[PUP] AIS Transponder

[Dave Cooper]

<John Marshall wrote: That's remarkable range... I have a FA-150 Furuno unit
and can routinely see ships in the 40-50 mile range, occasionally 60 miles.>

We haven't yet hit 50 miles with the CSB 200...48 is it with the 6db
antenna. However we do see lots more targets now. As many as 45 have shown
up active at one time. One would think this would result in a bunch of
clutter but they show up on the scale of the chart you have displayed. So
they are not a distraction, IMHO.

We have been advised that the Class B units will not have all of their data
displayed on most Class A units unless they have the latest software. We
have talked with several ships that have us acquired us their AIS screens
but our name is missing! They need a software update already as Class B
wasn't approved when their units were installed!

As I had said a few months back AIS is still a developing navaid and much of
the info that is being transmitted can be in error without the operator
being aware of it. Seems like there needs to be a way to "receive" your won
transmissions in order to verify that what you are sending is correct and
complete.

I am trying to set up one of my SR161 receivers to receive our signal so I
can check it. Not something that one would normally do but good to be able
to check as you would your own VHF transmissions for example.



Dave & Nancy
Swan Song
Roughwater 58
Caribbean Cruise '07