AIS Transponder - Anyone have one?

[Charlesoceanone]

I have been on the Illinois River most of the summer and when the barges were running it was ideal to hail them to request passes. I would not want to be without it on the river systems. Also having the apps to see the location of your boat when you are away is comforting as well.

 

[Henry Boyd]

They need their own GPS. The 6000 has an internal antenna but can use an external. The 8000 does not have an internal antenna. They can put out GPS over N2K for other electronics.

That’s an improvement over the Ray-650. It has a proprietary GPS (5VDC vs 12VDC), but only pushes the AIS data onto the nmea2k net. Although we have a dedicated VHF antenna, it does support splitting to share with the voice radio.

 

[Jaybeaux]

I just received an email from BOE Marine (site sponsor) highlighting a new offering from Vesper.

https://www.boemarine.com/vesper-cortex-v1-vhf-ais-monitor.html

 

[carterchapman]

I have been on the Illinois River most of the summer and when the barges were running it was ideal to hail them to request passes. I would not want to be without it on the river systems. Also having the apps to see the location of your boat when you are away is comforting as well.

Me too Steve - invaluable for running the TN-Tom and TN River with the tight turns and lots of barges. Mine is a Westmarine 1000.

 

[Henry Boyd]

I just received an email from BOE Marine (site sponsor) highlighting a new offering from Vesper.

https://www.boemarine.com/vesper-cortex-v1-vhf-ais-monitor.html

That looks like a nice set up. Any idea if the vhf is just integrated into the AIS to make the if target to contact target easier, or if it is meant to be a full featured bridge vhf? I couldn’t find any reference to DSC so I’m guessing the former. Might be a good idea if I didn’t dig too deeply. The wife would skin me in my sleep if she found I spent another 2K on electronics after making the case we would have state of the art with the stuff we put on this spring.

 

[ttmott]

I went the Garmin route with their AIS800 transceiver. It is a Class B/SO. Have I found it useful? Probably only the receiver component of it. Where we are there isn't a lot of commercial traffic so it's value is questionable with respect to it's cost. When it is switched to transmit I can be located anywhere along the coastal areas but not in the Bahamas. I had an AIS receiver integrated with the VHF in my last boat and for our use that would be good enough....

 

[bobeast]

I just received an email from BOE Marine (site sponsor) highlighting a new offering from Vesper.

https://www.boemarine.com/vesper-cortex-v1-vhf-ais-monitor.html

This is the one I recently installed. It is a seriously slick piece of kit. this weekend I plan to add a relay so I can control my anchor light from my iPhone. Also have a wireless handset on order for down in the cabin.

I previously had the Vesper 8000, and the new cortex works with the GPS antenna I already had installed. I also like that the built-in switcher has a pass-through connection which I have used to connect to my stereo antenna connection. Now I have AIS, VHF, AM, FM, all running off my VHF antenna.

You can call targets right from the Vesper handset or through your MFD. The Anchor watch and bilge alarms work with your phone, even if you are off the boat, which is a real peace of mind when you dinghy out to a restaurant while at anchor.

 

[Chief Ed]

To be honest, I cant think of a reason why anyone should NOT have a transponder installed on board. The added layer of safety (aka piece of mind) it provides you as well as ‘the other guy’ is well worth the few hundred bucks more than a receiver that it costs. After all, we don’t think twice about spending a few hundred bucks on fuel, food, drinks, etc. for the weekend, no? The more boats that add transceivers, the better the system is as a whole...

 

[Jeremygavin]

It seems this year over last year that a lot more pleasure boats in my area have AIS. Most of the boats in the 40-60ft range seem to be utilizing AIS. I find mostly the ones that don’t have it turned on but must have it on board are larger fishing boats and large yachts.

 

[Skybolt]

That looks like a nice set up. Any idea if the vhf is just integrated into the AIS to make the if target to contact target easier, or if it is meant to be a full featured bridge vhf? I couldn’t find any reference to DSC so I’m guessing the former. Might be a good idea if I didn’t dig too deeply. The wife would skin me in my sleep if she found I spent another 2K on electronics after making the case we would have state of the art with the stuff we put on this spring.

This is an amazing full featured VHF, at least it reads that way. https://www2.vespermarine.com/cortex/vhf

Really cool feature is the anchor watch. A little pricey though.

 

[Skybolt]

... I had an AIS receiver integrated with the VHF in my last boat and for our use that would be good enough....

That's where I am now, you don't think the ability to be seen is useful?

 

[ttmott]

That's where I am now, you don't think the ability to be seen is useful?

Useful - possibly. Worth the cost - no, not in our area.

 

[Skybolt]

Where I use to live I didn't really see the need either. The Long Island sound, deep water, mooring balls no anchors etc. In the Chesapeake the exact opposite, mostly if not all anchors and tight shallow channels and lots of commercial traffic.

I am really liking the anchor watch ability of that the Vesper products offer.

 

[Henry Boyd]

Where I use to live I didn't really see the need either. The Long Island sound, deep water, mooring balls no anchors etc. In the Chesapeake the exact opposite, mostly if not all anchors and tight shallow channels and lots of commercial traffic.

I am really liking the anchor watch ability of that the Vesper products offer.

Granted this was nearly forty years ago, but my one experience of sailing for a week in Long Island Sound was spent dodging barge traffic and the more than occasional surfacing submarine. I would have thought AIS would have been the made for there.

 

[Skybolt]

Granted this was nearly forty years ago, but my one experience of sailing for a week in Long Island Sound was spent dodging barge traffic and the more than occasional surfacing submarine. I would have thought AIS would have been the made for there.

Yeah, the barge traffic is a lot true, but the sound is almost 20 miles wide and you can see them miles away and the double blip on radar in fog is a dead give away. Not saying AIS doesn't help, just not as needed as where I am now. Very close quarters in the upper Chesapeake bat area, very shallow as well. Not leaving much room to get around commercial traffic.

I never noticed that subs transmitted AIS, maybe they monitor it? But I will say this, they will surface anywhere without and thought of you being close by. But the subs mainly go through Block Island sound. You can pretty much see one every time on the way out to Block.

 

[Craig]

I have a AIS receiver. Great for watching commercial traffic.The problem is if every boat does not transmit the void is to big. Many more without than with. Nice accessory/toy but I've got by 40 years without one so i'll rely on DSC for emergencies.

 

[SeasNT]

Have thought about AIS for several years. If we were running something like the Tenn-Tom or Intercoastal I’d probably install a Vesper transceiver. In the Great Lakes there is usually plenty of room to see and avoid large ships. That said, our next VHF radio will have a built in AIS receiver. Even though commercial marine traffic is generally visible on a cell phone, it would be nice to see oncoming ships around the bend and in lower visibility on the primary MFD when navigating areas like the Detroit and St Clair rivers. If we were all emitting AIS class B, could the ships just switch off the class-B traffic to unclutter their display’s? I'm not sure the current system was built with all of us in mind. But it would give ship captains our vessel names. They could more efficiently yell at us on the VHF.

 

[Henry Boyd]

Have thought about AIS for several years. If we were running something like the Tenn-Tom or Intercoastal I’d probably install a Vesper transceiver. In the Great Lakes there is usually plenty of room to see and avoid large ships. That said, our next VHF radio will have a built in AIS receiver. Even though commercial marine traffic is generally visible on a cell phone, it would be nice to see oncoming ships around the bend and in lower visibility on the primary MFD when navigating areas like the Detroit and St Clair rivers. If we were all emitting AIS class B, could the ships just switch off the class-B traffic to unclutter their display’s? I'm not sure the current system was built with all of us in mind. But it would give ship captains our vessel names. They could more efficiently yell at us on the VHF.

I think your scenario falls into the same situation of not using your radar and being in a collision. In such a case not having radar on at least “standby” is considered a failure to have a an adequate and proper watch in place.

While the option exists to shut off AIS transmission for commercial vessels (anti-piracy protection), to my knowledge there is no option to not use it if your vessel is equipped with it.

 

[my3sons]

[QUOTE="Henry Boyd, post: 1173808, member: 1155"

While the option exists to shut off AIS transmission for commercial vessels (anti-piracy protection), to my knowledge there is no option to not use it if your vessel is equipped with it.[/QUOTE]
Not sure I am understanding you correctly but AIS can be switched to stop transmission and just receive only.
I should say the Vesper units can. I have mine set up that way.

 

[Henry Boyd]

[QUOTE="Henry Boyd, post: 1173808, member: 1155"

While the option exists to shut off AIS transmission for commercial vessels (anti-piracy protection), to my knowledge there is no option to not use it if your vessel is equipped with it.

Not sure I am understanding you correctly but AIS can be switched to stop transmission and just receive only.
I should say the Vesper units can. I have mine set up that way.[/QUOTE]

Right, my point was directed a commercial vessels that are required by regulation to have AIS. They can shut off transmission as an anti-piracy strategy. They can’t shut off reception because to do so would be seen as degrading their watch capability and increase their liability if they happened to run down a vessel transmitting an AIS signal.

SeasNT had suggested AIS was of limited value as commercial vessels would shut off the system to de-clutter their displays. I was responding to show it would not be in their best interests to do so.