As part of our Offshore Racing Category 1 requirements, I’m installing AIS. Well, in fact, I’m not sure if it got anything to do with Cat1 because I would have done it anyway but with all the expenses coming up to me, I guess it’s a good excuse.

There are a few AIS-B Transponder Units on the market, and I was looking specifically for a stand-alone unit. I want to have a backup solution in fact something happens with our communications hardware. Fact of the matter – I’m using Raymarine instruments – there is one AIS-Transponder which can be integrated fairly straightforward but I felt it is actually easier to get along with a completely self-sustained solution (and the Raymarine one is, excuse me,  – very expensive!). Relying on a VHF-splitter makes sense, however, it adds complexity to the system and if said splitter dies on you, so dies your complete VHF functionality. If you use your chartplotter’s GPS antenna, and that one dies, or your chartplotter dies, so dies your AIS. With the stand-alone solution you have at least part of the system available.

I finally chose an ACR Nauticast AIS-B

The set I’ve bought comes with

  • AIS-B Nauticast “Blackbox” (w/ multi-function cable)
  • VHF Antenna (w/ socket and approx 5m cable)
  • GPS Antenna (w/ mounting bracket  and approx 5m cable)

I haven’t installed it yet, so I can post another update once I do. I did do a test run of the equipment today to see if everything works and makes sense.

In order to get any AIS you need to have a MMSI number. Full Stop. Which in fact reduces the amount of “weekend sailors” (like me) to use it to quite a minimum. I only know of a handful of people who actually apply ship station licenses for their boats (and to do that, you have to have a radio operator’s licence to begin with)

Said MMSI number will be stored irreversibly into your AIS system at purchase time. As for the ACR system, all other information can be changed at any time (Ship’s name, call sign, location of positioning GPS antenna on the boat). So I guess you can’t sell your AIS, but you can transport it to another boat if you should chose to upgrade and your MMSI stays the same. I honestly don’t know why this restriction for not changing the MMSI number is in place. It doesn’t help much to have the correct MMSI number in daily operations. Plus you can change the ship’s name to anything you like and fool people that you’re actually the MS Titanic.

Testing the equipment was quite easy. What I did is just putting the antenna out (I can go out of the aft lazarette without drilling holes, so that helped). Wired up the “Blackbox” and connected to the Notebook. In fact, since it’s a serial connection, I spent more time installing that driver for the USB-Serial adapter on my notebook than anything else.

Here’s a few screenshots of the supplied application software. The antenna was just tied up with a cord to keep upright, it will move a few feet up and perhaps will bring a bit more range.

Just fired up the AIS system for the first time using the supplied software.

You can see “S/Y Vega” right in there! Yay! Moving ships are displayed with their vectors, the longer the vector, presumably the faster the ship. It takes a few seconds to get the names of ship and some ships finally end up with no names.

Zoomed out while testing. Max range was NM 17.073. Keep in mind the antenna wasn't at its final position and I'm behind buildings in the marina.

It’s lost here in the clutter (and I thought I had taken another screenshot that would show it) that the unit also displays some land stations. I saw two of them, one on Hong Kong Island, the other one I think was on Chek Kwu Chau but I may be wrong here – will double check. Ideally, they would be mounted high up from the ground having a long range acting as a beacon. They were installed (according to their coordinates) in the middle of land and not on the shore, suggesting (Hong Kong is hilly) they were placed high. They didn’t show any info though.

Displays a ship list of broadcasting targets. Interestingly, the ones closest to me show up with garbled characters...

Looks like everything was OK. Only I don’t know if other ships would see me. However, the software has a “silent” mode which turns off the transponder and when I did that, my own signal disappeared and a blue warning light went on on the “blackbox” so I presume it works fine. I still need to get ahold of someone here who has AIS to confirm mine is actually broadcasting.

All in all, from what I can say while playing with the unit for an hour, it looks solidly built. I like the fact that it has a transparent casing. I like the fact that it has a heavy lid around their multi-function connector so there should be no problem even if it gets wet. Of course it will be installed under deck so it would not be a problem. The antennae look OK, the software seems pretty good and you can use it for navigation (it displays LAT/LON / SOG / COG) should your primary GPS give up the ghost.

Cable length is a bit limiting and of course, if you are not as lucky as me, you will need to cut the cables and end them again anyway (as you can’t pull the plug to holes drilled for the cable). In my case, I have a small boat, it will be fine with the supplied cable lengths. Everyone else will have to invest in some custom cabling.

And just for reference, the multi-function cable has the following connectors: Power, RS232, Swi1 (you can change the setting for this switch to either have it relaying a Mayday or disabling the transmitter – I will use the latter), RS422 (NMEA, that will go to the chartplotter).

So far so good, lets see if I come around to take pictures when I’ve finally installed it!

PS: I bough the unit from defender.com (here). I have dealt with them on numerous occasions and am quite happy with them.

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