Satelite AIS.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

...
I dont have confirmation its is them, it just tells me it is a pleasure boat, since I don't have the premium account for $20 per month. But if its going to work this well I might subscribe if they, or someone else I am watching heads offshore. It seems like a cheaper and easier way to get regular position updates than satcomms.
...

I thought I would check it out with a 30 day free trial of Premium...however.... premium doesn't give you the sat details... you need the all bells and whistles one to get that at $365 a month

But the good news is you can get a 14 day free trial of the $365 plan

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I thought I would check it out with a 30 day free trial of Premium...however.... premium doesn't give you the sat details... you need the all bells and whistles one to get that at $365 a month

But the good news is you can get a 14 day free trial of the $365 plan

But you still must give them your CC details...

I don't know why they don't offer S-AIS free for pleasure craft. No one tracking friends or family will pay the stupid rates which are obviously priced for shipping companies etc...

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Hmmmm... well in that link they say than can monitor 1000's at a time and offshore yachts would be a small poprtion of the total
"Each satellites continually receives AIS signals from all ships in its footprint (1000‟s of ships !)"

Also Ben's parents only have Class B

And in conclusion.... go into MarineTraffic and filter out everything but 'pleasure craft'. This is what I just found for the central south pacific...NZ bottom left.
I'm sure they are not all super yachts with Class A.

Maybe it's all fine and can be handled no problem. I just read that there is limitations with AIS as all stations must report in a particular time slot and within a set time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automa...ication_System

But maybe at the moment the capacity is fine, even for the wide area covered by S-AIS

But as you have since mentioned, the price to view S-AIS is so high that it is cheaper to buy a new YB/Spot/Delorme every time the battery runs out

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Does S-AIS reliably work with lower powered class B units?


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

I suppose that is the question I am asking.

So far it seems to have worked to a limited extent on my folks boat, with updates every few hours while offshore, less when in enclosed waters. I am not sure why, maybe the boat rolling helps, or maybe the land blocks the signal.

I wonder if tilting the antenna horizontal would improve reception by satelites

Their antenna is a short 400mm stubby one which probably has less gain than a longer one so maybe this helps?

[Snowpetrel]

Thats them, unless another yacht with AIS left otago and entered Akaroa at exactly the same time. So it definitely seems AIS B can work.

But the update period was about 12 hours or more from the earier position just inside the harbour yesterday.

Looks like the premium is $15 AUD to track one vessel only. For a one month period.

Maybe you could look and see if your own AIS signal gets out to the satellites from where you are, when you are away from a land repeater, and post the results here.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by hoppy

An example of why I don't think Spot is good for cruisers

Boaty's current atlantic crossing. The Spot page only shows 50 positions at a time, so you have to page through his track. Spot's information for each position report is only of limited use for people wanting to follow a journey


ESN :
0-2441613
Type :
TRACK
Latitude :
40.3165
Longitude :
-38.02884
Time :
28/06/2016, 10:53:16
Battery State :
GOOD

SPOT Shared Page


On the other hand, this is my pissing around in Greece YB track. It can show on a single page the whole journey. The date ranges visible are defined by the user. By defaut it is currently showing every position report since the start of 2015. Viewers can select the other date ranges I have defined (click on date, top left corner

This is the information reported each time.

25/Jul/2015 @ 03:30:00 EEST
38° 32.22N, 020° 13.19E / Course: 170° @ 3.9 knots
27°C

If I was to hardwire it to the boat, I can even transmit some NMEA data as well

https://my.yb.tl/Jessabbe/

I'm sure most sailors following family or friends from home will appreciate the additional information YB provides.

An example of data from the Delorme Inreach:

[Snowpetrel]

I really like both the all three systems, spot, YB, and Delorme. Its good to see what they can do, for the price they give great value, and it may well be that something like that is what they end up with. The ability to send and receive texts is very useful if you are offshore, or even in any remote area. Other pluses are the ability to take them ashore on walks and in an abandon ship scenario.

I still think S-ais could be a useful intermediate step, especially for those that might just do very occasional long coastal hops where they are mostly in VHF coverage, but not cellphone, or a one off ocean crossing on a tight budget. Since the cost of entry is so low if you already have AIS aboard.

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

I assume in the event of an emergency or search authorities could access this data?

ASSUME

is the word

Privately operated, non-govt, commercial service. Never forget Iridium attitude in Niña story.

The service has been around for at least ten years now btw. Or so it seems.

And if you buy the service, skip this or that traffic.com and by directly from the provider. Do not feed in-betweens.

b.

[El Pinguino]

Back in Feb the only position reports I was giving to the world at large was via Yotreps.

However half way between NZ and Chile the Chilean MRCC emailed me via Sailmail ( they would already have had my email details etc ) stating that as I was approaching their area of responsibility ( ie entering the next day) would I please start send daily posreps.

I doubt they monitor Yotreps, I can only assume they monitor Sat/Ais.....

[Snowpetrel]

Barnicle, you are right about the issues with private companies, so thats a good point, but the same applies to most satellite providers. Infact you could see S-AIS as being a good backup for other means of position reporting if need be...

Ping, that is very interesting. I wouldnt be at all suprised to find most countries are monitoring S-AIS. Hopefully they wont make AIS compulsory at some point (like Thailand?). But it does explain the trend towards advanced arrival notice that aus/NZ and many other countries now seem to require. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING...

Sent from my SM-G930F using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[ullar]

+1 for DeLorme InReach. Has been tracking us flawlessly for a bit more than a year now with 10' step for a 25$ per month.

You can't call Satellite AIS a tracking really. Just looked up a boat I know that is now a bit west from French Polynesia. Last data was more than THREE DAYS old!

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by ullar

You can't call Satellite AIS a tracking really. Just looked up a boat I know that is now a bit west from French Polynesia. Last data was more than THREE DAYS old!

Thats a good bit of data, yeah some of the S-AIS updates seem pretty old. But other times it seems to refresh pretty often? I guess the Class B ais is a pretty marginal signal and it more a fluke that it gets out when the antenna and the satellites just happen to align.

Then again maybe they just switched AIS off on the boat In french Polynesia...

[ullar]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

Then again maybe they just switched AIS off on the boat In french Polynesia...

Don't know for sure but I doubt that. Their main reason to have a transponder on board is for security - to be seen by ships.

On the other hand, as an additional feature you get for free, S-AIS is a wonderful thing.

[Littlechay]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Back in Feb the only position reports I was giving to the world at large was via Yotreps.

However half way between NZ and Chile the Chilean MRCC emailed me via Sailmail ( they would already have had my email details etc ) stating that as I was approaching their area of responsibility ( ie entering the next day) would I please start send daily posreps.

I doubt they monitor Yotreps, I can only assume they monitor Sat/Ais.....

Knowing that they can track us everywhere I have always wondered why they request daily reports!

[El Pinguino]

OK...somebody had to be the bunny....
Just signed up for the 14 free trial.... had a looksee and then cancelled...you wouldn't want to forget to cancel...after 14 days it automatically takes $$$$$$$$$ from your card.

Anyways... just had a look at the South Pacific with everything but 'pleasure craft' filtered out.
Everything I checked was Class B.
There is a limit to the number of 'ships' you can display the tracks of but Class B definately works with satellites.