how the FCC is handling Class B AIS. First of all, the MMSI’s will be just like those used in DSC VHF’s (in fact, should be...

I’m still hoping someone will tell us more about the FCC and Class B AIS, but in the meantime Dan sent a great link to The Nautical Institute’s AIS Forum. It’s not a forum...

A reader (thanks, Dan!) tipped me to this FCC approval issued last Thursday for Software Radio Technology’s Class B AIS transponder. Does that mean units using SRT’s circuit board can now be sold here, or do...

Panbo friend John C. came back from more sailing aboard Solent Blue to discover that his overview photo of English Channel AIS traffic had stirred up quite a conversation. So he adds this: The...

Geez, this morning I found myself confused about Class B AIS details touched on yesterday, and realized that my sources are somewhat sketchy. The USCG AIS site is pretty informative generally, but its Class B particulars seem suspect, the...

Ever wonder why the U.K. and Western Europe are such AIS hot beds? John C. send in this shot of his zoomed out screen, taken as he sailed across the English Channel yesterday: I was heading northwest...

Simrad introduced a Class B AIS in Europe today, and it looks very cool indeed. Besides the obvious, if unique, color plotting screen, this unit has a “Buddy Tracking” feature whereby you put in...