T&T: AIS receiver with bluetooth support

[George & Emilie Rankin]

Look for a "bluetooth to serial converter" in google.   They are pretty common
in the industry now, and should cost under $200.   You hook the output of the
AIS to the transmitter, and the software creates a virtual bluetooth serial
port on your machine.   If you have a NMEA combiner then it might make more
sense to put the converter onto it so that you could wirelessly see your other
navigation data.

If you want to spend a bit more money, a couple of companies make NMEA
combiners that support bluetooth.   Combiners are handy things if you are
planning to expand your navigation network in the future.   I would probably
go this route myself, since it would mean that I could have both the
reliability of a hardwired connection (to my chartplotter) and the convenience
of a wireless connection to my laptop.