Is The AIS Feature On VHF Radios Important???

Captn TJ said:
AIIS should give you course and speed along with the ship's information. Where I especially found it useful over radar is traveling up and down the St. Clair river which is serpentine. The AIS picked up ships that were around the bend and where radar was blocked by industrial buildings.
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Very cool.

MM
 
Captn TJ said:
AIIS should give you course and speed along with the ship's information. Where I especially found it useful over radar is traveling up and down the St. Clair river which is serpentine. The AIS picked up ships that were around the bend and where radar was blocked by industrial buildings.
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That's why Great Loopers find it useful. I don't boat much on rivers, and the big ships I encounter routinely are so close (200 feet) you know where they are going and how to stay out of their way. MARPA gives you heading, speed and passing distance like AIS, and as one other poster mentioned, it is hard to gauge how close you will pass when the open waters of Lake Michigan distances are so great. It's easy to be caught off guard absent solid information. MARPA provides that offshore which its where I use it.
 
I have that same VHF but have never really played around with the AIS feature. When we boat in the daytime we can see the tugs and their barges. At night I always have the radar on and can spot them a long ways off.

Because we live in a desert we don't often run into fog, but did on the way home from Portland a couple of weeks ago. The radar was very comforting to have. Our SOG was about 9.8kts; a lot faster than we would have been going without the radar.
 
Gofirstclass said:
I have that same VHF but have never really played around with the AIS feature. When we boat in the daytime we can see the tugs and their barges. At night I always have the radar on and can spot them a long ways off.

Because we live in a desert we don't often run into fog, but did on the way home from Portland a couple of weeks ago. The radar was very comforting to have. Our SOG was about 9.8kts; a lot faster than we would have been going without the radar.
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Is it connected to the plotter? Mine is automatic once connected.

MM
 
Nope. No connection. I'm still with the old NMEA and probably won't update to the new version. I'm not sure it could be connected but I'm thinking if I weren't such a dinosaur when it comes to electronics I'd probably do it.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Nope. No connection. I'm still with the old NMEA and probably won't update to the new version. I'm not sure it could be connected but I'm thinking if I weren't such a dinosaur when it comes to electronics I'd probably do it.
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I believe most VHFs still use the old NMEA 0183 connection - so you should be fine to hook it up
 
Ididntdoit, how would one go about hooking it up? I have easy access to the back of the helm so getting to the VHF and plotter shouldn't be a problem.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Ididntdoit, how would one go about hooking it up? I have easy access to the back of the helm so getting to the VHF and plotter shouldn't be a problem.
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Not sure - is there a NMEA or seatalk port on the back of your plotter? If your plotter is raymarine they have an excellent forum and tech line - I just used them for info on hooking up the DSC function of my radio to an a78 plotter - straightforward except in my case a "converter" is needed to go from 2000 to 0183 and vice versa
 
I'm in AZ right now so it will be a couple of weeks before I can get to the boat to look at the back of both units. It is a Raymarine unit and I love it.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Nope. No connection. I'm still with the old NMEA and probably won't update to the new version. I'm not sure it could be connected but I'm thinking if I weren't such a dinosaur when it comes to electronics I'd probably do it.
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Depending on the brand the connection is through 0183 which is pretty easy to match up to old or new chartplotters.
I have a Standard Horizon radio with AIS. The instructions in the manual show the wire by wire connection to the chartplotter. SH is also very responsive by phone or email in case you get stuck. I've connected it to an old C70 Raymarine plotter. The most complicated part of it (which is easy) is changing the baud rate on the chartplotter.
 
Love it, great tool.

We travel a lot so encounter a lot of different situations.

Big boats see us - and we see them with course and speed.

Very handy with being able to identify other vessels and their name to hale them if needed. Same way with getting radio calls from other vessels because they see us. For example we are both headed in an inlet, as we get further in likely hood we are headed to the same marina. Able to communicate our approach, not wrestle all over each other.

Downside, have to be aware not every boat has AIS - so is not universal.

Heavily rely on radar, but great tool.

Mark
 
Gofirstclass said:
I'm in AZ right now so it will be a couple of weeks before I can get to the boat to look at the back of both units. It is a Raymarine unit and I love it.
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I am Garmin to Standard Horizon so it ended up needing a call to both to figure out which color connected to the color on the other. It was really worth it.

MM
 
346FEBFD-99AB-4840-80B0-14B2EFC49354.png
This app is pretty nifty too!!
 
My last boat had an AIS Garmin VHF and 7612 MFD; the two were integrated so the AIS data was provided on the display and charts. For me it was more of a nuisance particularly around harbors and marinas as many boats and ships that were docked were transmitting AIS and constantly alarming on my boat. In my marina alone there are no less than six boats that leave their AIS transmitting even though the boat hasn't moved in months. I was going through Miami a couple of years ago and had to turn the darn thing off due to the constant alarms. I have found it interesting in crossing to the Bahamas to determine the course and speed of the large transports however the AIS provided little to add to the safety of the passage. Will I add it to this boat I have now? Probably, but would typically leave it off except for night running and crossings.
 
ttmott said:
My last boat had an AIS Garmin VHF and 7612 MFD; the two were integrated so the AIS data was provided on the display and charts. For me it was more of a nuisance particularly around harbors and marinas as many boats and ships that were docked were transmitting AIS and constantly alarming on my boat. In my marina alone there are no less than six boats that leave their AIS transmitting even though the boat hasn't moved in months. I was going through Miami a couple of years ago and had to turn the darn thing off due to the constant alarms. I have found it interesting in crossing to the Bahamas to determine the course and speed of the large transports however the AIS provided little to add to the safety of the passage. Will I add it to this boat I have now? Probably, but would typically leave it off except for night running and crossings.
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I turn the audible alarm off when near shore, but leave on the feature that allows the icons to get larger and blink red if an alarm is triggered. Also, you can adjust the radius of alarm. In congested areas adjust it to be much closer to your boat. In open water, make the alarm zone larger.
 
A few thoughts from someone traveling without ais in what seems like an all ais world, fwiw.
The receivers on the radios might be nice. We’re on the fence about the transponders. I feel there is no need at all on our home water (Lake Erie).
When doing the loop, it would have been handy if we were all alone out there, but there were enough other boats around that you hear the chatter ahead of you and you know where the tows are and when to expect them. We gave a security call when we expected there was one coming from around a bend and they would respond, no problem.
It certainly makes some sense for night travel on just about any water.
Now as we travel again on the ICW, everybody calls everyone by name as they announce their pass. It’s kind of nice. But binoculars work too.
A few days ago a 70’ plus hatteras rocked a few boats while passing. His name was now out there. An hour later or so I heard someone call out that “we see you so-n-so coming and you better well slow down when you get here”. Hmm, maybe.
Folks “see” someone that they met a few days ago, call out to them and say “hi how are you? Where did you spend last night, where you going today? Really, us too, want to go to dinner? Etc, that’s nice too.
I hear of small boats tied up in marinas constantly broad casting an ais signal??? Guess we need more clutter on the mfd’s
Where I’m most tempted to go ahead and do it is for when we are anchored out along the ICW just off the channel. Leaving it on all night would let us be seen by moving traffic.
When we are anchored out well away from the traffic I would never use it, i assume bad guys have ais too.
Or maybe I’m just afraid that if I get yet another thing to look at on the dash, I’ll forget to watch out the window.
One thing seems for sure, more boats have it than don’t, a big change from when we looped and that was less than 2 years ago.
 
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my3sons said:
A few thoughts from someone traveling without ais in what seems like an all ais world, fwiw.
The receivers on the radios might be nice. We’re on the fence about the transponders. I feel there is no need at all on our home water (Lake Erie).
When doing the loop, it would have been handy if we were all alone out there, but there were enough other boats around that you hear the chatter ahead of you and you know where the tows are and when to expect them. We gave a security call when we expected there was one coming from around a bend and they would respond, no problem.
It certainly makes some sense for night travel on just about any water.
Now as we travel again on the ICW, everybody calls everyone by name as they announce their pass. It’s kind of nice. But binoculars work too.
A few days ago a 70’ plus hatteras rocked a few boats while passing. His name was now out there. An hour later or so I heard someone call out that “we see you so-n-so coming and you better well slow down when you get here”. Hmm, maybe.
Folks “see” someone that they met a few days ago, call out to them and say “hi how are you? Where did you spend last night, where you going today? Really, us too, want to go to dinner? Etc, that’s nice too.
I hear of small boats tied up in marinas constantly broad casting an ais signal??? Guess we need more clutter on the mfd’s
Where I’m most tempted to go ahead and do it is for when we are anchored out along the ICW just off the channel. Leaving it on all night would let us be seen by moving traffic.
When we are anchored out well away from the traffic I would never use it, i assume bad guys have ais too.
Or maybe I’m just afraid that if I get yet another thing to look at on the dash, I’ll forget to watch out the window.
One thing seems for sure, more boats have it than don’t, a big change from when we looped and that was less than 2 years ago.
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Great explanation.

Thanks,

MM
 
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