Browsing: AIS

Cruising Life
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Why You Need AIS. A Primer

Here’s a good primer about why you should have AIS on your boat, from America’s Boating Compass and the US Power Squadrons: AIS, or Automatic Identification System, can make your boating safer. Consider the following scenario: You have an AIS system on your boat. You are on watch, 20 miles off the coast, sailing in hazy conditions. An AIS alarm sounds on your chart plotter. Upon scanning the horizon, you see nothing. When you return to your display, you see a target 5 miles ahead traveling at 23 knots and heading toward you. The AIS information data box shows that…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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New Vesper Cortex Smart VHF; Touchscreen AIS

The new Vesper Cortex smart VHF is much more than just one more marine radio. It’s the first with high-speed AIS transponder technology, making your boat visible to others, and it’s also a major safety device, alerting you to potential collisions, providing an anchor watch, and giving you the security of a sophisticated man-overboard system. A New Zealand company, Vesper Marine developed the Cortex with wireless touchscreen handsets working with a mounted NMEA 2000-enabled mounted hub; it can work with up to ten tethered or portable rechargeable handsets, so you and your crew can use them from anywhere on the…

Cruising Life
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New ICOM VHF: First Handheld with AIS

ICOM just launched its new breakthrough IC-M94D handheld VHF, the first in the world with built-in AIS. Combined with DSC (Distress Signal Calling), AIS (Automatic Identification System) is a boon to boating safety and secure navigation. Until now, AIS was limited to larger VHF units and helm-mounted display screens. With the new Icom, you can have all the safety and communications features (receive only) of AIS in the palm of your hand. You can use it on a smaller boat, a dink or simply as a back-up system on a larger vessel. The M94D is a significant VHF even without…

Cruising Life
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How To Navigate with New AIS Chart Symbols

If you saw these symbols on your chartplotter, would you know what they mean? Here’s a very informative story from Skipper Tips that will give you the answer, and that will help you navigate with AIS. Read on: You enter between the breakwaters just after sunset, and, according to your electronic chart, you should see the channel buoys to port and starboard. Instead you see nothing at all. The buoys and beacons are gone! What now, skipper? How do AIS equipped buoys and beacons appear on your nautical or electronic chart? What is the difference between VISUAL and VIRTUAL aids?…

Cruising Life
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Simrad Introduces New VHF Systems with AIS

Simrad is introducing a new VHF radio and an upgrade with a Class-B AIS system, representing a pair of multi-station marine radio systems. Both radios, the RS100 and the RS100-B, which is integrated with a Class-B AIS transceiver and a GPS, are expandable and be customized for any boat. The two new radios are part of modular VHF systems that expand to include up to eight handsets (four wired and four wireless) and four external speakers. This possibility makes them appropriate for both medium-sized and larger yachts. “Our new VHF systems offer our customers ever more flexibility and better communication…

On Watch with Peter Janssen
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Why Are These Ships Running in Circles?

We all know that AIS (Automatic Identification System) is a major advance in boat navigation and safety. It shows the track of vessels underway throughout the world, and is used by thousands of commercial and recreational vessels. It adds a new level of safety, and displays the name and location of boats near you, even before they can see you. When it works. There is now reason to think that some vessels’ AIS systems have been hacked. The mystery is why, and who did it. The problem is that AIS tracks showed about a dozen ships traveling in circles near…

Cruising Life
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Albatrosses with Radar Detectors Find Illegal Fishing Boats

A team of French and New Zealand scientists have used almost 200 albatrosses, fitted out with radar detection devices, to track fishing vessels at sea. Their findings, just reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: About a third of the vessels the birds tracked were probably fishing illegally. Henri Weimerskirch, a marine ornithologist at the French National Center for Scientific Research and one of the leaders of the albatross project, said that albatrosses were ideal for finding fishing boats, legal or illegal. With wingspans up to 11 feet, the largest of any bird alive, an albatross can…

Electronics
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Now, AIS on Your Phone with iNavX; No Transponder Needed

Now, with iNavX LIVE, you can get AIS data in the palm of your hand on your smartphone or tablet, without needing a transponder on your boat. The new addition to iNavX software lets you connect any mobile device to the AIS LIVE global network, so that you can see the movements of AIS vessels in real time on the iNavX display on your phone. INavX, an app you can download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, has all the advantages of a mobile chartplotter that you can take on any boat, anywhere, at any time. It…

Electronics
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New Cortex Handheld VHF Also Has AIS, Monitoring

Vesper Marine, a New Zealand manufacturer of innovative marine electronics, just introduced what it calls the world’s first VHF radio with touchscreen handsets, an AIS transponder and remote vessel monitoring. The new VHF is called Cortex, and it offers an unprecedented level of boating safety and communication that fits in your hand. “Innovation in AIS technology, touchscreen devices and vessel monitoring has skyrocketed in recent years, but marine VHF hasn’t kept pace and remains an anachronism,” says Jeff Robbins, CEO, Vesper Marine. “Cortex fundamentally changes how you interact with safety communication systems.” In addition to the normal marine VHF radio…

Cruising Life
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Simrad and B&G Announce New VHF Radios that Transmit and Receive AIS

In a major boost to cruising safety, Simrad Yachting and B&G have just announced new VHF radios that both transmit and receive AIS data. The companies say these are the first radios with this capability. The radios will start shipping in June, with a retail price of $1,099. Both Simrad and B&S are part of Navico, and the new radios look the same and have the same features. The Simrad is called the RS40-B, while the B&G version is the V60-B. They have wireless handset capability, removeable mic, Class D DSC functionality, built-in GPS and a Class B AIS transceiver.…

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