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AIS on the Chartplotter

Rick R.

Contributing Partner
Today I installed a Standard Horizon GX2150 with AIS. It is connected to my Garmin 541s chartplotter and displays vessels on the screen.

Also added a Ram3 remote microphone in the cockpit.

Wow! It all works!
 
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Rocinante33

Contributing Partner
Very cool. Now with a single button, I think you will be able to hail the bridge of that 999 foot monster bearing down on you and you can call her by name.
 

mherrcat

Contributing Partner
I have that radio, or maybe the previous model. It is kinda cool that you can highlight a target, get the name of the vessel and with DSC call them directly.

...and you can call her by name.

Yeah, when a woman is getting ready to squash me like a bug, I want to be able to call her by her name...
 
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Rick R.

Contributing Partner
I have that radio, or maybe the previous model. It is kinda cool that you can highlight a target, get the name of the vessel and with DSC call them directly.



Yeah, when a woman is getting ready to squash me like a bug, I want to be able to call her by her name...

Me too!

Hey Bertha, back off, please....lol!

Seriously, last April 100 miles offshore in heavy seas there was a cargo ship bearing down on us, fast! Luckily we both saw each other but it was chilling.
 

adam

Member III
Today I installed a Standard Horizon GX2150 with AIS. It is connected to my Garmin 541s chartplotter and displays vessels on the screen.

Also added a Ram3 remote microphone in the cockpit.

Wow! It all works!

How's it all working?

The Strictly Sail boat show is coming up this week and I'm definitely buying the new GX2200, and I'm considering also buying a chartplotter.
 

Rick R.

Contributing Partner
How's it all working?

The Strictly Sail boat show is coming up this week and I'm definitely buying the new GX2200, and I'm considering also buying a chartplotter.

Adam, it's working really well. The only thing is I have to remember to turn off the audible alarm when sailing around the bay in daylight. There are a lot of ships and barges around here. Now I just want to upgrade to the Garmin 740s. West Marine had them on sale for $799 last week!
 

D & DM Cahill

Member II
Standard Horizon 2200 VHF

Hi All. I just bought the Standard Horizon 2200 with internal GPS and AIS. I also bought the RAM remote mike. I hope to install it this coming weekend. If anyone has any suggestions when doing the installation, I will appreciated the advice. I have an older Furuno Radar/Chartplotter and I am not sure if there is a way to get the AIS to show up on the chartplotter. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks. Dave
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
For what it's worth, I have a binnacle mounted Garmin 50s Echosounder/GPS with a five-inch screen (and I think it's a great unit for $500).

However, AIS information is pretty much lost in the clutter of the screen. And besides, with a wheel pilot, I find I am seldom behind the helm anyhow these days.

What is really working for me is the dedicated Vesper Watchmate AIS screen at the nav station belowdecks. That also happens to be where the VHF

radio is. The screen is not in bright sunlight, it's quiet , I can interpret the blips at leisure.

I suppose I have promoted AIS to the highest category of safety/ peace of mind gear on board. Fog and containerships will do that. Anyhow, the discrete screen-AIS only, no clutter--works for me.

And I have changed my AIS inspired VHF hail to the behemoth. It is no longer, "This is Sailing yacht Theonious, MMSI ending 1230, I am altering course to pass astern".

It is now: "This is Her Majesty's Beowulf Class Nuclear submarine Thelonious, surfacing off your port bow, request you turn right 45 degrees for your own safety."

My MMSI ends in zero, and I think any confusion will favor my side....
 

Rick R.

Contributing Partner
And I have changed my AIS inspired VHF hail to the behemoth. It is no longer, "This is Sailing yacht Theonious, MMSI ending 1230, I am altering course to pass astern".

It is now: "This is Her Majesty's Beowulf Class Nuclear submarine Thelonious, surfacing off your port bow, request you turn right 45 degrees for your own safety."

My MMSI ends in zero, and I think any confusion will favor my side....

That will get a response for sure Christian!

Adam, nothing wrong with my Garmin 541s. It would be nice to have radar and the 740s has that ability. Probably not going to spend the $ for it right now.
 

paul culver

Member III
I like the AIS a lot but my one peeve is people with the transmitters leaving them on when in port. I get collision warnings when I'm heading in.

Paul
E29 "Bear"
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Yes, I usually have 21 boats visible in the other slips around me. Do they know their AIS is always on? Why do that?
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I have just left the audible alarms turned off so far. Sailing in-shore, someone is always on a "collision course" as they follow turns in the channel. It IS very handy to know that an oil tanker is flying down the channel, out of sight around the next bend in the river. The RAM mic in the cockpit is surprisingly adequate for that. I suppose that I should set a five-mile proximity alarm (if that is one of the options.) I am embarrassed to say that all the electronics that I loaded on board a couple of years ago have too many alarms. It takes me quite a while to figure out which thing is beeping and what it means. For example, the autopilot "off-course" alarm sounds exactly like the CO alarm. And since I previously was having trouble with the exhaust system... I'm looking in all the wrong places :rolleyes_d: )

I send the output from the AIS to a laptop chart plotter on the chart table. As long as the companionway is open, I can see that well enough from the helm position, although I have to go below to read details. Of course, the screen always blinks into sleep mode exactly when you are worried about colliding with something. (Yes I know, but there are more different "never sleep" settings than I always remember to turn on.) Oddly enough, names of vessels and destinations rarely show up on the Standard Horizon screen (MMSI, course, speed, location do show up, usually) but they do show up on the chart plotter.

And you can't depend on it too much. I still encounter commercial vessels with no AIS signal at all. And the occasional AIS signal (phantom?) that shows up on the screen but returns no information.

Re: inputting data to an older Furuno unit. This seems a little dicey but it might be possible. I have an older Furuno, and it seems to have some mix of a proprietary bus and 0183 I/O. I thought it was going to output radar target data to the chart plotter, but it only outputs the distance and bearing to one target, which you define by manually spotting the cross-hairs over it. Not very handy. Hopefully newer units play a bit more nicely with other toys.
 
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adam

Member III
I send the output from the AIS to a laptop chart plotter on the chart table.

That could be a great solution. Any advice on how to do it?

In particular, I'd love to connect a GX2200 to a Macbook if that's possible.
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
That could be a great solution. Any advice on how to do it?

In particular, I'd love to connect a GX2200 to a Macbook if that's possible.

My AIS transceiver is actually an EM-Trak unit that connects to both the radio and the laptop (it has a USB port.) You might look for tips at macsailing.net. Probably you will have to go through a third piece of hardware, such as a multiplexer, that has USB or WiFi output. But that will allow you to get all your other instruments into the laptop (or the iPad or phone) as well.
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Perhaps they haven't installed the broadcast/silence switch. Or have units made before those were common. But why leave them powered up all the time? Maybe if they were anchored out in open water... but at the dock in a marina?
I've noticed that a lot of Coast Guard and Corps of Engineers boats also broadcast all the time from the dock - even their small boats. And some of them keep their radar antenna turning 24/7 too.
 

Second Star

Member III
Ais and chartplotter

I've had the Standard Horizon 2100 VHF/AIS paired with the SH 180i Plotter for 2 years now and it works very well. In fog leaving Puget Sound after last year's Ericson rendezvous we arranged passing with a large bulk carrier based solely upon the AIS; a bit scary at first for a long term radar guy but effective. The only issue on installation was that the manuals did not provide the correct wiring arrangement but a quick call to the help line sorted it out.
 

windjunkee

Member III
I bought the ICOM AIS A and B receiver and hooked it up to a small Standard Horizon chartplotter I installed at my nav station. It is awesome - paid for itself when, about 100 miles south of Ensenada, we saw some lights on the horizon. They got bigger and bigger and were heading for us. By AIS, we were able to identify the vessel, its heading and speed, its name - we contacted it by VHF and made sure they saw us. They were able to alter course slightly as we were under sail in very light air, but it was a close call. We threw on every light we had on deck just to make ourselves more visible, but the captain acknowledged he saw us and we passed port to port. Still freaky. It was something like a 90 foot motor yacht, obviously on autopilot.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA
 
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