AIS

[claymore]

Anyone use it?
Opinions?

[mm5aho]

I'm going to try it this summer.

I bought a really cheap broken one off Ebay. It had suffered physical damage, but I figured the board inside was probably OK.
After refurbishing the box, and fitting new connectors / sockets etc, it now works fine.
I tried it at home and can see ships a way out in the Forth and passing up the east coast. My antenna is about mast height, but above ground, which is about 150m asl. But I can "see" about 40-50 miles.

Its a receive only type, and I have it integrating to SeaClear. Hope to operate it to see how useful it is over the summer on the west coast.

[Mercian]

I am trying it too this year. Bought a NASA AIS engine and will link it to my also new chartplotter.

Will report back on how it all works, or doesnt!

[marisca]

I'm ahead of the curve then. Due to my superior brainpower, technical skills, etc., etc. I managed to connect my SH GX2100 to an IBM Thinkpad and generate targets on both Belfield and OpenCPN. I've had this capability for 2 years and can't say it is much improvement on the MkI eyeball except for a couple of days of fog last summer when knowing that it was the Clansman hooting in the Sound of Mull and that its track was missing me by a couple of cables stopped me scurrying towards the shore.
Otherwise, once the novelty has worn off, it isn't much cop and is off most of the time. If I needed to send a DSC call to a vessel on the display, it would be useful, but I never have.
Oh, and it can show ships changing course for you in places like the Minch, usually about 6 or 7 miles away, or maybe that's just wishful thinking.

[Rowana]

Never seen the need for it in the type of sailing I do.

I've got a GPS, depth sounder and a bog-standard VHF. I would estimate that 95% of my navigation is by Mk1 eyeball, so I can't justify spending my hard-earned on a load of fancy gismos. Apart from calling Peterhead harbour to get permission to leave/enter the port, I've only used my VHF twice in 6 years, and one of these occasions was when another yacht called me!

I go sailing to get away from this high-tech world.

Having said that, I did get a new fancy phone which I can get weather forecasts on. This was purely because I could no longer get replacement batteries for my old one.

[claymore]

Never seen the need for it in the type of sailing I do.

I've got a GPS, depth sounder and a bog-standard VHF. I would estimate that 95% of my navigation is by Mk1 eyeball, so I can't justify spending my hard-earned on a load of fancy gismos. Apart from calling Peterhead harbour to get permission to leave/enter the port, I've only used my VHF twice in 6 years, and one of these occasions was when another yacht called me!

I go sailing to get away from this high-tech world.

Having said that, I did get a new fancy phone which I can get weather forecasts on. This was purely because I could no longer get replacement batteries for my old one.

You'd get on well with Wight Dawn - he doesn't use his VHF either

[aquaplane]

Never seen the need for it in the type of sailing I do.

I've got a GPS, depth sounder and a bog-standard VHF. I would estimate that 95% of my navigation is by Mk1 eyeball, so I can't justify spending my hard-earned on a load of fancy gismos. Apart from calling Peterhead harbour to get permission to leave/enter the port, I've only used my VHF twice in 6 years, and one of these occasions was when another yacht called me!

I go sailing to get away from this high-tech world.

Having said that, I did get a new fancy phone which I can get weather forecasts on. This was purely because I could no longer get replacement batteries for my old one.

You'd get on well with Wight Dawn - he doesn't use his VHF either

I don't either, talking to a marina to see where they want me to park is what a moiby is for.

[Telo]

Would be great in busy areas like down south, particularly cross-Channel passages, but not sure I see much point in The West unless you intend doing a lot of overnight sailing. I seem to recall that DaveS used AIS for some of his longer passages.

[claymore]

Yes, I agree with that - Parahandy wouldn't leave home without his but then he spends his days in and around the Solent.
I was just thinking about making the trip over to Denmark and whether or not I'd be better off with one

[ParaHandy]

I was just thinking about making the trip over to Denmark and whether or not I'd be better off with one

Divnae fret, Ahm sure the ferry will already have one.

[claymore]

Which reminds me - is it Brittany or P&O that you follow when you go to Cherbourg?

[jim.r]

I use it occasionally, on balance I'd rather have it when crossing shipping lanes than not. I found it useful when going round the Norfolk coast at night.

[mm5aho]

I'm expecting to find it more of a novelty and curiosity (what ship is that?, and... wonder how many megawatts it takes to get that ship to that speed?) than an aid to navigation.

[wully]

I've got a receiver that will be of comfort in fog but it usually stays switched off since yer average yotty equipped with one leaves it on 24/7 and after a few days I was heartily sick of 'dangerous vessel' alarms anytime I was anywhere near a Yott harbour or anchorage.

It must be next to useless in the home of British Yachting, the magnificent Solent.

[little boy blue]

................I was just thinking about making the trip over to Denmark and whether or not I'd be better off with one

on our trip from forth to skaggerak in may 2008 I saw 4 boats, hth.