Which AIS to Buy?

[Sacrebleu]

I had a new Raymarine C90W plotter fitted a few months ago. I know wish to add an AIS transceiver. the two I am looking at are the Raymarine AIS 650 which is very pricey and I would also need to purchase a separate splitter. The second AIS I am looking at is the AdvenSea TR200 which is a quite a bit cheaper than the Raymarine. Could anyone give advice on either of these etc...

[xymotic]

Have a look at the Em Trak b100, I think they are the OEM for the new Raymarine. But it's way less $$

[Sacrebleu]

I am based in the U.K. and Em Trak B100 sadly does not seem to be avaialble here.

[SV Demeter]

If you are UK based then I would look at the Digital Yacht products.

Digital Yacht - Light Years Ahead

I jsut got and installed an Em trak b-100 and have been very happy with it so far. Cost was about $400 through port supply.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by Sacreblue

I am based in the U.K. and Em Trak B100 sadly does not seem to be avaialble here.

Interesting since Em-Trak's Head Office is in the UK.

em-trak - CONTACT US

[Sacrebleu]

I have tried to phone the UK head office but all you get is an answer phone. Have sent an email to em-trak last night so I hope to hear from them soon.

[s/v Jedi]

I'm still waiting for the new Vesper Watchmate Vision:



ciao!
Nick.

[lrclough]

Speaking from many hours of frustration, in the end I gave up on an off brand AIS that was cheaper but after a couple of months of use would no longer communicate with my chartplotter. I spent a lot of time on the phone and internet, not to mention the efforts on my own.

The off brand AIS vendor represented pre-purchase that the interface was "no problem." Only after threatening legal action did it refund a portion of the money. Never again.

Go with the AIS sold by the chart plotter manufacturer, particularly if it is NEMA 183, and even if it is is NEMA 2000. Per one technician, Raymarine reputedly uses a different set of NEMA 2000 connectors.

[Sacrebleu]

Thanks for the advise Nick. It looks like I am going to go that route and get the Raymarine AIS650 transceiver.

[2una]

Originally Posted by Sacreblue

Thanks for the advise Nick. It looks like I am going to go that route and get the Raymarine AIS650 transceiver.

If your putting it in yourself i found these guys ok for price on an Icom AIS receiver i just ordered.
Items been DHL'd so everything looks legit so far.
They have the Raymarine 650 there for 700 pound inc VAT
AIS: RAYMARINE AIS650 CLASS B AIS TRANSPONDER (E32158)

[xymotic]

Originally Posted by lrclough

Speaking from many hours of frustration, in the end I gave up on an off brand AIS that was cheaper but after a couple of months of use would no longer communicate with my chartplotter. I spent a lot of time on the phone and internet, not to mention the efforts on my own.

The off brand AIS vendor represented pre-purchase that the interface was "no problem." Only after threatening legal action did it refund a portion of the money. Never again.

Go with the AIS sold by the chart plotter manufacturer, particularly if it is NEMA 183, and even if it is is NEMA 2000. Per one technician, Raymarine reputedly uses a different set of NEMA 2000 connectors.

C'mon! Name names!

If you look at the Raymarine and the Em-trak b100, it's obvious that they are identical units. The only difference afaict is that you can turn off transmission via software on the Ray through the chartplotter, and I don't know if you can do it with the emtrak.

Also, Emtrak is a company largely owned by the pricipals of SRT, who make MOST of the ais stuff in the world, so I'd say not all "off" brands are created equal.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by xymotic

..........The only difference afaict is that you can turn off transmission via software on the Ray through the chartplotter, and I don't know if you can do it with the emtrak.

The Em-Trak B100 ships with Windows and OSX software, ProAIS2. You can disable transmission via ProAIS2. ProAIS2 communicates with the unit via NMEA0183 sentences, so it's completely possible for a chart plotter to do the same.

[impi]

We have the Raymarine 500 which has been a great unit on our world trip so far. I like the ability to switch to 'silent' or 'stealth' mode where a simple on/off switch determines wether other ships can or cant see you!

[hooligan6a]

Why in the world would you want to turn your AIS off, unless your paranoid? Ok, the western Indian Ocean, I can see. but how many of you people are going to sail there?

[chuckr]

i can only tell you what works for us -- we got an acr unit that comes with it's own gps and antenna - i am NOT a big fan of splitters as i have seen to many problems with them out here -
the acr unit was reasonably inexpensive a couple of years ago and works well with our raymarine c90

just our opinion
chuck patty and svsoulmates
in trinidad for hurricane season