I have the West
Marine AIS1000 unit and like it very much. Would rate it 5-stars. It not only feeds my
laptop (running Coastal Explorer) with AIS, it also provide the GPS feed all in the one connection.
The AIS1000 unit is on the same circuit with my nav
instruments so it's on when underway, even if the
laptop isn't connected so I'm still broadcasting (unless I put it into stealth mode). If you have a laptop aboard there's lots of
software to run it. I use a netbook -- only cost about $300+ and uses less than half the
power of the full laptop (full laptop has a bigger
screen, faster processor,
DVD and HDD).