The Chart plotter is in, the AIS is in, the new radio is in, etc

[Sandero]

My AIS is new too and have received few hits in the East end of LIS. But the hits I do get, most have missing fields. I suspect they are not programmed properly or completely. I am not sure when full compliance is required.

AIS seems great, but it is not there yet.

Jef
sv Shiva
Contest 36s

[Doghouse]

You may wish to check with Defender in CT for the chip price. They were the lowest for me. WM can be forced to match the price, they just require the addition of shipping to the cost of the item.

[CSY Man]

Finally I shot some images of the chartplotter, the radios and all the other stuff on this topic.

Got the pics loaded up to the photo gallery, check this link and scroll through.

For any questions, I will be happy to answer..

http://www.cruisersforum.com/gallery...&imageuser=308

[tranquil]

Dear CSY Man (and Defjef),

Did you ever resolve the absence of some data from your plotter's AIS fields? I have been using AIS reception around southern England for three seasons now and have always received full ships data after about 5 minutes. However I am setting up a friend's Standard Horizon CP180i and notice that it fails to display name and callsign (MMSI, COG, SOG and LAT/LON are all received). I know from my own system that the data is being transmitted clearly. Can you advise?
Cheers

[Sandero]

Tranquil,

I suspect that there is less compliance in the States and especially in the area where I sail - south New England.

I am just about to get underway... late start from winter lay up... so I will have some more to report next week or two.

I found rather very few "hits".. and assumed that all the commercial traffic going up and down Long Island Sound would be using AIS. But judging from how few hits I get from my mooring... just 3 or 4 miles south of the main transit channel for this commercial shipping... I suspect that they are not using AIS. I did get some complete info... but more often than not incomplete. Perhaps my rig is not working 100%?

I am using a NASA and a Raymarine C-80.

[DeepFrz]

Jef, if you get a chance, connect your AIS receiver to the serial port of your laptop and see what information you are getting. I suspect (just a hunch) that the Raymarine C-80 may not be recognizing everything. However, checking with your serial port would let you know what is really there.

[CSY Man]

Did you ever resolve the absence of some data from your plotter's AIS fields?

Yes, problem solved.

It was a software issue: I had one of the earlier models of the CP 180i, the factory sent me a couple updates via chips. Then they sent me a whole new chart plotter with the latest updates built in.

The problem I complained about was not so much the lack of fields in the AIS boxes, but rather WAAS reception.

For some reason the all the AIS data became available with the updated plotter. It could also have been that I did some additional button pushing and re-booting of the CP180i...Keep playing with the set up menu and the AIS menu.

Since I started this thread I have been out in the ocean "testing" the AIS system and it works just great: Have picked up ships as far away as 26 NM and that is with a rail-mounted VHF antenna. No need for a splitter or a mast-top antenna in my opinion.

[tranquil]

Gents,

Thank you for your replies. I might well have a software issue because, although the unit is new, the latest firmware fitted is dated Aug 06.

I have asked the SH helpdesk to assist, but not expecting to solve it before sailing to France across the TSS this coming Friday night!

It looks as though I will have to take my transportable AIS set as a backup. I find that a 'flight case' aluminium box with GPS and AIS Rx inside and a whip antenna attached to the box works adequately (Ranges of, say 8 miles) unless it is raining and the sails are wet and therefore highly attenuative to RF. [If that happens, I rig an antenna in place of a pennant!]

Thankfully testing ashore is simple as I can receive one shore station and up to 30 ships from the comfort of my home office!.

Cheers again

[CSY Man]

I have asked the SH helpdesk to assist, but not expecting to solve it before sailing to France across the TSS this coming Friday night!

If ya have SKYPE, call them and ask for Scott Iverson in California, he is the program manager for the CP180 chart plotters and he was very helpful when I had problems.

although the unit is new, the latest firmware fitted is dated Aug 06.

Ya may be okay, the had problems with the earlier machines from June 06.

Keep screwing with the set-up menu and the various AIS options...Ya may hit the jack pot and get the thing going.

[tranquil]

SH CP300i
I have had an email from the US support group suggesting a software upgrade to 11.08 and also an offer of an upgrade from the excellent sales person at SH in the UK. It seems this should generate the missing data (Name and Callsign). I hadn’t fully appreciated the importance of this data until I received the first CPA alarm during last week’s TSS crossing. The CPA alarm display refers to the ship name, not the MMSI. Without this name it is very difficult to identify which ship is generating the alarm. [At one time last week, I had 17 merchantmen crossing me].

Nevertheless the CPA feature was very valuable. It allowed us to avoid a double jeopardy by providing data before visual contact. If we had had to wait for visual contact we would have reversed course and gone straight into the path of another ship.

The CP300i was very much appreciated by the crew and certainly helped de-risk the channel crossings (especially at night). However the unit would benefit from displaying/listing more than the very basic AIS ship data but also type 4 messages (shore stations). The latter would provide a confidence check (AIS reception and system range) if nothing else!

Anyway – thanks to all for your help.

[tranquil]

Sorry that should have been CP180i