AIS - a must for the future?
Posted: Sat Aug 30, 2014 11:33 am
I see in the RYA mag, they have installed a virtual buoy in Belfast Lough. It marks a sand pinnacle which it seems, is difficult to buoy in the normal way. It is simply an AIS transmission pretending to be in the position in question, sent from a nearby land station.
Great idea in this case, as the only affected vessels are the big commercials who all must have ais.
BUT - what if the bean-counters decide to do away with all the costly high-maintenance hardware and make ALL buoys virtual -as I'm quite sure they would love to do...
Imagine a world where you could put in a waypoint of a buoy without the fear of crashing into it - that's a plus.
Now imagine threading your way up a narrow channel unaware that your batteries are about to give up the ghost.. that's more of a bum-clencher.
Googling gives this http://www.vespermarine.com/virtual-bea ... acon.html/ and this http://gcaptain.com/uscg-ais-aton-navigation/ amongst other things, so it seems the real argument for fitting AIS is already here. Forget whether you are in a dense shipping area or not, it's the plots that don't move you could be interested in.
Great idea in this case, as the only affected vessels are the big commercials who all must have ais.
BUT - what if the bean-counters decide to do away with all the costly high-maintenance hardware and make ALL buoys virtual -as I'm quite sure they would love to do...
Imagine a world where you could put in a waypoint of a buoy without the fear of crashing into it - that's a plus.
Now imagine threading your way up a narrow channel unaware that your batteries are about to give up the ghost.. that's more of a bum-clencher.
Googling gives this http://www.vespermarine.com/virtual-bea ... acon.html/ and this http://gcaptain.com/uscg-ais-aton-navigation/ amongst other things, so it seems the real argument for fitting AIS is already here. Forget whether you are in a dense shipping area or not, it's the plots that don't move you could be interested in.