Multiple AIS Feeds in Opencpn

[osprey_II]

I recently installed a Raymarine AIS650 transponder on my Seatalkng network. It works fine except it doesn't pick up targets quite as far as my Standard Horizon 2150 VHF receiver did. I did not use one of these antenna splitters but installed a dedicated antenna for the 650 identical to the VHF radio antenna.

My question is, can I leave the SD2150 AIS signal connected to opencpn on its own serial port and set the priority lower than my main data feed on the Antisense NWG-1 which has the AIS650 feed?

Also is the priority 1 setting the highest? I would have thought so but it don't seem to be case according to the manual.

[Hakan]

Originally Posted by osprey_II

I recently installed a Raymarine AIS650 transponder on my Seatalkng network. It works fine except it doesn't pick up targets quite as far as my Standard Horizon 2150 VHF receiver did. I did not use one of these antenna splitters but installed a dedicated antenna for the 650 identical to the VHF radio antenna.

My question is, can I leave the SD2150 AIS signal connected to opencpn on its own serial port and set the priority lower than my main data feed on the Antisense NWG-1 which has the AIS650 feed?

Yes you can. But what the prioritization will do is to select from which data port a single type of NMEA messages, like AIVDM, will be read and used. Data from both ports are still flowing in to OCPN data stream and has to be handled in some way and use processor resources. And - you will gain no efforts from two AIS feeds since only one is used to show AIS targets on screen.
But if there are other useful data from the Antisense they will not be sorted out by the prioritization.

Also is the priority 1 setting the highest? I would have thought so but it don't seem to be case according to the manual.

No, 2 is "better" than 1. The higher the number the more preferred prioritization. (I agree the expression: -"First priority" in some way make one think the first number "1" is better than "2". )