T&T: AIS, Gotcha

[Truelove39 at aol.com]

Herebs our take on  this:
One more reason to have a  boat <20 meters. We donbt want to participate in
the VTS environment because  we donbt want to be distracted from keeping out
of
the way which is logically  what small boats must do. There are only two of
us and often only one is in the  PH when transiting busy areas. We want to
stay
out of the traffic lanes and  deep-water channels entirely when possible. We
attempted monitoring VTS in  New York once  but gave up. Unless youbre
native
you wonbt know the locations spoken of; many  are not even on the charts.
Better to keep attention focused on visual  observations of commercial traffic
and
especially the fast  ferries.
One more reason to have a  cheap AIS receiver, rather than some expensive
Class A over-creation with all  sorts of alarms and settings. We donbt have
a
audible collision alarm for the  same reason we donbt have an audible depth
alarm. What alarms we already have  are non-navigational and sound too much
alike
to the point that we say bWhatbs  that?b when one goes off.
What we do now works for  us:
2 fixed VHF radios, each  with its own antenna; the legacy unit on 13 when
appropriate and the newest  one always on 16. The ch 16 unit located on the
overhead above the helm;  the ch 13 unit below the stbd window. No question
which
is which. The only  problem has been remembering to restore the volume on the
one we turned down so  we could talk on the other one.
Regards,
John  & Penny
"Seahorse"
Mike  Maurice wrote:
> If you are below 20  meters in length you are not required to participate
or even monitor the VTS.  However, the VTS and other commercial operators
are used to AIS equipped  vessels participating. And, participation means
monitoring, communicating  and having the appearance of knowing what you
are doing and being able to  do so. Our setup did not make the grade.
How small vessels are going  to participate in the VTS environment with
the radio gear they  typically have is beyond my imagination. Even if you
have multiple radios, the  speakers are likely so close together that you
won't be able to know which  channel just had some traffic on it.
Even if you test your radios  and find them to appear to be functional,
you may find like we did  that not everything is adequate.
Class B AIS is going to  aggravate all these issues by an order of
magnitude. I can see where  the Coast Guard is not going to approve the
Class B systems here in the  US without a lot more  thought.
By the way, the AIS alarms  are hard to control and were a constant
source of aggravation while  coming up the Columbia River as every time
we passed even a moored tug  the alarm would go off.
Kindly don't send me email  how to solve this. When the boat is not mine,
there is a limit to what I  can do, short of turn of the AIS when near
the VTS system or in a  river.




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