In reply to : "We just received our new SmartRadio AIS receiver SR161 for Christmas... Reply: Dave & Nancy, Damn. I got the exact same AIS from Santa too, but have yet to hook it up since I am on the hard here in New England. I should not have the same interface problem since I will go directly into the notebook with the USB, but I was disturbed about the reception (or lack of ) for known targets. Could you let us know if you are using a dedicated VHF antenna or splitting into an existing one and how high above the water the antenna is? Thanks, Tom

We installed a Furuno AIS interfaced through our on-board PC with Nobeltec and with a special Furuno GPS arial in May 2004. The only "targets" that we don't pick up our naval vessels and fishing boats - exempted from the AIS requirement - or vessels below 300 tons. All shipping otherwise that is above 300 tons has AIS in our experience. We had one incident with a P&O liner approaching Sicily from Capri at night. We saw the ship on our radar but not on the AIS. The ship called us using AIS to identify us to discuss our course. We told the officer on watch that we had not seen him on our AIS and he responded that we were the second person to report this to him and there must be a fault. Apart from this we have never had an incident when our AIS did not pick up a target and that all those ships that should have AIS, including many ferries, have been picked up. We crossed the Atlantic in May/June 2004 and have since cruised the Med extensively. We would consider AIS an essential tool to have, as important as radar and a great comfort. Other ships have responded to our VHF calls immediately apart from a handful of time. Chris (Goleen) On 1/5/07, Thomas Lawler <tlawler@ebmail.gdeb.com> wrote: > In reply to : > "We just received our new SmartRadio AIS receiver SR161 for Christmas... > > Reply: > > Dave & Nancy, > > Damn. I got the exact same AIS from Santa too, but have yet to hook it up > since I am on the hard here in New England. I should not have the same > interface problem since I will go directly into the notebook with the USB, > but I was disturbed about the reception (or lack of ) for known targets. > > Could you let us know if you are using a dedicated VHF antenna or splitting > into an existing one and how high above the water the antenna is? > > Thanks, > > Tom > _______________________________________________ > > Passagemaking Under Power and PUP are trademarks of Water World Productions, formerly known as Trawler World Productions. > > To be removed from the PUP list send an email with the > subject "unsubscribe" (no quotes) to the link below: > > mailto:passagemaking-under-power@lists.samurai.com > > Passagemaking-Under-Power Mailing List