Class-B AIS and NMEA2000

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by xymotic

This just came out:

EM TRAK MARINE ELECTRONICS B100 AIS Class B Transceiver at West Marine

A quick look, this is really interesting! It's nice to see we're getting down to reasonable pricing and decent features.

[DotDun]

Does anyone have comments on why:

"AIS Class B Transponder specification, all units must have a built-in GPS and cannot receive a position from other 3rd Party GPS units"

This just seems ludicrous to me.

I run a single GPS on N2k. If that GPS dies, I have (3) Icom radio screens blinking, (2) Furuno MFDs screaming like they were cut with a dull knife, the autopilot won't engage, basically all electronic navigation stops.

By meeting the specs, if the (additional) on-board GPS in the AIS dies, I won't know it unless I open the locker the unit is mounted in to see the led blinking.

In which case do you think the broken GPS would get fixed faster????

[s/v Jedi]

Hey Dotdun,

Check out your AIS manual... it will probably have extra ways of alerting you of GPS loosing lock.

Also, time for a 2nd GPS sensor in the network :-)

ciao!
Nick.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Hey Dotdun,

Check out your AIS manual... it will probably have extra ways of alerting you of GPS loosing lock.

Also, time for a 2nd GPS sensor in the network :-)

ciao!
Nick.

I don't want or need a 2nd GPS running, 4 spares that could be up and running with a couple of minutes.

This is a case of consumers having to live with the lobbying efforts of GPS chipset vendors. What a pain! It's just wrong!

[goboatingnow]

The integrated gps idea in class B is ridiculous. Another camel that started as a horse.

Dave