Just thought I'd spread the word about how impressed I am with the Digital Yacht ANT200 AIS receiver (pictured below) that I recently bought through Malthouse Marine for a very reasonable sub £200 price (you can pay me in beers Mart ).
I'd been toying with the idea of adding AIS to my plotter for a little while now, more just for interest than any real necessity, but after a recent trip in bad vis/fog I could see the advantage of knowing the name and MMSI of nearby large/commercial vessels to be able to call them on VHF if needed. There's a load of different AIS units on the market, but the ANT200 was small and simple to install with literally two wires to connect to the plotter and two to power. It draws 0.09 amps from my bench power supply.
Seeing as my boat is out of the water for winter I set it up on the window cill at home to see what I could pick up (2 miles from the coast). The unit is advertised as having a 10 mile radius for reception, which I'm pretty sure is accurate. Pics below show vessels in harbour some 3 miles away and the Condor Clipper en route to Portsmouth some 8 miles from me. There was hardly any setting up required on the Garmin, other than selecting 'high speed' nmea input and you then get prominent red triangles for every transmitting vessel in range. You can control which level of zoom these will show up on by tweaking the plotter settings and you can adjust the length of the speed/bearing indicator line to suit so you'd have an idea of how far it will travel in your chosen timescale. The only downside is that it is nmea 0183 rather than N2K, but I think most plotters still have 0183 inputs available.
All in all, a simple additional bit of safety equipment, especially if you can't justify going the whole hog and getting radar. It's clearly not the same as radar, but it's a step in the right direction.
When I put my transom back together a couple of months ago I got a new mount welded onto my aerial bracket ready for when I had a spare £200. Glad to hear it works as well as advertised.
After the run back through the shipping channel on the IOM trip in heavy fog I decided to fit one for next years trip as soon as I could.
It does seem very easy to fit and the specs look good for the effort/cash required.
I've got one coming on Seawolf arriving next week so good to hear it works well
I'd have thought if a big boat turns up down your way, the locals would be out in rowing boats with beads & sheepskins
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Rule#2: Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level & then beat you with experience.
Rule#3: Tha' can't educate pork.
Rule#4:Don't feed the troll
I'd have thought if a big boat turns up down your way, the locals would be out in rowing boats with beads & sheepskins
'k off
Beads, whatever next. If a big boat turns up down our way the locals row out to it to take advantage of the clamouring hordes who will cheerfully pay £25 for a 99p fluffy penguin and an inexpensive baseball cap made in China
You need the AIS receiver to identify which one is coming in so you know what size stock to load up with - not all nationalities are the same size
Sheepskins are £50 by the way and like the hats, one size fits all
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A Boat is a hole in the water, surrounded by fibreglass, into which you throw money...
Just noticed in picture 4 the estimated date of arrival. Now I know Commodore have had some problems with their vessels, but to take 6 months to get from Jersey to Portsmouth seems a little pesimistic
I'd been toying with the idea of adding AIS to my plotter for a little while now, more just for interest than any real necessity, but after a recent trip in bad vis/fog I could see the advantage of knowing the name and MMSI of nearby large/commercial vessels to be able to call them on VHF if needed. There's a load of different AIS units on the market, but the ANT200 was small and simple to install with literally two wires to connect to the plotter and two to power. It draws 0.09 amps from my bench power supply.
Does it allow you to "click" on a vessel on the plotter and call it directly (via the VHF) rather than read the numbers off the screen and punch them in to the radio? I realise that is probably plotter and VHF specific rather than the AIS input?
Hmmm, I'm not sure. I know that wouldn't work on my set-up as my Icom VHF can't accept calls instigated by the plotter, although if I had a Garmin VHF then I can't see why it wouldn't. The Plotter obviously sees the AIS info in the same way as if it were being fed by say a Garmin AIS, so I would imagine you could. I'll have to have a look and see if there's an option to 'call' vessel even though it wouldn't actually work for me.
Quick update. There is no option to 'call' vessel on my plotter but I'm still working in the dark ages with an NMEA0183 system. It may be that newer N2K plotters would have that option.
I eventually ordered one of these tonight after I had my mast altered to take it earlier this year. My network is all N2k but unfortunately the VHF is still NMEA0183 so probably won't work pointing and clicking on mine either.
mine is realy for the IOM trip next year, it was a bit lonely going across the 17miles of main shipping channel this year
1. On my own
2. In thick fog
I might have known I'd give you an "in" somewhere in that post.
She's not been called a Lady much but, as is probably obvious to most, I meant one boat not just me in that boat.........
I've used mine a bit (much more useful now I have a chart card...) but the range seems pretty limited. It's very much line of sight too - with the boat parked up by my house I usually don't see an AIS return from boats in the outer harbour which is only maybe two or three miles away though with a small ridge line in the way - but VHF reception would be 100% at the same position.
I'm not sure what to make of this - the AIS in the office has a range of about 50 miles but with a high tower mounted aerial so it must be a limitation of the aerial or receiver I think.
The other really annoying thing is that when you get close to another boat (less than about 1/2 mile) you get a collision alarm on the Garmin 556s and though you can switch it off, it insists on coming back on again every time you switch the Garmin back on, and every time you get close to a boat I guess it is a safety feature but it's a PITA not being able to turn it off as on a RIB you regularly pass close enough to other vessels to trip the alarm without being any risk so it is stupid.
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A Boat is a hole in the water, surrounded by fibreglass, into which you throw money...
The poor range you are experiencing suprises me. The second photo in my OP was of a vessel 8 miles or so from me and the other side of a headland. I suppose it boils down to the strength of the transmitting boat's equipment as much as the aerial of the AIS200
There was something about collision alarms on Panbo.com a little while ago. I assume you can adjust the distance threshold before it sets off.
It's a nice piece of kit alright. I have AIS on my boat; it's an interesting gadget as are MARPA and navtex. I have radar as well and would recommend it in an instant; I have it on all the time overlaid on my plotter. There's nothing more eerie and disorientating than sailing in fog so radar can be very reassuring then. Given where I tend to go nowadays the boat's sonar get used more than anything. Pity Raymarine sounders are sh*te; it's packed up on me more than once at MStM as this clip shows:
It's a nice piece of kit alright. I have AIS on my boat; it's an interesting gadget as are MARPA and navtex. I have radar as well and would recommend it in an instant; I have it on all the time overlaid on my plotter. There's nothing more eerie and disorientating than sailing in fog so radar can be very reassuring then. Given where I tend to go nowadays the boat's sonar get used more than anything. Pity Raymarine sounders are sh*te; it's packed up on me more than once at MStM as this clip shows:
What's your Raymarine sonar setup? They've just released a firmare update for the DSM300 to cure various problems
__________________
Rule#2: Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level & then beat you with experience.
Rule#3: Tha' can't educate pork.
Rule#4:Don't feed the troll
What's your Raymarine sonar setup? They've just released a firmare update for the DSM300 to cure various problems
Thanks for that. Yes, the 300 has been plagued with voltage intolerance problems since its launch. This has been discussed for for some time now on several US forums. I'll check out RM's website for the software update and get it loaded asap. Thanks again for bringing it to my attention.
Thanks for that. Yes, the 300 has been plagued with voltage intolerance problems since its launch. This has been discussed for for some time now on several US forums. I'll check out RM's website for the software update and get it loaded asap. Thanks again for bringing it to my attention.
At the risk hijacking the OP (sorry). Depending on your serial number, I believe that there was a hardware mod for earlier units to overcome the brownouts, but I could be talking borrox. You will also need to update your head unit software to be compatible with the new DSM firmware. It's all here
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Rule#2: Never argue with an idiot. He'll drag you down to his level & then beat you with experience.
Rule#3: Tha' can't educate pork.
Rule#4:Don't feed the troll
At the risk hijacking the OP (sorry). Depending on your serial number, I believe that there was a hardware mod for earlier units to overcome the brownouts, but I could be talking borrox. You will also need to update your head unit software to be compatible with the new DSM firmware. It's all here
Thanks for the link; it's exactly what I'm after. I like the way RM describes the problem as a "horizontal scroll issue". The sounder stops working without warning and at the most inconvenient of times, that's the blo*dy issue. Anyway, I'm too terrified to upload the software myself. My boat's coming out in February, I'll get an engineer to do it for me. Incidently, I make video diaries for Mrs GJ0KYZ nowadays; she's who I was talking to in the Mont St. Michel clip. She refuses to go there anymore as she finds it 'boring'.
(you can pay me in beers Mart 
). 
BLACK PIG
Piglet
I guess it is a safety feature but it's a PITA not being able to turn it off as on a RIB you regularly pass close enough to other vessels to trip the alarm without being any risk so it is stupid.
