Panbo

The Marine Technology Hub

Category: AIS

More AIS in the USA, the new USCG requirements 11

AIS / The future

More AIS in the USA, the new USCG requirements

USCG_AIS_Final_Rule_collage_cPanbo.jpgPlease credit the U.S. Coast Guard with a sense of humor. The (NOA and) AIS Final Rule may be a dry read, but not last week’s email announcement, which began with the giddy declaration “4,232 days in the making!” I don’t know why the rulemaking process took so long, and it may have been most frustrating for those who do, but I’ll still be glad to have more of the commercial vessels working along our coasts equipped with AIS. It won’t happen fast, though — vessels newly required to carry Class A or B AIS transponders can take until March 2016 to install them — and the number of such vessels seems uncertain…

Real, Synthetic & Virtual AIS AtoNs, can you see them? 34

AIS

Real, Synthetic & Virtual AIS AtoNs, can you see them?

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One way to spend a frigid night in Maine is learning about AIS AtoNs, an electronic augmentation to the aids to navigation we commonly think of as nav buoys, lighthouses, beacons, etc. The US Coast Guard recently began a year-long experiment with AIS AtoNs in New York Harbor, and sure enough, there they are on Marine Traffic. MT is an imperfect tool for understanding what AIS AtoNs look like on our boat displays, but if you set up the Filter as I have above — Show Ship Names on, all vessel types but Navigation Aids off — you can see that they are now set up around many major U.S. ports and that we’re behind much of the world. There are three major types of AIS AtoN, along with many nuances, and their capabilities seem impressive, though perhaps a little confusing or even scary for some mariners…

MFD and AIS anomalies, be careful out there 33

Navigation / AIS / When things go wrong...

MFD and AIS anomalies, be careful out there

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Consider this is a portrait of a deeply experienced boat guy who still remains skeptical about the wonders of modern marine electronics. Lord knows I tried, but gremlins sabotaged my efforts from the moment when my old friend Joe McCarty arrived in Rockland, Maine, for the trip to Baltimore. I was using the Garmin Helm app on my iPad mini to watch the tank gauge as I squatted on dock pumping diesel fuel and Joe just had time enough to say “Well, that is cool!” when the digitized tank reading plunged from 85% to 20% and stayed stuck there even as we topped off using the old fashion method of listening to the changing vent gurgles…

Vesper XB-8000 test, much more than a Class B AIS transponder 46

Wireless & Apps / AIS / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Vesper XB-8000 test, much more than a Class B AIS transponder

XB-8000-3-in-one-800.jpgI’ve had a Vesper XB-8000 installed in the lab for the last month, and am confident that it will do well in a long test on board Gizmo beginning in May. I will miss some features of the Vesper Vision I tested last season, but having the blue box installed behind the scenes will help me test the glass bridge concept (one MFD brand, many screens), and at $799 I think the XB-8000 is a multifunction value that could work on a wide variety of vessels. The recent testing also revealed some new features that apply to both the XB and the Vision as Vesper continues to expand on the concepts expressed in the 3-in-1 diagram above…

The new MarineTraffic Internet AIS service, cautiously optimistic 18

Wireless & Apps / AIS

The new MarineTraffic Internet AIS service, cautiously optimistic

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These days I feel obliged to include a warning every time I write about AIS over the Internet. What you see in a nice app like ShipFinder HD (above) probably does not include every vessel that’s transmitting AIS info even in fairly well covered areas like the Miami/Lauderdale area, and many areas aren’t covered at all…unless perhaps you’re using the Seapilot app in Sweden or somehow have access to another well-organized AIS receiver system. That’s because what most of us see on computers, phones or tablets connected to the Web is target data collected by patchy networks of volunteers whose shore antennas may well miss even fairly nearby 2 Watt Class B AIS transmissions or even 12 Watt Class A signals obscured by buildings or terrain (or may suddenly go offline just because the volunteer’s kid trips on a power cord or similar).

Miami 2014 comms #2: VHF, AIS & the app connection 46

Wireless & Apps / Communications / AIS

Miami 2014 comms #2: VHF, AIS & the app connection

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There are still an amazing number of boats that can’t use the excellent DSC Distress feature that’s been built into every fixed VHF marine radio sold in the U.S.A since 1999. Their radio either hasn’t been interfaced with a GPS or hasn’t been programmed with the owner’s MMSI number, or both. I’ve heard Coast Guard rescue center personnel report that a DSC alert can work beautifully to quickly identify and locate a boat in trouble, but that they rarely see valid DSC alerts. So before discussing advances in VHF (and AIS) let’s note how companies like Standard Horizon and Icom are helping to make working DSC a pervasive reality (finally)…

Panbo at AC34, photo tweeting 10

What's on board... / AIS / The future

Panbo at AC34, photo tweeting

Panbo_at_AC34.jpgBest ticket ever?  I’m so excited about getting slightly behind the Americas Cup 34 scene — and out on San Francisco Bay for races 6 and 7! — that I’m dreaming up things might go wrong. Could there be too much wind to race?  In race 4 both boats averaged 31 knots — with bursts to 45 — in winds that averaged 19 with peak gusts at 23. Obviously things can really wrong when a catamaran is going that fast while delicately balanced on relatively tiny lifting foils. Or might Oracle Team USA find some way to delay further as crew and/or boat changes are hotly rumored?…

Hand’s on Vesper Vision, Class B AIS superstar 38

Wireless & Apps / AIS / NMEA 2000, 0183 & Signal K

Hand’s on Vesper Vision, Class B AIS superstar

Vesper_Marine_WatchMate_Vision_on_Gizmo_cPanbo.jpgI ended my entry about Vesper Marine’s excellent AIS collision avoidance software with tentative enthusiasm about the company’s next generation WatchMate Vision transponder.  Well, a test unit has been installed on Gizmo’s dash since mid-July and, frankly, it’s spectacular. While it certainly offers the AIS target filtering and alerting genius previously discussed, now these talented developers have put maximum AIS utility into a 5.7-inch touchscreen while also creating what could the central WiFi link between a boat’s fixed sensors and a boater’s mobile apps…

Smart Chart AIS needs our help, Uncle Sam’s too! 10

Wireless & Apps / AIS

Smart Chart AIS needs our help, Uncle Sam’s too!

SmartChart_AIS_web_splash.jpgThe first Smart Chart AIS app, a result of the very interesting U.S. government-funded Class E AIS project discussed here last August, is looking fo 100 Panbo beta testers.  Volunteers need to have an Android smartphone or tablet and should be boating in U.S. waters or at least spending time on the coast.  Here’s the Smart Chart web site and here’s the beta sign up site.  Beta feedback will happen on the SC forum, not in this entry’s comments, please.  I’ve been in the test program for a few weeks and will illustrate some of the app’s features below.  I’ll warn you, however, that there’s a major dissappointment which has nothing to do with Smart Chart’s developers…