Do I need AIS?

[keevers]

Great question for me right now too. Putting boat in charleston and trying to decide whether to add AIS to Raymarine chart plotter. Will be doing only daytime sailing for now. Thanks for any help.

[xymotic]

One thing about the standard AIS VHF's is they make it a little easier to call a ship via AIS. I really like the 2050 for that reason.

BUT depending on your plotter, you may also be able to just select the ship on the chartplotter and 'call with vhf' and any connected DSC VHF radio should automagically make the call. Garmin is the only plotter I know of that does this but I'm sure others do as well.

[goboatingnow]

really , when you experience AIS transponding and ships altering course without been asked , you'll never go back to non AiS , as Ferries Bueller says " there is no substitute "

It's the best 400 bucks you'll ever spend

Dave

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by Kache Walk

I have to replace my VHF. I think it is original to my 25 year old boat. I will be doing coastal cruising on the East Coast - Chesapeake Bay and North, but I single-hand. Practical Sailor reviewed both high-end and mid range radios and the Standard Horizons come out rated well. Does this sound like a situation where I should pay the extra $125 to have AIS on top of the DSC?

KW, I only glanced at the first page of responses, so maybe others have covered stuff...

But I can say having some AIS capability on the Chesapeake (we're just up the road from you) is useful... but not necessary.

Useful, if you can ident some of the commercial shipping, talk to them (hailing them by name) if you need to about safe passing, etc. Interesting, in that you can see names of commercial and pleasure craft, etc.

But unless you also have AIS transmit capability, they can't "see" you on their AIS receiver, can't hail you by name, etc. (They may see you on their radar, but not know your name.)

The additional GPS that comes with an AIS transceiver... doesn't necessarily add anything to the GPS you already have (assuming you already have one) unless you're transmitting.

Feel free to PM me for more discussion...

-Chris

[Kache Walk]

Ranger, your comments were right in line with the advice from others. Thanks for taking the time to respond. With AIS it just makes sense to be able to receive and send, so I'll be heading in that direction.

[Shipraiser]

Originally Posted by Kache Walk

Ranger, your comments were right in line with the advice from others. Thanks for taking the time to respond. With AIS it just makes sense to be able to receive and send, so I'll be heading in that direction.

Good decision.

I'll just add that the market here in Scandinavia has already shifted so much that almost no boats will buy receive-only units any longer, >90% buys the real thing. I went from RX-only to ClassB transponder back in 2007 and what a difference it makes out there. The US market is a bit slower but I'm sure it's headed in the same direction.

/Marcus

[surfmachine]

Ahoy. I installed an Australian made GME, AIS class B transponder, antenna splitter and dedicated external GPS, with nmea 2000 link to Raymarine ng network. Connected to new Raymarine A78 mfd.

Problems with buying ais gear overseas and installing Australian mmsi numbers.

All works wonderfully!
Can see target boats altering course as vector goes red or green.

Took a lot of space and cabling and money.

Well worth it though?
Fair winds from Keith.

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