AISSPOTTER AIS dongle with OpenCPN

[neworleansrich]

Anyone using the AISspotter dongle with OpenCPN?

AISspotter.com - HOME

[Gyro]

this is great product all in one gps + dual channel ais reeiver.I use RIO/Pia set including VHF antenna.receiving range good....at normal conditions up to 10-12 nm sometimes better,should be in OpenCPN manual under ais devices

[dougweibel]

That looks like a good product.

A similar product that I have been using with a bit better capabilities and less expensive is the Quark-Elec QK-A026 dual AIS receiver with GPS. It has the added advantage of offering both USB and WiFi output, and those can be used simultaneously. In addition it has nmea-0183 output, although we have not tried that out. We use it with USB connected to a laptop and WiFi connected to a tablet, both running OpenCPN. It has been a great solution for us. They also have a new model which has a SeaTalk output instead of nmea.

Note that you can get this receiver cheaper through Tindie.com than you can from Quark-Elec themselves, at least if you are in the US.