Transmitting AIS with Garmin

[mikehhogg]

my apologies to the original poster that this post has taken on a personal tone.

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

sorry to burst your bubble wilk but I got this info from the RNLI

AIS is a legal requirement for all passenger vessels & any vessel over 300grt. As per usual, you’re talking Hoggwash.

[hyndlandguy]

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

my apologies to the original poster that this post has taken on a personal tone.

No problem guys. Its been interesting listening to all your different opinions on AIS.

I am still going to fit it to my RIB though. I use mine off the N Cornwall coast and it can get a little wild down there at times and I sail solo a fair bit. Anything on the RIB that adds a little safety, even if some don't rate it, can only be a good thing to me.

Thanks for everyone for suggesting various solutions. I will let you know what I get fitted in the next week or two.

[mikehhogg]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

AIS is a legal requirement for all passenger vessels & any vessel over 300grt. As per usual, you’re talking Hoggwash.

no wonder ye opted out of the EU ye cant read

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

no wonder ye opted out of the eu ye cant read

🤷*♂️🤷*♂️time to invoke rule #2 methinks.

[mikehhogg]

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

no wonder ye opted out of the EU ye cant read

why do ships operate under flags like PANAMA etc ,they are exempted from these rules, they can switch off the AIS whenever they feel like

[GuyC]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

AIS is a legal requirement for all passenger vessels & any vessel over 300grt. As per usual, you’re talking Hoggwash.

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

no wonder ye opted out of the EU ye cant read

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

why do ships operate under flags like PANAMA etc ,they are exempted from these rules, they can switch off the AIS whenever they feel like

Taken from the IMO website:

"The regulation requires AIS to be fitted aboard all ships of 300 gross tonnage and upwards engaged on international voyages, cargo ships of 500 gross tonnage and upwards not engaged on international voyages and all passenger ships irrespective of size. The requirement became effective for all ships by 31 December 2004."

Panama has been a signatory to IMO since 1958.

https://lloydslist.maritimeintellige...-AIS-tampering

I don't think you are in a defensible position.

PS - In the UK, fishing boats over 15m have had to have AIS fitted since 2014.

[pilotwillie]

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

why do ships operate under flags like PANAMA etc ,they are exempted from these rules, they can switch off the AIS whenever they feel like

Sorry, you’ve lost me.
Remind me what rules ships are exempted from if they’re registered in Panama ?
[emoji848]

[jakew009]

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

AIS is not GMDSS approved and is limited to as low as 2.5 miles depending on antenna,also a fishing kayak could theoritically purchase a transponder and register it as a tug boat. along with the fishermen attaching ais transponders to their fishing gear makes this piece of kit kind of waste of money in a rib. as well as having to stop the rib to read every ID that appears on the screen. but it appears that people are willing to throw a lot of money at gadgets and cut a milk carton in half to make a bilge pump. No wonder the RNLI are busy

Why do you keep repeating the same nonsense?

Firstly there is no such thing as ‘GMDSS approved’. GMDSS is just a set of principals agreed between a bunch of countries about how to coordinate search and rescue at sea.

And according to this article:

Although AIS is not part of the GMDSS, it can be considered part of the GMDSS due to the advent of the AIS-SART (AIS Search and Rescue Transmitter), which can be used in lieu of a search and rescue radar transponder (SART), since 01 January 2010.

... AIS absolutely is ‘approved’ by GMDSS in the conventional sense of the word.

I have no idea what relevance your 2.5 miles comment is, but 2.5 miles should be enough for a little rib to get out the way of a big ship bearing down on it in fog (which is of course the whole point of AIS).

Registering a kayak as a tug would almost certainly be illegal and likely get the coast guard interested.
Likewise using the illegal Chinese AIS transmitters on fishing buoys but I believe they are being cracked down on. But surely it’s better to have the buoys marked legally on a plotter rather than finding it with your prop?

Why would you have to stop the rib to read an AIS tag?

[jakew009]

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

sorry to burst your bubble wilk but I got this info from the RNLI

An official statement from the RNLI? Or what some bloke down the pub who once volunteered for the RNLI said?

[Rick Fisher]

May I ask, I was going to install a simrad VHF 60 which advertises AIS .. its about $629.00 USD.

Would it only receive or does it transmit ? I have a newer Simrad GPS .. the VHF would connect to the GPS as well for a display ?

[jakew009]

Originally Posted by Rick Fisher

May I ask, I was going to install a simrad VHF 60 which advertises AIS .. its about $629.00 USD.

Would it only receive or does it transmit ? I have a newer Simrad GPS .. the VHF would connect to the GPS as well for a display ?

Have you got a link to this unit? A quick Google search can’t find it.

Some of the newer Simrad VHFs can receive and transmit. All with AIS functionality will send the positions to your plotter.

[tehguy]

Originally Posted by mikehhogg

I hate to be the one to be negative here but AIS is not all its cracked up to be. signals and data are sometimes intermittant and hours behind real time. we purchased a boat a few weeks ago and used marine tracker to track its progress. the cargo ship that was going to pick it up from an Island off south west coast of uk Stopped transponding after leaving port in penzance.The boat was on the quay the following day even though ais showed it under way at sea.
the boat was transported by road to liverpool where it was put on a ferry to belfast. The stenna ship appeared in the irish sea when in fact it was docked in belfast.. We then had a trawler off the the Irish coast that suffered engine failure and the LE George bernard shaw a naval vessell attended .Ais was 24hours behind. I rest my case

I think you were doing something wrong pal, AIS definitely is "all it's cracked up to be"

[beamishken]

Originally Posted by tehguy

I think you were doing something wrong pal, AIS definitely is "all it's cracked up to be"

Hes right I've been sat on a ship 100 miles out in the north sea and AIS has had it still in Aberdeen. Unless your in a very busy seaway (solent for example) in a slow boat it has more novelty value than real navigation aid imho

[Pikey Dave]

Originally Posted by beamishken

Hes right I've been sat on a ship 100 miles out in the north sea and AIS has had it still in Aberdeen. Unless your in a very busy seaway (solent for example) in a slow boat it has more novelty value than real navigation aid imho

Is that because you were looking on an internet server based system & not on the proper VHF live system? I’ve never had an issue with the “live” system, however when ships are out of VHF range and are using shore/Inmarsat/server based methods of updating, there is considerable lag in the system. If a ship is out of VHF range, then true, it’s a novelty as their position is irrelevant to your situation.
Marine traffic/Ship finder are all internet based & can’t be relied on.

[beamishken]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

Is that because you were looking on an internet server based system & not on the proper VHF live system? I’ve never had an issue with the “live” system, however when ships are out of VHF range and are using shore/Inmarsat/server based methods of updating, there is considerable lag in the system. If a ship is out of VHF range, then true, it’s a novelty as their position is irrelevant to your situation.
Marine traffic/Ship finder are all internet based & can’t be relied on.

Yeh 100 miles off we're out of range so yes internet based.
In our cruising area west of Scotland Iom & Ireland i think AIS has very limited usefulness given the scarcity of traffic. Imho far better to save the extra money and fit radar which some folk seem to think AIS replaces. Obviously if funds allow then fit both if you want but I think AIS is near the bottom of the useful list when it comes to tech gadgets

[jakew009]

Originally Posted by beamishken

Yeh 100 miles off we're out of range so yes internet based.
In our cruising area west of Scotland Iom & Ireland i think AIS has very limited usefulness given the scarcity of traffic. Imho far better to save the extra money and fit radar which some folk seem to think AIS replaces. Obviously if funds allow then fit both if you want but I think AIS is near the bottom of the useful list when it comes to tech gadgets

The whole idea behind AIS is to warn other (AIS receiver equipped) vessels in the vicinity of your presence. That it does very well with absolutely zero lag 100% of the time.

Saying AIS is unreliable is basically the same as saying VHF radios are unreliable. They use exactly the same transmission methods.

What you were presumably doing was looking on your phone at marine traffic which is supplied by some hobbyist with an aerial on his roof. Marine Traffic is not AIS.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Pikey Dave

🤷*♂️🤷*♂️time to invoke rule #2 methinks.

Never had an issue with my AIS or following the lad on his Atlantic passages when I’ve picked the satellite option up.

[beamishken]

Originally Posted by jakew009

Saying AIS is unreliable is basically the same as saying VHF radios are unreliable. They use exactly the same transmission methods.



AIS.

I never said it was unreliable I agreed that in certain circumstances AIS can show the vessel location incorrectly for the reasons which pikey explained.
What I do think is AIS has more novelty value and limited usefulness unless your in an area of heavy traffic. Imho the money spent on the AIS would be better put towards a far more useful radar setup. Which will show you everything around you without relying on the other vessels (or structures) to transmit to you

[tehguy]

I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what AIS is mate.

AIS is transmitted by VHF and any other ships within range with AIS will see you on their chart plotter. Class A AIS units send a lot of information like length, draught etc whereas class B units tend to just send your callsign, position and speed.

When you look at websites like marine traffic what you are seeing is AIS data that has been submitted to them by contributors who run AIS receivers on land. Clearly you need to be within range of a land-based AIS receiver in order to show up on marine traffic, however there is also satellite AIS now which has near enough global coverage. At work we pay for satellite tracking for certain ships and we can see them basically anywhere in the world, even in the middle of the Southern Ocean when they are hundreds of miles from the closest land.